A couple years back, I needed to take a weeks long multi thousand mile road trip east of the Mississippi in my Tacoma PU, similar to the OP's pic. I needed to haul various items out of the weather and under lock and key. Figured anything I built might be useful after the trip. One objective, I wanted to keep some usability of the center rear window for viewablity, and open it when occasionally hauling long slender items. So that requirement limited the height of the bed cover, but I thought it would be an acceptable compromise. Additionally, I hinged approx 50% of the rear cover, and sloped that "hatch" what I thought was appropriate. The hatch was pin-able and lockable when closed, which required a 4-5" overhang of the tailgate to trap it, when hatch was locked. I made it out of Baltic Birch PW in about 8?hrs, vented it slightly behind the rear window, and secured it to the bed with 4 turnbuckles. The hatch cover was also designed to be propped up level, when I might need in the future a flat deck to haul large items. I attached outside side rails for logistic strap use
My truck at the time had 400,000+ miles, so its mileage was very well documented. I was shocked on the trip, I gained nearly a 10% mileage increase. When I returned, I videotaped an on the road tuff test to try and figure out what was going on. It appeared to me, I put the sloping hinged hatch right at the sweet spot where the airflow over the cab reattached, and the tailgate hatch overhang calmed a lot of the tailgate drag turbulence. I think I just got lucky. In the OP's pictured truck, IMO, the top 50% of the sloped cover, likely adds little, as there is no attached airflow right after the cab.
I likely will make a second improved version, out of CF?, as the wood version was nearly 100lbs, and I hate weight as much as drag.
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