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.
Van roof rack mpg.
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.
5 6 l 100 km approx.
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.
39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline.
40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.
A drop of 7 percent may not sound like much but it adds up over time.
Feature story julie chao 510 486 6491 april 25 2016.
5 9 l 100 km approx.
199 cubic feet of cargo space.
Service maintenance vans city vans 1.
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.
A ladder rack for your van may also be an accessory you ll want to consider especially if your van of choice is a sprinter or other high roof van.
A close second was the kayak with 28 percent or a.
6 0 l 100 km approx.
Adding an empty roof rack to a vehicle can drop the gas mileage by about 7 percent.
Roof racks a drag on fuel economy berkeley lab study finds roof racks responsible for almost 1 percent of national fuel consumption.
With the metris mercedes benz cleans up nicely as far as the service and maintenance van category goes.
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.
In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not.
Roof racks a drag on fuel economy by lawrence berkeley national laboratory both loaded and unloaded roof racks create drag reducing your vehicle s efficiency.