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.

I ll justify these numbers below. It depends tremendously on who you ask and what vehicle is used. 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. Does driving slower save fuel.

Our experiment aired on television during season 2 of whichcar tv and involved three 100 kilometre road loops along melbourne s m1 freeway completed at the same 100km h average speed coming back in between each run to the same pump at the same petrol station to get as accurate a representation of fuel consumption as possible. 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. Roof racks were the same as having windows open the mpg was not affected enough to cause concern. 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.

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. If fuel consumption is a concern invest in a streamlined box which will cut through the air more efficiently. 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. 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.

The control test the tourx without roof rails. 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. 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.