Vented Tailgates...

[Tough Guy]

What are the benefits of having a vented tailgate?

Cheers

[Sneaks]

The greatest benefit is that you don't have to worry about trashing the stock tailgate when you pull away after unhitching and forgot or misjudged the height of the pin.

There is no discernable fuel mileage difference. At least I've never found any in over 28 years of 5'er ownership.

Next best is you can hook up at most any angle. With the stock tailgate down, anything but straight back puts your 5'er at risk of a hole from the corner of the tailgate.

It's just a lot more convenient than the stock tailgate!

[David Utz]

I just take the tailgate off and leave it at home. It takes about 30 seconds to take off and I don't need it for anything while I'm pulling the trailer.

[Inspector]

I agree that there is probably no drivability value to a vented tailgate but they sure do look good when painted the same color as the truck.
:D
Denny

[Viking]

I am in Sneaks corner.

[arveetek]

Adding to what the others already mentioned, the vented gates also help keep items in the truck bed from being sucked out when towing the fifth-wheel. I lost a sewer hose that I threw into the back of my truck one time. I've also seen my lawn chairs actually lift off the floor of the truck bed! Some truck and trailer combos are worse than others.....depends on how far the fiver extends over the truck bed and how close it is to the top of the bed rails.

Casey

[MAD-MAX]

I have a aluminum tool box with a v in the center
to misss the 5th pin ..extra room and about the same price as the gate..

[ktmracer]

this is one of those things that if i hadn`t seen it,i wouldn`t believe it. stock tailgate= 12.5 mpg running aroung 65mph. vented 5th wheel gate=14.66 mpg around 65mph. the 5th wh. gate does make hooking and unhooking much simpler. the mileage above is running empty. i doubt that the vented gate will help mileage while towing,as i pull a 40ft 5th wh. around 13,500lbs.not enough vents in the world to help that mileage!
oh yeah, the truck is a 2000 4x4, crew cab,auto,4:10,6.5td., dually.

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

ktmracer: Please receive this in the spirit given - more data gets us closer to what's really going on, helping us get what we want from our trucks. Anyway.....

Filter the following with a large grain of salt, since it involves my memory. A few years ago, GM & Ford independently wind tunnel tested their pickups in 4 configurations: tailgate up, tailgate down, tailgate removed, & Airgate (I think that's the name - you know, they look like heavy-duty straps criss-crossed). Their findings were the same: the first three configurations showed almost the same drag, the Airgate hurt aerodynamics bad enough that even a casual monitoring of mpg would catch it.

I think it's credible that this is true for a couple reasons: 1) these guys have a HUGE vested interest in finding even a fraction of a mpg improvement; 2) it makes sense. Anything that causes air turbulence increases drag, which then requires more HP to push through the air. Their results indicated that the Airgate significantly increased drag.

Please don't be offended. I'm sure someone else will come along with concrete proof that the above is hogwash. (Who washes their hogs, anyway? Hawgs, sure.)

Blessings!

Brian Johnson, #5044

[ktmracer]

no offese taken moondoggie. and i do have proof, every tank of fuel i ever burned has been documented and mpg avg.`d, before and after the installation of the 5th wheel gate.maybe it`s just a fluke,(but over 15,000 miles worth) i know my truck, on the highway, will get almost 2 mpg better avg.

[David Utz]

Moondoggie,
I also remember those tests but I don't know if the data (solo truck) can be applied to a truck-fifth wheel combination. The only way to see what is really going on is to attach short pieces of yarn around the bed and front of the trailer. Watch the yarn to see what direction the air is moving and if it is smooth or turbulent. Remove the tailgate and try it again. See what, if anything, changes. Something as small as lowering the hitch one inch can sometimes make drastic changes to the air flow. It can be different for each trailer-truck combination. That's why some people see significant improvement with a roof wing but most only rearrange the bug splatter.

[More Power]

I considered doing a test a while back to determine whether running with the tailgate up or down made any difference.

What I considered was: 1- Unlatching the tailgate, but leave it up. 2-Attach a length of small diameter rope to the top of the tailgate, and then use a fish scale through the rear sliding window to measure pressure on the tailgate while driving at various speeds.

Any pressure would indicate a drag force, that requires energy (fuel) to move through the air.

Bedsides can be broken by vibration when running without a tailgate on rough roads. The tailgate (or a vented replacement) helps support the bedsides...

MP

[moondoggie]

ktmracer: I do believe you; thanks for not being offended. I

[Colorado Kid]

MP, your proposed test might effectively measure drag AT the tailgate, but it won't tell you how the tailgate effects total drag. Just theoretically speaking, what if removing the tailgate results in lower pressure against the rear side of the cab. . .that would mean MORE drag at that location.

Wind tunnels, and to a lesser extent fluid dynamics modeling, are made for this kind of question. I do recall an Engineer from the design team of the '94 Dodge claiming that an empty bed with the tailgate up was the lowest drag configuration for those trucks because it was the one configuration they (the Dodge Engineers) had control over when they ran their windtunnel tests. He claimed that they had tested with the tailgate down, with a bed cover and with a cab-high shell. This was from the guy given credit for putting the airfoil shape on the antena mast to reduce noise and drag, which was dramatized for a commercial.

I haven't read any such results for more recent trucks, but I haven't been tempted to buy a louvered tailgate either.

[sonofagun]

I run an aerogate when towing my 5th wheel. I have run the yarn test and there is much less turbulance with the gate on (both at the hitch and at the gate). My guess is the wind blasting down into the bed from the face of the 5th wheel has to move back and swirl up at the tail gate hitting the underside of the 5th wheel before hitting the front of the trailer. With the gate it moves out sooner(less tuurbulance at this point) and then still hits the front of the trailer.

arveetek has it right. Stuff stays in the bed better with the gate (for the reason stated above imop). The oem gated bed/5th wheel lift values are suprisingly high. Some heavy stuff purely floats about the bed and often over the side if not well secured. Even with the gate ya gotta secure stuff but it's a much calmer environment.

There is still a lot of air hitting things and you're pulling a lot of weight. I suspect that the increase in mileage over 30,000 miles might be slightly measurable but I'm not sure how you track both at the same time. My experience (and yarn test) would tend to disagree with the GM data.

The value of hitching up and not fussing with the OEM tailgate is of great value to me also.

Bob

[Vette Racer]

Everyone has the right info, the vented tailgate helps keep everything in place in the bed and makes it real easy to hitch and unhitch without tearing up something. Fuel doesn't seem to matter. Its just a matter of convenience. But well worth it!

[rustypig]

I also vote for the vented tailgate. At nearly 18K rolling down the road, I don't really expect anything short of a miracle to help with mileage, but the vented tailgate does keep items in the bed....and me out of court if someone were die in a crash caused by something I lost out of the bed. Just cheap insurance.

My friends sister-in-law was killed two months ago after swerving to avoid a chunk of crap that came out of a construcion truck....what a shame.

[90LX]

I've been toying with the idea of putting a slot in my toneou (bed) cover to clear the gooseneck. After the trailer is hooked up, I could close the secure the whole cover and have an extra flap sewn on that covers the slot and secure it with snaps. The whole bed would be covered so the air would not catch inside the bed. I have the equipment to modify my cover, but havn't had the time to play with this idea.

[jjackson]

I recall that Camping World carries (or used to) what was referred to as a "weather tite Tonneau Cover made to fit trucks towing 5th wheels". I have thought about looking into it.

John

[sonofagun]

JJ,

They don't offer it anymore.

Bob