Roof Rack Mpg Hit

Adding a bike to the equation caused fuel consumption to jump by 35 compared to their baseline settings.

Roof rack mpg hit.

The roof rack will mostly increase the wind resistance and wind resistance grows enormously with speed much more than rolling resistance. 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. 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. Fuel consumption is made up of several components.

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. 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. How bad is the hit to your wallet. 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.

Losses in the engine rolling resistance and wind resistance.