How Much Fuel Does Removing A Roof Rack Save

My question is more about roof rails only.

How much fuel does removing a roof rack save. The roof rack will mostly increase the wind resistance and wind resistance grows enormously with speed much more than rolling resistance. Unfortunately even an empty roof rack will affect mileage. Losses in the engine rolling resistance and wind resistance. Removing a roof top cargo box can save as much as 20 on fuel over a year.

Example buddies forester has the roof rails across and when he removed them noticed instant 50 60 more miles on a tank of gas. For comparison the additional fuel consumption caused by roof racks is about six times larger than anticipated fuel savings from fuel cell vehicles and 40 percent of anticipated fuel savings. Fuel saving tips stay aerodynamic. Hi i ve searched the internet and found a lot of convincing evidence that crossrails or larger things against headwind will affect gas mileage by 5 or more.

Try to keep windows closed at high speeds and remove roof racks and boxes when not in use. 2007 forester 2 5x premium 5mt. A national perspective is still needed to justify policy actions the authors write. This means that adding an empty roof rack to a car that usually gets 35 mpg will drop the gas mileage to 32 5 mpg.

To me the functionality if more important. 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. According to the aa dropping from 80mph to 70mph could save you up to 25 in fuel. Has anyone installed this aftermarket honda accessory only and noticed a decrease in mpg.

Fuel consumption is made up of several components. There is no way an empty roof rack can affect gas mileage right. 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. A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a.

Depends on roof rack design and the aerodynamics affect it has. Adding an empty roof rack to a vehicle can drop the gas mileage by about 7 percent. Wind resistance increases fuel consumption. For comparison the additional fuel consumption caused by roof racks is about six times larger than anticipated fuel savings from fuel cell vehicles and 40 percent of anticipated fuel savings from battery electric vehicles in 2040.

Some name brands ones get heavily tested and therefore don t do much bad or good. 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.