Fuel Consumption Impacts Of Auto Roof Racks

Adding any rooftop carrier cargo box or ski rack doesn t come free.

Fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks.

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. 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. Two novel data collection techniques on line forums and crowd sourcing improve estimate. 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.

A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a. First estimate of national energy impacts of auto roof racks about 1. Technical and behavioral policies could significantly cut fuel penalties from roof. Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks.

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. 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. 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. 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.

30 5mpg astra s baseline fuel economy. Their study was published recently in the journal energy policy in a paper titled fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks in addition to projecting the fuel consumption penalty into 2040. 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. In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not.