Fuel Efficiency With Roof Rack

The more aerodynamic a car is the better the gas mileage it will have.

Fuel efficiency with roof rack.

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. This includes a roof rack bike rack luggage rack pair of bikes or anything else you may strap to your vehicle. 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. 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.

Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg. For some people the. Some original equipment roof rack designs are. Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.

Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks. A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a. 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. 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.

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. 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. That second run returned a fuel consumption of 7 06l 100km that s 0 6 litres more than our control run. That s why you ve decided to invest in a cargo carrier.

Hitch racks or roof racks which one should you choose. 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.