This editor many years ago in a move across the country to oregon from michigan found that the highway mileage of a four cylinder accord dropped from more than 40 mpg down to 32 mpg with a.
Thule roof rack gas mileage.
I now drive around with just the cross bars on and add adapters as needed for bikes or boats.
40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.
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.
Car was getting 26 27 mpg.
The next generation of roof racks.
Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.
39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline.
Constantly aiming at staying one step ahead and working closely together with the car industry thule introduces a new generation of roof rack systems.
5 6 l 100 km approx.
The control test the tourx without roof rails.
42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box.
The low profile thule edge system offers a sleek integrated design while the thule evo system maximizes the loading area and comes with a variety of load bar options.
Didn t track that closely last time i did a long drive with boats on the roof but i think it was a slightly worse than with bikes.
5 9 l 100 km approx.
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.
Berkeley lab says that roof racks cause as much as a 25 percent loss in fuel economy and accounted for almost 1 percent of national consumption in 2015.
With the racks on and bikes on the roof it is 24 25.
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.