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Well, I have tried this on 2 different trucks now, the first one was a 2000 Nissan Frontier v6 with tires that were too big for their own good. (looked good though) The tail gate up cost me ~10mpg in EVERY tank of gas I tested. Not only that I could feel the drag difference enough to tell if someone shut the stupid thing for me with out even looking.
With my new truck, (new to me anyway 125k miles) 2001 Chevy Z71 I feel no different but notice that according to the scan gauge I LOOSE 1-2 MPG with the gate DOWN. I was quite surprised but even tested it by stopping and switching it and going back down the same road a few times to make sure it wasn't just me.
I think it just depends on the design of the truck and the way the air flows around it. I think I would have found that the Nissan would have done even better still if I had a full bed cover and left the gate up but the truck was beat to death before I could get around to that and had to be traded off.
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