Study: roof racks waste 100 million gallons of gasoline a year in the U.S.

[MetroMPG]

A joint study by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have revealed something shocking:

Roof racks are bad for fuel economy.

Kidding aside, they've quantified/estimated the scale of the problem to the national level based on the prevalence of roof racks in freeway traffic audits.

Findings:

• in 2015, roof racks nationwide were responsible for 0.8 percent of light-duty vehicle fuel consumption, or 100 million gallons of gasoline
• fuel consumption penalty can be up to 25% on passenger cars
• people drive around with their roof racks empty eight times more than when loaded
• roof rack prevalance is estimated to increase by about 200% in the next 25 years (yay, "crossover" craze!)

From: Roof Racks a Drag on Fuel Economy | Berkeley Lab

Full study: Fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks

Related threads:

• http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...enalty-96.html
• http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...s-my-3912.html
• http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...lage-1528.html
• http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...asy-23729.html
• http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...racks-557.html

[Xist]

...and I am seeing an add for roof racks! No thank you!

[MetroMPG]

It's a conspiracy I tell you!

...

Actually, I'm seeing an ad for an electric toothbrush. Is it still a conspiracy?

[Xist]

Hold on, let me try Aragonis's method:

Despite opening fifty tabs about Star Wars toys, now I am getting Nissan and Officemax.

Kindly disregard my last transmission.

[Frank Lee]

I used to rant about useless- rather, never used- roof racks rather frequently. Good times.

[Hersbird]

I get ads for Ram commercial trucks, they seem to be escalating the situation... I could get by with a roof rack but suddenly I feel the need for a 3500 Chassis Cab.

Actually I almost never have needed a roof rack. I do like the flat folding style on our minivan, maybe more companies could go that direction. Funny but I can't even find a picture or video on the Web of how it works! I bet a bunch of owners out there don't even know their van has a roof rack with fold away crossbars.

[sid]

I only use my roof racks when I actually need to carry something, usually my kayak. They are removed from the vehicle otherwise. Fortunately, it takes less than a couple minutes to install or remove them. In my fuel log, you can see the times when I use my roof racks. They definitely hurt fuel economy.

[MetroMPG]

Same here - I have a set that hangs in my garage. I put them on a car maybe once or twice a year.

About 5 years ago I told my brother his factory roof racks were costing him 3-4% a year extra in fuel costs. They're still on. I've seen him use them twice.

Here's something new though: roof racks have become / are becoming a fashion accessory on the hip younguns' vehicles. I'm seeing more and more empty ones on lowered/stanced cars that are all stickerbombed, like this:

[Fat Charlie]

I blame my wife's last car.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Here's something new though: roof racks have become / are becoming a fashion accessory on the hip younguns' vehicles. I'm seeing more and more empty ones on lowered/stanced cars that are all stickerbombed, like this:

Classic VW crowd might own that one. :/