More fifth wheel questions.

grizz272 wrote:
These 2 came from my DW
1. The ventilated fifth-wheel tailgates. Do they do anything besides making it easier to hitch up? My DW was wondering about fuel mileage and wind resistance.
2. The mud flap brushes that go all the way across the back of the PU. Do they protect the front of the fifth wheel? Would I be better off just putting diamond plate on the front of the fifth wheel?

I am just setting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for March. That is when the truck will be here and the fifth wheel will be ready.

I inherited a louvered gate and like it for 2 reasons. 1) easier to hitch, overall, but you do have to raise the FW higher to clear the bottom of the notch. If you =don't= get it high enough, or there's a bump you run over with your back wheels, you then hook it with the king pin. 2) Much less turbulence in the truck bed, at least with my old Komfort. I had so much turbulence that I could easily lose 12" 2x4s out of the bed and did lose a couple garbage bags that were't secured properly. Oops...

Mileage? Nothing I could measure when towing, but I never really took a long enough trip with it to really tell. My 3 longest trips all happened before I got the gate. Not towing? I never left it on long enough to tell. The =best= mileage I ever got in my truck was when I had a 14 cu ft chest freezer in the back end, tucked right up behind the cab. Got just over 23 mpg running at 75 between PHX and Cortez, CO, empty. Aerodynamics!

My old Komfort had Al diamond plate on the front end and I know it helped save me from dings and dirt stains, as we =do= boondock, and where we go can get pretty sloppy. Personally, I find that much more attractive than those big-a$$ flaps.

Lyle