Roof Rack Economy Issues

Hello, I'm new here. I own a 2014 doublecab TRD off road. I was wondering if anyone had any intel on roof racks and other external accessories effecting performance/ handling/economy.

Thanks

 

I have a "rack it" lumber/ladder rack for work and it definitely negatively effects gas mileage. I'd say by 1 or 2 mpg. Might not seem like much but it adds up.

 

I lose about 1.5 mpg when I have my Yakima rack on.

 

unloaded??

 

Yes

Just the bars and the faring

 

Yeah.

I lost 3 MPG with Yakima bars on a previous car. Added the wind fairing which helped, but still lost 2.

 

On my last truck I had the same fuel economy with an unloaded rack and with the Rocket Box mounted to the rack - both with the faring on the rack. No faring = terrible noise and worse mpgs.

 

Agreed on the noise.

 

I design and sell roof racks and since the beginning have had one on my truck. I have monitored my mpgs pretty closely and have never really noticed much of an effect. That being said, I have a lot of other modifications to my truck that do affect MPGs.
I think if you have a close to stock truck and are trying to maximize MPGs then a roof rack with have some effect. If you have oversized tires, heavy armor, a shell, weight in the bed, etc, then you have already lost most the the efficiency.

My truck seems to hit a barrier at about 14 MPGs where the only thing I can do to get it to drop below that range is pull a trailer, or drive in 4 low for a really long time.

In normal highway driving my Mpgs stay right between 15-16 regardless of whether I have the rack on, loaded, unloaded, off, or have 800 lbs in the bed.

 

Welcome! Maybe a loss of 1 with my Prinsu rack. Probably a negligible loss considering I lost around 4 mpg with bigger tires.