Fuel Efficiency With 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.

Fuel efficiency with roof rack.

A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a. This includes a roof rack bike rack luggage rack pair of bikes or anything else you may strap to your vehicle. The gear with the most impact were the dual mountain bikes strapped to the roof which impacted the fuel economy by 31 percent or 9 mpg. 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.

The empty roof rack had a nearly 2 percent impact on fuel economy which translates to a little more than three quarters of a gallon of gas. Roof racks a drag on fuel economy by lawrence berkeley national laboratory both loaded and unloaded roof racks create drag reducing your vehicle s efficiency. Some original equipment roof rack designs are. But that s where you ve found a dilemma.

Hitch racks or roof racks which one should you choose. For some people the. The more aerodynamic a car is the better the gas mileage it will have. To find out how bike racks affect a car s fuel economy consumer reports tested a roof rack and a trailer hitch rack loaded with two adult sized bicycles on a 2019 nissan altima and a 2019 toyota.

Next we equipped a set of roof racks and a bike carrier attachment to the roof of the forester brimmed the tank once more and set off completing the exact same run a second time. If you follow our coverage on fuel efficiency you know that real world mileage numbers don t always measure up to the official epa ratings. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg. That second run returned a fuel consumption of 7 06l 100km that s 0 6 litres more than our control run.

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. Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.