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.
Fuel efficiency with roof rack.
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 more aerodynamic a car is the better the gas mileage it will have.
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.
For some people the.
That s why you ve decided to invest in a cargo carrier.
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 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.
Some original equipment roof rack designs are.
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.
But that s where you ve found a dilemma.
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.
That second run returned a fuel consumption of 7 06l 100km that s 0 6 litres more than our control run.
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.
Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.
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.
A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a.