Just completed 4,000 miles...avg of 10mpg

That's what a wing is supposed to do. On a race car a wing creates negative lift at the expense of drag to increase downforce. Basically its an airplane wing flipped upside down.  

A spoiler on a passenger vehicle is usually supposed to reduce drag. It does this by "spoiling" the airflow over a surface, changing the aerodynamics. Rear spoilers if done right reduce the steep downward angle the airflow sees from the rear roof edge, delaying airflow separation. The same thing that trailer tails on trucks are intended to do.  The problem is that much of the time on passenger vehicles they don't provide any benefit other than (maybe) looking cool. 

I'm not sure if the spoiler on the back of an rPod falls into this purely aesthetic category or not. Sounds like from furpod's post the answer is yes. It would be interesting to try to do a coast down test with and without it and see for sure. It you find a few miles of flat empty road on a windless day, accelerate to about 65 mph, put the vehicle in neutral, and then film the speedo with your smartphone while you coast down to a few mph, you can put the speed and time numbers in a spreadsheet which will calculate your drag and rolling resistance. Best to do several runs both directions and average them. I did it with my car once and it was reasonably accurate but I haven't tried it with my tow rig yet.

Greetings:

I've owned two pods, a 171 and now a 2015 179. I tow with a 2007 F-150 with the 4.6 V8, 8 foot box.  I get from 10 to 12.5 MPG towing at 60.  I usually drive on 2 lane roadways but do use freeways.  I stay in the right lane and let everyone go by.  I've had few problems with traffic.  Many trucks are driving at 65 or less.  I went to 8 ply tires which I run at 65 PSI.  They seem to improve mileage a bit.

Crankster78  

Hear ya Fred! I'm the same way! Funny thing with me is 55mph is not my best speed for mpg.. I ran a road out in Olympia National that I could barely do 20-30 mph and my mileage (on the dash) jumped! Slow real slow is awesome! On the highway I've tested 55, 60, 65 mph and find 62mph to be the sweet spot. This is not from the dash, but from driving a tank of gas and dividing out the mileage.

All I'm saying is every tow vehicle has it's sweet spot. I know mine now. Test it as you drive a distance on a tank of gas. I also watch rpm's when climbing a hill. I'm constantly going to manual and dropping it back. My wife busts me with "The cyclist is passing us!" Me, "ya, but we will pass him on the downhill!"

V8, V6, gas or diesel.. Everyone has that sweet spot!