Bed Cover Bike Rack and Crap Mileage

Wow! Wind drag can kill your mileage in a hurry. 19-20 down to 13-14. LAME!



I added the bike racks on the bed cover this past Friday. They are Thule roof racks. The cover is a DiamonBack, so mounting the other way wasn't an option. I expected a dip in gas mileage because of the wind drag, but not 6. 6! Holy crap. My state park & lake weekend used a lot more gas than I had planned.

Any ideas to make this better?

 

nope My mileage dies when I have 2 bikes in the bed

 

I carry a 500 lb motorcycle in the bed and get over 19 MPG. I have the motorcycle dead straight with part of the back wheel on the tailgate which is down.

You may want to try another rack/cover combo that lets you place the bikes in the bed straight ways.

 

mine is layd out straight. why cant u do yours?. I have the short bed too.

 

Bed cover pivots from the center. Mounting the other way will permanently lock both panels together.

 

^^ largest picture I have ever seen

 

Sorry about that. In my defense, I fixed it as soon as I realized what I did.

 

can you add two more bikes to the hitch mount carrier?

 

What about using fork mounts on the front cover and simple wheel straps on the rear part?

Maybe switch to a 29er- those do everything better I've been told!

 

The hitch rack moves around a lot going down the highway. With the two bike extension, it gets really bad.

I would need the trough portion of a roof rack to hold the back wheel secure. To mount the troughs to the cover, I would need some custom stuff made. I had thought about this option, but decided it was more work than the option I used. That was before I realized the wind drag would be gigantic.

I talked to the store that I bought the roof racks from. I can return it for a 100% refund even those I have used it on the highway. I will probably do that and use a two bike extension on the hitch. I don't completely like four bikes on the hitch, but I don't like the wind issue either. It is a question of which option I dislike the least now.