We finally got the chance to pack up the speed3 with a full load of: 2 kids, mom n dad, a kayak on the Yakima roof rack, and enough junk in the trunk to make the stock wheel well gap go from this:
to this:
People, boat, and goods all included, I'm estimating 700-800 lbs. I got the Q-towers and clips for the rack mounts, as well as the fairing. I fabbed my own bars; seriously Yakima, $55 for a couple pcs of 1" pipe? Come on! Anyway, we loaded up and took off for the lakehouse, about a 200 mile drive.
I was a bit cautious as this was my first time with the boat on this car, so I kept it between 65 and 70, but had the a/c on most of the time. Keep in mind, my average mpg since new is 23.54mpg (yeah, I keep a spreadsheet for this stuff) with a 30% city, 70% highway commute. On the ride to the lakehouse, we burned over half a tank at 26.16 mpg - no kidding. I was quite shocked. The killer was that on the way back, after having unloaded most of the crap we brought with us, as well as leaving the kayak at the house, we got a personal best 29.19mpg with the cruise at 72 and the a/c on the whole way. BTW, these numbers did not come from the inaccurate dash display (which said we got 29.7 on the way there and 28.5 on the way back). That's the best road trip mileage I've ever gotten, and that was with the roof rack on. Why bother taking it off the car, eh?
to this:
People, boat, and goods all included, I'm estimating 700-800 lbs. I got the Q-towers and clips for the rack mounts, as well as the fairing. I fabbed my own bars; seriously Yakima, $55 for a couple pcs of 1" pipe? Come on! Anyway, we loaded up and took off for the lakehouse, about a 200 mile drive.
I was a bit cautious as this was my first time with the boat on this car, so I kept it between 65 and 70, but had the a/c on most of the time. Keep in mind, my average mpg since new is 23.54mpg (yeah, I keep a spreadsheet for this stuff) with a 30% city, 70% highway commute. On the ride to the lakehouse, we burned over half a tank at 26.16 mpg - no kidding. I was quite shocked. The killer was that on the way back, after having unloaded most of the crap we brought with us, as well as leaving the kayak at the house, we got a personal best 29.19mpg with the cruise at 72 and the a/c on the whole way. BTW, these numbers did not come from the inaccurate dash display (which said we got 29.7 on the way there and 28.5 on the way back). That's the best road trip mileage I've ever gotten, and that was with the roof rack on. Why bother taking it off the car, eh?
