Ford Maverick – Tonneau Cover Effect on MPG

people often claim that tunnel covers

help improve fuel economy on pickup

trucks is that true today we're going to

go find

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out hey everybody it's Charlie from

daily motor and today we've got a real

world fuel economy test for the tunnel

cover on our 2022 Ford Maverick

long-termer we recently picked up a

tunnel cover from trucko which we'll see

in a moment here and I've pushed this

video off a little longer than I should

have but I'm still curious what sort of

fuel economy advantages do we get when

having the tunnel cover on there closed

versus open so in today's test we're

going to go out and do 60 Mi with the

tunnel cover open come back then do 60

Mi with the tunnel cover closed come

back and see what the differences are

before we get started let's hop out take

a look at the truck this if you haven't

seen it before excuse the uh loud

Highway noise there I apologize this is

our long-term Maverick

XLT it's the 2 L EcoBoost model with FX4

and 4K tow packages so it's a very

versatile usable but still affordable

Maverick we've got about 10,000 M on it

we've been very happy with it so far if

you want to see more on the truck check

the links in the description we've got

over half a dozen over a dozen videos

covering various aspects of this truck's

ownership

few accessories that we've talked about

here the Sentry CT tunnel cover from

truck cedo if you want to see more on

that again links in the description as

well as our bed rug and to make in the

back of our truck more usable pull this

up and roll it back here we're going to

open it so we can get started with the

test in order to keep it open properly

you use these straps and I'll link it

around right there and then I'll do the

same on the other side tighten them both

so it tucks right up I will say the

Sentry CT cover definitely sits thicker

because these are solid aluminum slats

for security and strength there but a

softer rollup cover would obviously roll

up a little bit tighter against the bed

but now we've got it open we're going to

see if that aerodynamic aspect makes a

difference for our highway fuel economy

we've done fuel economy tests on both

our long-term Maverick here the 2 L plus

the hybrid Maverick as well the

front-wheel drive model those are the

standard tests where we go out and do 50

mil out and 50 mil back averaging 70 m

per hour but in this test we're going to

go a little bit shorter since we are

doing two we're going to do 60 miles so

30 out 30 back on the exact same route

both times and all our filling methods

are still going to be the same we're

still going to use a three-click fueling

method we're going to average 70 mph

have the GPS set at 72 all those same

protocols a few other things to note for

today the outside temperature is 48° f

quite a bit chillier than the last few

days fall is settling in can't remember

what the weather conditions were like

when we ran the last Maverick test but

it'll be interesting to see if the

numbers are at all different given the

extra mileage on the truck different

temperatures all sorts of things we are

going to have our climate control set at

73° Auto as well and our tire pressures

have been door set to the door placard

35 PSI

cold all right let's hop out and fill it

up

9991 gallons going in for our first fill

before we start the engine we're going

to reset car's trip computer and our GPS

and we're ready to

begin now the FX4 Maverick does not have

an eco mode that's something you see in

the non FX4 models and especially the

hybrid but no Eco for

us so we're just going to do this test

in normal as hell Alyssa normally drives

this truck anyway just a little3 mile

run to the highway we'll be on our way

now we're not going to be hypermiling on

either of these trips we're going to be

trying to drive as identically on the

first leg as the second but overall just

driving as you might in the real world

we're going to get up highway speed here

at a reasonable Pace then set our cruise

control at a GPS indicated 72

mph no adaptive cruise control in our

XLT Maverick but that is plenty fine

with

me just got 60 Mi here of easy cruising

so in the meantime enjoy this time lapse

of the entire strip

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coming into the end of the first leg of

the fuel test here as this Explorer

tries in Earnest to ride my ass and get

by thanks a lot appreciate that very

impressive number I am surprised I don't

know if it's because these tires have

10,000 Mi on them at this point the

motor's been woring a little bit uh

maybe just because of the weather but

32.4 MPG according to the vehicle's trip

computer that's quite a bit better than

the 30.1 that we got the first time we

ran this test with this truck and we

have averaged 70 mph so running along

just fine I'm I'm really quite impressed

and this should be a fairly status quo

cuz the tunnel cover is rolled up for

this next portion of the test we're

going to go back fill it up and roll the

tunnel cover down close it up and I'm

expecting us to get even better numbers

which is really darn cool very impressed

by this car this powertrain what I'm not

impressed with is my ability to get off

the highway right here sorry about this

Mr

truck all right let's get back to the

pump see what we

get another aspect that's pretty

interesting the Maverick's trip computer

seems to be dead on accurate with the

GPS 60 both according to the vehicle and

our GPS

unit tunnel cover closed up 1.86 2 Gall

going in for our second

fill 60.8 divided by

1.8 62 is given us man look at that

accuracy

32.6 technically 32.7 and MPG let's see

what the truck's final readout

was

32.5 man this truck is just really

hitting everything accurate I'm

impressed okay let's do the whole thing

again reset the GPS reset the cars trip

computer and let's hit it

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coming into the end of the second leg of

the fuel economy test here in the

Maverick with the tunnel covered

flattened and I have to say ladies and

gentlemen I am seriously impressed with

the fuel economy of this little truck

34.2 MP gallon according to the

vehicle's trip readout which as we saw

from our last fill up and the first fill

up of this truck when we tested it

earlier this year this readout on the

vehicle strip computer is very accurate

so we are getting better with the tunnel

cover on here on the highway than we did

with the hybrid truck without a tunnel

cover on on the same test the hybrid

truck if I remember correctly got 33 m

per gallon and we are getting over 34

that's before we even get off the

highway here and fill it up so I am very

very impressed based on my quick math

that should be about a 6% increase in

fuel economy with the tunnel cover on

and I'm having to accelerate just a

little bit here again another dicey

situation it's always a tough section of

Highway getting off this off ramp here

but I'm going to get this back to the

pump and fill it up and see what our

final number is but yeah I I am super

happy with that so this is pretty

interesting on this fill up we actually

ended up putting in almost the exact

same amount of fuel and I'm a little bit

uh I'm a little bit skeptical of that I

think there's a little bit more margin

of error in filling aspect going from a

a full to a full to a full like that

trying to line it up perfectly so even

though

60.8 ID 1. 1863 is also given us

32.6 m per gallon I am more inclined to

go off the vehicle's trip computer since

we know that seems to be fairly accurate

and we see a very uh distinct difference

in what we read for this test versus the

first route so I'm going to go off of

that we're going to go

34.4 m per gallon for our final readout

minus the

32.6 when we pulled in here last time

that's giving us

1.8 MPG difference divided by that

original

32.6 time 100 it's giv us a 5.5%

difference and we'll give a little bit

of the benefit of the doubt to the pump

rate out there to drop down to

5% so something that I think is

significant especially if you do a lot

of highway driving I think 5% increase

in fuel economy is going to it's going

to make a difference let's do another

quick little bit of math just for fun if

you were to travel 1,000 miles without

the tunnel cover getting 32.6 m per

gallon times $4 a gallon for regular gas

you're going to be spending about

$123 if you're to multiply that by 95 if

you're saving 5% on gas you're looking

at I mean not even a $10 difference to

do

miles yeah that's going to add up add up

over the lifetime of the truck put 30

40,000 mil on the truck all of a sudden

you're saving a few hundred so I would

say it's significant especially when you

add on the other uh advantages to having

the tunnel cover the protection the the

keeping your stuff dry out of the

elements sort of smoother look I think

uh I think overall kind of helps justify

putting the money in to get a tunnel

cover on your truck another thing that

my father pointed out is a truck with a

longer bed is probably going to see

bigger gains in fuel economy putting a

tunnel cover on versus the Maverick

Maverick's only got a 4 and 1/2t bed so

aerodynamically you might not be making

that big of a difference compared to

something like a full-size truck with a

6 and 1/2t bed or maybe even an 8ft bed

on a big work truck that's probably

going to have a much bigger difference

so maybe with my father's truck he's got

a 6 and 1 half bed on his Tacoma maybe

we'll run this test also and see what

sort of differences we see but thank you

so much for watching I hope you all

found that interesting and informative

like I did thank you to trucko for their

Sentry CT tunnel cover which we use

regularly here on our Maverick and been

very happy with and we'll see you on the

next one I'm Charlie from daily motor

and as always drive on

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