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Good tip; before any lengthy personal trip I remove the rack. Surprisingly heavy it is, being a three bar Rhino.
That's what we have (with the aerofoil at the front) - Looks like a good move as this is noted in the Which URL link above :
According to RAC, on average, every 50kg will increase your petrol consumption by 2%. This is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight so it affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
Will have make team members get out and walk to site...
Blimey, bit lit F1GP Qualifying ;-)
Weight-wise my two-bar Rhino can't be more than fifteen kilos at most, I could strip that weight out of the van easily, let alone from myself!
Aerodynamically, they obviously do add some drag, and any reduction in drag is going to make a small difference. "Up to" 10% is a ridiculous claim, though, and as meaningless as the Daily Mail's claim this weekend that "up to" 29 million Romanians might have the right to come to the UK. I wish they would be forced to substantiate that 10% figure, I'd be surprised if it was even close to 1% on a slab-fronted van. Perhaps on a car with a really low CD, and a very poorly-designed roof rack, you could create 10% in a lab, but I don't believe it would be possible even then.
I take the ladder off when I'm doing a long motorway journey, that's a no-brainer, but I certainly won't be faffing about putting the roof bars on and off hoping to get a massive fuel saving......
The benefit of having the same vans is that we know the vans without the roof racks can obtain a higher top speed. That's fact :-) . Fuel consumption - I could probably work this out as we use Fuelcards and all their data can be downloaded and processed for each van. Common sense and years of running vans suggests there is fact, not fiction here.
On two of our Vivaros we have 3 bar Rhino systems and they do require two people to take off / replace due to their size, weight(?) & height off ground. Realistically get little use now.
Vivaro's (and their derivatives) have industry leading drag co-efficiency hence their 'good' consumption. The new Transit has only just near the same figures after 11 years. Vehicles such as older transits etc are considered 'slab like' which is reflected in their rating and hence fuel consumption. Racks etc on these must have a much lesser effect?
Gary,
I removed the aerofoil as it was noisy and vibrated no matter how tight the screws. Do you think it makes much difference, economy-wise, or just a bit of a gimmick?
>>>>Vivaro's (and their derivatives) have industry leading drag co-efficiency
have you got a link please !!
We've tried everything to improve the aerodynamics of our vans............
I'll find what I can..but remember from my Physics classroom that the aerodynamic efficiency is the product of co-efficient of Drag (cD) * frontal area.
At the time the Vivaro/Trafic & Primastar were launched the figures for the cD were ~.32-.35 upwards depending on model, which is what helped give the vans good fuel efficiency (I can remember the TV ads) at the time
By comparison, the latest 2013 Ford Transit is .37, with the previous models being .40 and above.
Sprinters (2010) models shows as .34
Ironically, many smaller vans can be more 'aerodynamic' even tho they have a bad co-eff of drag due to their smaller (relatively) frontal areas.
I guess with so many variables (size, model, wt, engine capacity, load, cD, frontal area, etc) involved on a LCV it will always be open to interpretations....
Having similar vans with and without isn't a scientific test, neither is taking the thing off for a tankful to see if it makes a difference. So many factors have to be taken in to consideration, such as driver, traffic, other gear in the van, ambient temperature, wind direction, it's impossible to know how much difference it makes in the real world.
All I know is I've run an old Transit for c. 100K miles, and the Hiace for c. 60K miles, with only me driving, and with or without the roof bars makes no appreciable difference. It must have SOME effect, but very minimal. I'd genuinely say that taking a few little-used tools out would make more difference to economy. I'd bet that keeping the tyres properly inflated is more important for economy as well, and trying to reduce the mileage by things such as grouping jobs together, quoting when you're already in an area, that sort of thing.
Ok, I give up - it was only posted to raise the issue for interest lol ;-).
I'm not saying that other aspects do not affect +/- your fuel consumption more than roof racks,
BTW - disagree a bit; with the same drivers, doing the same types of journey ( we use a scheduling / mapping application - Qxpress ) with similar tools/loads we have 4 vans (plus my truck) and up to 9 years (our oldest Vivaro) data to look at, most under some form of fuel card. Probably more scientific / real world if fully analysed than your conclusions ?
The answer ? - take it all in and do what you can, how you can to the best you can and hopefully you will reduce your fuel consumption.........
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