Gas Miliage Drop Roof Rack

40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.

Gas miliage drop roof rack. 5 9 l 100 km approx. Some drivers may see their gas mileage drop by as much as 20 percent depending on vehicle type and type of roof rack. Roof rails will not effect mpg cross bars may to some degree and mostly is not only while traveling at a freeway speeds. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.

Let s say that you drive 15 000 miles per year gas is 2 50 gal and your gets 25 mpg. The roof rack mpg experiment he compared the gas mileage of his car at 54 7 mph 88 kph with 1 no roof racks 2 an empty roof rack and 3 a mountain bike on the roof rack. Your fuel cost is ten cents mile or 1 500 year. Generally adding a loaded roof rack to your car will lower your gas mileage by at least 10 percent.

Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks. This editor many years ago in a move across the country to oregon from michigan found that the highway mileage of a four cylinder accord dropped from more than 40 mpg down to 32 mpg with a. 6 0 l 100 km approx. It caused a whopping 34 percent drop in fuel economy or 10 mpg.

I ve put cross bars on two different odys with no measurable effect on mpg. Drag coefficient increases by speed squared. 42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box. He found that compared to the baseline of no roof rack the empty rack reduced his mpg by 12 7 and the roof rack with a bicycle reduced it by a whooping 27 3.

5 6 l 100 km approx. Of course no one in their right mind would drive around with an oversized pool float fastened to the roof of their car while it s. If most of your driving is freeway and you re worried about 2mpg then take the cross bars off when not in use. So it varies depending on the vehicle on the rack and on the driving highway or city but it s at least five percent and probably a lot more.

They found that in 2015 roof racks nationwide were responsible for 0 8 percent of light duty vehicle fuel consumption or 100 million gallons of gasoline.