How Much Do Roof Bars Affect Fuel Consumption

An empty rack has been reported to increase the cost of fuel over time from anywhere from 1 to 15 while a fully loaded roof rack will add 20 to 50 to your fuel bill.

How much do roof bars affect fuel consumption.

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. 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. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg. It s impossible to give an exact figure because it depends on so many factors but britain s biggest roof box manufacturer thule states that your mpg is unlikely to decrease by more than 5.

I ll justify these numbers below. Their study was published recently in the. The control test the tourx without roof rails. Does driving slower save fuel.

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. Off the showroom floor the regal tourx gets 21 miles per gallon in the city and 29 mpg highway for a combined fuel economy of 24 mpg. 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. It depends tremendously on who you ask and what vehicle is used.

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. Ie their was no difference in fuel consumption with either only that some makers of roof racks were noisy well having the windows open over 50mph is worse than having the air conditioning on. Roof racks were the same as having windows open the mpg was not affected enough to cause concern.