Testing a Tonneau Cover’s Impact on Fuel Economy With Absurd Results

If there’s one metric that most vehicle shoppers are looking at, it’s miles per gallon. OK, perhaps if you purchase a pickup truck, you’ve kind of forfeited the idea that you’re going to get any sort of astronomically good fuel economy. However, if I were to tell you that one simple modification might help pickup truck owners out a little bit in that category, I’m certain that most people would be all ears.

One thing that folks might wonder about here is the use of a tonneau cover. It makes sense that, with a pickup truck, the giant bed with the tailgate at the end would create some sort of air resistance. Therefore, it might also reason that slapping a tonneau cover on top of the bed could help with aerodynamics and therefore improve the fuel economy of the truck in question.

On the other hand, though, we also have to acknowledge that manufacturer has surely spent lots of time and effort making sure that their vehicles get the best fuel economy possible. After all, if a small alteration could help Dodge to secure a couple of more miles per gallon than Ford, we’re sure that they would definitely chase after that fuel economy as it would tip the scales if a potential consumer is experiencing a hard time picking between the trucks otherwise.

This time, we check in with an experiment that tests out the efficiency of a tonneau cover as it applies to fuel economy. So, could the simple installation of such a piece of equipment save any real fuel economy? If the answer is “yes,” the couple of hundred bucks invested to purchase such an addition would likely pay itself off even if the MPG gains are small.

In the video below, we ride along with The Fast Lane Truck as they test out this theory to see just how much a part impacts fuel.