Some pickup-truck drivers take it as an article of faith that they're saving fuel by driving with the tailgate down, or removed, or replaced by a mesh fabric or metal gate. Which is not true and is a false claim.
Tale gate UP
Tale gate DOWN
Aerodynamic studies show a pickup truck is most fuel efficient with its tailgate up. The upright tailgate causes air flowing over the roof of the main cabin to collect as a stagnant "dome" in the cargo bed. As speed builds, this dome, which tapers in a teardrop shape near the tailgate, acts as an aerodynamic ramp that forces airflow over the tailgate, which in return gives less drag as it smoothly ramps the air over the tailgate.
Disrupt this flow by dropping or removing the tailgate, and air coming over the cab is left to swirl around in the cargo bed, degrading the truck's aerodynamics. If you have a sort of swirl of air on the cargo bed it causes air to vacuum in that air and tends to slow the car for causing lots of wind drag. So you tend to put more gas to give it some more power to accelerate and so it hurts fuel economy.
Keeping your vehicle in good shape can help with its fuel efficiency. Don't ruin the look of your car. Manufacturers study hours and hours of wind tunnel tests on the cars. They're perfect the way they are. Unless your an aero dynamic expert....
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