Fuel Consumption Impacts Of Auto Roof Racks

Sure it might earn you some cool points from some crowds but leaving a bike carrier luggage pod or other cargo toting device on top of your car can impact your fuel consumption and by a significant factor too.

Fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks.

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. 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. Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks. A bottom up approach reveals details of the fuel consumption penalty caused by racks.

Adding any rooftop carrier cargo box or ski rack doesn t come free. How often do you see people needlessly driving around with roof racks on their roof. Fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks article pdf available in energy policy 92 325 333 may 2016 with 1 083 reads how we measure reads. Technical and behavioral policies could significantly cut fuel penalties from roof.

30 5mpg astra s baseline fuel economy. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg. In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not. 30 4mpg two front windows a third open 30 3mpg roof bars and laden roofbox 30 2mpg two front windows totally open 29 7mpg four tyres.

A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a. Two novel data collection techniques on line forums and crowd sourcing improve estimate. 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. First estimate of national energy impacts of auto roof racks about 1.