5 9 l 100 km approx.
Fuel economy of roof rack vs luggage box.
5 6 l 100 km approx.
In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not.
39 mpg thus the cargo box on the roof increased fuel consumption by about 5 compared to the baseline.
Aerodynamics is the study of force and how an object moves through the air.
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.
6 0 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.
Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.
42 mpg roof rack with thule dynamic 800 aerodynamic cargo box.
Adding any rooftop carrier cargo box or ski rack doesn t come free.
40 mpg roof mounted thule xtender 739 ski carrier with skis.
Beyond that the two items tested with the least impact on gas mileage were the paddle board and thule luggage carrier both of which caused about a 19 percent decrease in fuel economy or 5 5.
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.