How To: Reverse roof rack for improved mpg

[watt9386]

my first how to. money is tight and nothing has been done to london lately sooo.....




i apoligize ahead of time for INCREDABLY HUGE pics, i was in car photo mode, not close up mode (my brain was) lol

well, i had a leak coming from somewhere in the rear roof/window area. so i decided id pull the roof rack and rails and investigate.

TOOLS USED:
(1) ruckusny.com sticker. (support my brother, come on you know you want to)
(1) phillips head screwdriver
(1) funny star shaped torx bit
(1) tube of red loctite rtv (all i had) :thumbdwn:
half of the screws will not be used either, side effect of flippinf the rails and making them do 180's :thumbdwn:

i dont have pics of the removal cause im too damn lazy to do it.

i do HOWEVER have pics of the nwe-ish rack
(it helps if you fill the holes for the screws with a dab of rtv to be on the safe side)

close up

bad rtv job (you should be able to do better)

i didnt want ANY leaks!!! lol.

empty screw hole in the roof D:

screws should all look like this

RUCKUSNY.COM sticker.

 

[willindsay]

How does this improve gas mileage?? and couldn't you just remove the front one and pick up another sliding one instead of flipping the whole rack??

 

[watt9386]

the two rails are moved farther back on the roof, thus reducing drag EVER so slightly from stock. and i used what i had at hand. this was all free.

 

[willindsay]

the two rails are moved farther back on the roof, thus reducing drag EVER so slightly from stock. and i used what i had at hand. this was all free.

Then why not just get rid of them completely??

 

[watt9386]

cause i plan on having things up there eventually. and i think it looks fugly without it.

 

[watt9386]

well. that didnt go over as planned...

 

[bats]

So it acts like a spoiler?

 

[watt9386]

in a way yes.

 

[willindsay]

cause i plan on having things up there eventually. and i think it looks fugly without it.

I def agree with it being Fugly without it. I wasn't trying to say it was dumb or anything I was just curious why do it like that.

 

[watt9386]

i just had too much time on my hands and a friend all to willing to help after school. lol and i think it looks better then how the stock set up was

 

[msilver]

:scratch:

 

[sfgmen415]

cause i plan on having things up there eventually. and i think it looks fugly without it.

So true, my navajo has no roof rack at all and it makes it look "bald"

 

[FIND]

This will not decrease drag or increase mileage. I'm not going to give you a long boring lecture on aerodynamics, I'm just going to tell you no. The only thing pushing your rack to the back does is make your roof rack 100% non-functional and silly looking. This will not function as a spoiler either. (do you really want to know about that turbulent air formed by that gap?) Your roof rack has such a minimal impact on mileage anyways, you wouldn't notice the difference even if you removed it. Have a look at the front end of your truck sometime, then look at a brick. Now ask yourself, why aren't 747s brick shaped?

If you really REALLY want more proof, I suggest you brush up on your calculus, because this is going to be a difficult discussion otherwise.

I'm sorry to be gruff with you or if I am coming off as harsh, but people making claims like this without actually knowing what they are talking about leads to so many bad things. Next thing you know, you'll be buying an intake tornado.

 

[explorerguy89]

/\ hes totally right guys. the point of the rack is to be functional and aerodynamic. hence the streamline design, if you want to minimize drag on an ex. you need to build it totally different basically lol

 

[huntman58]

I have removed the rack and also ended up putting it back on. Could tell not a bit of deference in MPG at all. Now as for looks well that is subjective some like with others with out and the better MPG discussion is nothing but a way to try and prove what your personal like for looks are. sorry but that’s all I see in any of this as was said the brick front end is still a brick front end and the truck still is about 4,000 LBS no matter how ya look at it a 4,000LBS Brick is not going to get good MPG unless you redesign the whole and make it a lot lighter in the proposes.

 

[FIND]

or swap in a 4bt