Mountain Bike Luggage Racks
Roof Rack Or No Roof Rack When Hauling Big Things On Your Car
A roof rack might seem like a great idea for hauling snowboards, luggage, or bikes on your vehicle. However, roof racks significantly reduce your vehicle mileage. So is it worth it to use a roof rack, or are there better options for hauling big stuff with your car?
Article Source: Roof rack or no roof rack- Hauling big stuff on your car
Effects of a roof rack
Roof Racks are definitely good for hauling stuff. Just having an empty roof rack on your car could reduce your mileage by 10 to 12 percent. Add skis, snowboards, mountain bikes, rooftop box, or kayak on the roof rack and your mileage will reduce by 20 to 30 percent. That could easily turn your car into a gas guzzler.
Other places you can put your stuff
Hauling a lot of stuff on your roof rack reduces your gas mileage. That doesn’t mean you can stop taking stuff with you. So how are you to work with this bad mpg situation? You have a few different options.
A rack on the rear
For small things like bikes, you’d do best with a rack mounted on the back of your car. Over a roof rack, this could improve your gas mileage by 10 percent and still provides a lot of hauling space. Rear mounted racks work on station wagons, hatchbacks, and sedans.
A trailer that is aerodynamic
A well designed trailer might be able to improve your miles per gallon. The hit that you end up taking will be a much smaller one.
Rent another car
The best gas mileage comes from hauling your gear on the interior of a vehicle. It might be cheaper for you to rent a car that would be big enough to fit all of your stuff in. At $ 10 to $ 20 a day, it might easily be cheaper to rent.
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