I would like to hear from real truck owners that have used them for a while. I am getting one for my new Ram just for the fishing and hunting lockability of my gear and I like the look better than a cap. What tailgate locks do you like to use to lock your cover? Poplock, etc???

 

I have had a tonneu on both of my trucks. One Lund one Access. I really looked into the different brands when buying mine and The Access is IMO the best velcro-type out there, but I am afraid that i cannot say "yes, it has helped me get better gas mileage."--on either of my trucks. There is a very minimal difference, but as far as noticable difference, no. I bought mine for the same reasons you stated above--hunting, fishing, storing gear. As for the tailgate lock, ive been looking into POPLOCK's as well, because my Access has a locking feature, but my tailgate doesnt [:@] thus poplock is the next thing on my list. Once you own a truck with a tonnue cover you wont own one without one

 

This topic has been beat into the ground about as much as exhaust. A search will find many posts. Some of them will contain info about Myth Busters disproving covers or gate down=more MPG.

 

I just put on a Pace Edwards Roll Top that I got for less than $600 shipped w/poplock. Check them out at:
http://www.truckaddons.com/Catalog/s...ds_rolltop.htm

Installation wasn't bad. Gas mileage... maybe .5-1mpg better. I got it to keep my stuff dry. The poplock took about 5 minutes to install and works great.

 

after reviewing everything I've ever read on this board about toneau tops, I'm gonna go with the Peragon top and either eBay my Extang or give it to a friend...

I ride my dog in my truck to and from work daily, so I want the quick ease of opening that the Peragon has

the Extang is fairly quick to open, but if any of you have ever tried to open one of those or a similar one with a metal plate as the base on a 90+ degree day, you'll have felt the same pain I have

 

I am now driving around without a tonneau cover after Hurricane Wilma's 110 mph winds ripped my ARE hard tonneau off. I am finding about 1 MPG less.

Another way of looking at this - With a tonneau I used to be able to go 68 mph and get slightly better than 20 MPG
{depending on head, tail and sidewinds plus whether blacktop or concrete road}

Without a tonneau I have to drive 64 mph to get 20 MPG.

If you want to try the 'tonneau effect' out for yourself cheaply,
one thing that I have recently discovered is that six 35 gallon Rubbermaid 'Roughneck' storage containers with latching lids seem to be designed to nearly fully fill up a shortbed Dodge pickup bed. Two width-wise in the front, then two length-wise in the center between wheel wells, then two more width-wise at the tailgate fill up the bed and are nearly flush with the bedrails.

I bought these Roughnecks for $8 each but have seen them on sale for $4.99 each.
After doing your tests you can either return these containers to the store or use them around the house or garage where extra storage always seems to be needed.
If you want a smooth top to get the best tonneau effect you could also buy cheap foam board with aluminum foil on one side and attach this to the top of the Roughnecks. After the test use a heat gun to soften the foam board and wrap it around your water heater for extra insulation (or top and sides of refrigerator) . You will get your money back within 2 years on electrical savings.

Here's the tonneau stuff of the Aerodynamics bart of the MPG FAQ.
----
AERODYNAMIC MODS

Aerodynamic improvements are usually the cheapest and easiest to get.
A pickup that is not aerodynamic uses more energy than necessary to
heat up the air it pushes through. Quite literally, blunt trucks make the
world
"Full of Hot Air"

When Popular Science magazine asked GM 'MPG Guru' Roger Clark for
advice on decreasing pickup fuel consumption at highway cruise he
advised modifying these areas would give easy gains:


more info at:
http://web.archive.org/web/200208032...332270,00.html

In the January 2006 issue of Truckin magazine they quote GM's
aerodynamic engineers as stating that a pickup tonneau is good for a gain
of 0.6 MPG.

Back in 1999, Ford Motor Co officially said that a soft tonneau is good for
+1 highway mpg on the F150 and tried to get the EPA to allow them to add
this to their official "Highway MPG" rating by re-classifying the tonneau
'standard equipment'. In a move that didn't make any sense, EPA denied this
to Ford, but a few years later allowed GM to do it on the Avalance.

My personal experience confirms that a hard tonneau can lower the
aerodynamic drag. I installed a ARE hard tonneau and found it was good for
about 1 mpg improvement at 70 mph, but don't expect to see this unless
you do a good test. The best way to test is with two trucks on two identical
round trips on a highway at a steady freeway level speed. On the first trip
one truck has the tonneau. On the second trip the other truck has the
tonneau.
Be aware that head winds, side winds and tail winds all can easily effect
more than 1 MPG. The second truck and the two trips are used to cancel out
these constantly changing wind effects.

This Snugtop F2 hard tonneau has a built-in 'Roofline Extention Spoiler' on
the back that might help MPG a bit more than a conventional design.


Fibernetics has a similar rear spoiler with a bit more angle, shown here on a
F150:


There is an interesting student project on aero improvements tried on a
1998 Dodge Ram model truck several posts down at this link:

http://www.dodgetrucks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52115

If there are astericks in the above weblink, replace them with the letters
d-o-d-g-e-t-r-u-c-k-s.-o-r-g without any dashes, or go directly to the stored
old pages here:

http://web.archive.org/web/200304141...affner/did.htm
and
http://web.archive.org/web/200304142...er/Tonneau.htm

Note that the students found that conventional camper tops and removed
tailgates hurt,
but tonneaus helped about 11%. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(ASME) gave these students a prize for their experiment.

Unlike the Mythbusters TV show test of up/down tailgates on a 2005 Ford F150
these students found a very slight advantage to having the tailgate down
but the difference is so slight to be not important. The new design F150 does
have significantly deeper pickup bed, higher sides, and taller tailgate than a
1998 Ram so that might explain the slight difference. Any automotive engineer
would tell you that having a pickup run completely out of fuel on high speed
interstate highway might make for a Dramatic! Entertaining! TV show so that
advertising can be sold for big $, but it is a totally undependable way
to measure MPG carefully and with repeatability.

It is possible that a 2 inch front/4 inch rear drop on a Ram suspension could
improve the aerodynamic drag. There is some evidence that on a 1996 Indy Ram
this improved the Cd by a few hundreds.

The 2nd Gen Dodge Ram Diesel that set the Bonneville speed record had
'Mooneye' wheel cover discs. These are supposed to reduce aero drag
by 1-2% but hurt brake cooling. I also notice this Ram had mirrors and
windshield wipers removed.


Jesel Valvetrain's 3rd Gen QC Ram has similar mods up front and a
custom tonneau with spoiler on the back:

 

It makes sence to me. I saw the Mythbusters show about this and one factor they didnt address. How can they know for sure the two trucks they tested, both motors were tuned exactly the same. That is almost impossable. They tested the tailgate up/down but not tonneau cover. I would think the tonneau cover would raise the wind vortex behind the cab even higher to creat even less drag.

 

We just returned from a round trip to Sarasota from Toronto. Was 5,242 km, (3,255 miles) we used 14.88 litres/100 km (15.8 miles/US gallon). Have an '04 quad cab 4*4 Hemi Ram, ARE tonneau, no mods, and for I'd say 2/3 of the distance had the cruise on at 115km/hr (70mph).

Question for HankL...if you're in the U.S., what are you driving that you can get 20 mpg? I can get 19 miles per Imperial gallon, but that's the best it gets!

 

I have had my cover for a while and I havn't seen an increase in mpg's at all. But I love having it!

 

well, at least they keep migrant workers from jumping in the back in gas station parking lots and stoplights...