Just for curiosity: Any of you with A4 Avant notice a worsening of fuel economy when driving with roof racks attached to the railings?
Strangely enough I appear to burn 5-10% more fuel with them on, even if it's just the roof racks. Most of my driving is on the highway, avg speed approx 100 km/h (60 mph)
Any of you notice a difference? Or is just my imagination?
/Robert
'appear to burn 5-10% more fuel'
How can you imagine a fact?
Ronald
Very funny.
/Robert
Indeed, your message was funny.
Ronald.
Never bothered to calculate the difference in fuel consumption but I notice a lot more wind noise with them than without.
I would expect this increased drag to affect my fuel economy but I'm more picky about the noise than anything. I remove them when not in use.
From another car type but maybe it applies:
With larger Jeeps like the Grand Larado it is suggested that the front rack be placed in the forward slot and the rear in the back slot. If I recall correctly, it was an economy (first) and noise (second) suggestion. This was mentioned in the owners manual (1999 vintage). Of course when you buy a Jeep now, the racks are not provided as standard equipment (rails yes, racks no) 2002 vintage.
HTH, Glenn
Thanks Ken and Glenn. Good to hear that there may well be truth to my theory that roof racks, apart from the wind noise, were causing me to eat a bit more fuel. Didn't believe it at first when I went through my logbook. . . . /Robert
"Robert" schreef in bericht news:lRoQc.100099$ snipped-for-privacy@newsc.telia.net...
Why is it strange? The car-manufacturers spend a lot of time and money on aerodynamics. Placing a horizontal bar (roof-rack) straight into the wind-direction makes this aerodynamics dramatically worse. You should only be carrying a roof-rack when really carrying something in it. Otherwise it just adds noise and fuel-consumption..
Daniel
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