Fuel Economy Of Roof Rack Vs Luggage Box

This includes a roof rack bike rack luggage rack pair of bikes or anything else you may strap to your vehicle.

Fuel economy of roof rack vs luggage box. In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not. The more aerodynamic a car is the better the gas mileage it will have. 39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline. 42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box.

5 6 l 100 km approx. I have personally tried both options on two different vehicles and i can say positively a cargo box gives you more mpg s. Is a fancy low profile ski rack the answer or could a cargo box get me better fuel economy. Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.

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. 6 0 l 100 km approx. On my maxima i was able to get 25mpg with no rack at all when i added a yakima fat cat 6 loaded with skis i got approx 20mpg. Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.

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