Softopper MPG Hit

[wyvern]

Know a lot of us run Softoppers and lately I've been considering getting one myself.

I realize it is a ridiculous thing to care about with a PW, but how much of an MPG hit have folks seen after running one? Right now I frequently drive around 6-7 hours in one direction every other month and I barely make it on a single tank. I'd like to keep it to one tank if possible for travel time savings on my route.

 

[el_barto]

Know a lot of us run Softoppers and lately I've been considering getting one myself.

I realize it is a ridiculous thing to care about with a PW, but how much of an MPG hit have folks seen after running one? Right now I frequently drive around 6-7 hours in one direction every other month and I barely make it on a single tank. I'd like to keep it to one tank if possible for travel time savings on my route.

I had a soft topper on my last truck (Chevy Colorado), i don’t recall seeing a mpg drop but i wasn’t paying too much attention to it. I would expect it to be fairly insignificant as long as you keep it all zipped up. If you roll up the front or sides it might parachute and cause some drag

In general these Hemis are thirsty, the trucks are heavy and not super aerodynamic…additional weight and drag makes minimal difference.

 

[wyvern]

Glad to hear it wasn't a big MPG hit in your experience. They're thirsty, for sure, but with my literider tonneau I get around 15.5 MPG on my highway trips and frankly that's impressive to me given the size and ride height of these trucks.

 

[Power247]

Same experience here. I don't notice any impact to MPGs between the softopper or regular tonneau cover I normally run.

 

[Soapy]

I added a roof top tent that sits below the roof line and I noticed maybe a 1/2 mpg drop if that.

 

[wyvern]

After we move houses, I would love to emulate your build Soapy.