Roof Rack - MPGs

I have a hooke roof rack coming in the mail. The idea kept ringing through my head when I'm on the road to fish, hike, etc. and The cab is full with my lady and dog, and the bed is full of just in case tools and fishing/outdoor gear..

I was talking to a buddy of mine and he said "what about you MPGs?"

I didn't think much about it until i went to google and found countless threads of people saying they were losing crazy amounts of fuel mileage even with an empty roof rack. Now i get if you have a freaking john boat on there, yeah you'll lose some mileage. But I'm seeing threads of guys with tacomas saying they are losing 3-4+ MPG drop with an empty roof rack mounted. This seems totally outlandish to me. I know aerodynamics and blah blah but i mean the thing is already a brick, and a ~6" slanted aluminum plate along the roof is going to cost me 1/3 of my fuel mileage? I'm having a hard time buying it.

Also, I know that you shouldn't buy a tundra if you care about fuel mileage. Trust me I'm aware, I'm lucky to get 13mpg with my lift and tires. But if I'm gonna be cruising around getting 8mpg, that's ridiculous and I should get a deleted cummins instead LOL.

Does anyone have experience mounting a roof rack and seeing an MPG drop or lack thereof? Thanks

 

Depends on the rack I guess. My Rhino rack on my topper doesn't affect my mileage at all. Full prinsu with lightbar, 270 awning, boxes full of emergency gear and Maxx trax might though.

 

On my Honda Element a roof rack cost me about 1 MPG on the highway. It was a toaster instead of a brick. I added a top case in my Tundra bed with bottom of the case slightly lower than the bed sides and the case mounted backwards. A 20 cu ft box actually helped MPG in the truck. YMMV.

 

Interesting... i guess I will just have to install. Will update afterwards

 

you WILL lose some efficiency...but it's kinda' hard to pick up the clean-end of a turd...the Tundra is already a sheet of plywood rolling down the hwys...you'll be fine

 

Like for FJ cruisers almost all come with roof racks and there’s endless debate on removing it for MPGs. The consensus is such a small mpg change that it’s hard for anyone to prove. I would imagine it’s a 0.25mpg average change and thus you won’t be able to tell.

 

I haul my 100+ lb kayak on top of my truck that has the double prinsu rack, along with a light bar and the paddle on the side of the rack. Also have a camper setup built under the topper, so its a lot of extra weight, but yeah gas mileage isnt good but I really like having the rack. I also haul my pop up fish house up there in the winter, sometimes a 10' section of PVC filled with water, shovels, traction boards, etc, sometimes I'll rig up a tarp off it for camping, its super convenient. If you have a use for it, I would suggest at least trying it out and not worry about the couple mpg loss.

If your truck is lifted it might be a little more of a PITA I guess, mine is not so I can kinda reach some stuff but I also have a tire step that works good and sometimes if I'm not camping I'll just bring a 6' ladder to make tying down the kayak easier.