Roof Rack Cross Bars Gas Mileage

42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box.

Roof rack cross bars gas mileage.

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. The control test the tourx without roof rails. Off the showroom floor the regal tourx gets 21 miles per gallon in the city and 29 mpg highway for a combined fuel economy of 24 mpg. Drag coefficient increases by speed squared.

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. Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg. 5 9 l 100 km approx.

6 0 l 100 km approx. 39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline. 5 6 l 100 km approx. 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. 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. 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. 40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.

Their study was published recently in the.