Roof Rack Mpg Hit

Losses in the engine rolling resistance and wind resistance.

Roof rack mpg hit.

How bad is the hit to your wallet. Fuel consumption is made up of several components. 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 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.

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. That roof rack you absolutely had to have may come in handy now and again but a new study from berkeley lab says that it s also costing you quite a bit of money in lost fuel economy. 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. Adding a bike to the equation caused fuel consumption to jump by 35 compared to their baseline settings.

When consumer reports tested how roof racks affected fuel economy in 2013 they noticed a 5 mpg drop at highway speeds from an empty rack.