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.
Gas miliage drop roof rack.
Drag coefficient increases by speed squared.
42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box.
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.
Your fuel cost is ten cents mile or 1 500 year.
40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.
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.
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.
It caused a whopping 34 percent drop in fuel economy or 10 mpg.
Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks.
6 0 l 100 km approx.
If most of your driving is freeway and you re worried about 2mpg then take the cross bars off when not in use.
I ve put cross bars on two different odys with no measurable effect on mpg.
39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline.
Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.
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.
Roof rails will not effect mpg cross bars may to some degree and mostly is not only while traveling at a freeway speeds.
Some drivers may see their gas mileage drop by as much as 20 percent depending on vehicle type and type of 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.
5 6 l 100 km approx.
5 9 l 100 km approx.
So if your car usually gets 30 mpg on the highway and you add a full roof rack your highway gas mileage will drop to 24 27 mpg.