Fuel Efficiency With 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.

Fuel efficiency with roof rack. A roof rack can be a great product to add extra storage space to a vehicle. 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. The more aerodynamic a car is the better the gas mileage it will have. 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 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. That second run returned a fuel consumption of 7 06l 100km that s 0 6 litres more than our control run. Then there are the odd shaped items that can be hard to fit into any cars or suv we re talking sports equipment like bikes or skis or perhaps tools like ladders. 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.

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. A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a. In these days when americans are increasingly opting to purchase smaller vehicles than they used to that extra space can really come in handy. Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.

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. Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks. This includes a roof rack bike rack luggage rack pair of bikes or anything else you may strap to your vehicle.