Posted: Dec 28 2005 at 6:34pm | IP Logged

a buddy of mine told me that your gas mileage might be a tiny bit better if i got rid of the crew cab roof rack, was he on to something, or is he just jerking my chain? please help

>John

Posted: Dec 31 2005 at 8:55am | IP Logged

kcidmil is correct, the only way to find hard data on it unless you can find it in research on teh internet is to take it off and try and get some data on it yourself...i'd make several comparison...using a semi scientific method, you should use the same gas, try and drive with the same style (tho this is obviously the most difficult part to maintain accuracy) and run several tests over a period of time, say 3 tanks of gas for each and collect data on each group (i.e. with the rack and w/o the rack) i personally have wondered about this myself with my 01 fronty, but not so much the rack but how much that air dam on the front of the rack makes a diff if it were to be removed, and have been considering taking it off to test it, but haven't as of yet. now, a big difference would be to add a bed cover, i know one individual here, maybe more indicated seeing around 5mpg better on their economy, not sure if that was city or highway or an aggregate of the two but that would definitly make a difference in the wallet :)

Posted: Dec 31 2005 at 10:50am | IP Logged

For bed cover.... 6 mpg city, 8 mpg Highway.  That was the gains I noticed for mine. 

I also did a comparison between 85, 89 (which has 10% ethanol here) and 91.

85 burnt way too quickly due to the extreme lack of power.  I had to keep my foot planted to get up and go. 89 seemed to be worse, especially at highway speeds, I swore I could almost see the needle dropping slowly.  91 did decently, and lasted the longest.

Here's where it got interesting though.  After spending about 5 months doing that test where I filled up on Ellsworth AFB at our shopette.  Sam's Club built their own gas station where prices were MUCH cheaper.  They only offered 85 and 91.  Which was a huge relief for me when it came to my Maxima.  The ethanol tears my injectors apart, and I cringed everytime I filled up someplace.  Why the fuel tanks were supposed to be seperate with no mixing.  Some stations were known to mix them. 

Now, the supplier for Sam's Club must use a different method, because I have noticed more power, and better fuel mileage compared to the base's pumps.  I was trying to attribute it to maybe it was just winter, and more gas was making it in due to the increased density of the fuel.  But it wasn't, I got the same mileage and power all year long. 

Posted: Jan 05 2006 at 5:33pm | IP Logged

hey 4xfrontyxe,

i'd be very interested in knowing what kind of numbers you're seeing with the air dam removed from the roof rack, since you are suggesting that you are seeing a difference in mileage, i would also guess you are noticing less noise at highway speeds too? cause that air dam, while looking cool sure does make a lot of noise with air going over it.  pls let us know what you are noticing for numbers, especially any comparisons if you kept records prior to removing the air dam.