Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.
My 30 inch wide ski box is typically 1-2ish mpg hit on my cars at 70+mph over the yrs. My SUVs its been hard to see a difference less aero vehicle less likely to see impact the really poorly designed fat short ones likely could show 3-4mpg hit at speed. A big reason not to get the wide short box you can’t fit anything else. My 30 inch wide box I can fit two bikes beside it on 56 inch bars. On 60 inch bars my 18ft canoe will fit next to it. Far more flexibility in roof use. Also even the narrow boxes are easily over loaded, the fat short boxes are typically way overloaded. A crash investigator rents office space next to my neighbors shop. Her number 1 pet peeve are the huge roof boxes!! Said that in recent years many of the high speed really bad roll over accidents she gets called in on had the jumbo roof box in play, and severely over loaded..Semi-related question- has anyone noticed a sharp drop in MPG when using a Thule or Sears-type roof box? I'm speaking of the larger, more bubulous unit as opposed to the narrow on you would use for skis.
My 30 inch wide ski box is typically 1-2ish mpg hit on my cars at 70+mph over the yrs. My SUVs its been hard to see a difference less aero vehicle less likely to see impact the really poorly designed fat short ones likely could show 3-4mpg hit at speed. A big reason not to get the wide short box you can’t fit anything else. My 30 inch wide box I can fit two bikes beside it on 56 inch bars. On 60 inch bars my 18ft canoe will fit next to it. Far more flexibility in roof use. Also even the narrow boxes are easily over loaded, the fat short boxes are typically way overloaded. A crash investigator rents office space next to my neighbors shop. Her number 1 pet peeve are the huge roof boxes!! Said that in recent years many of the high speed really bad roll over accidents she gets called in on had the jumbo box
Thanks for the reply Cali. I didn't notice much of a drop on mpg when driving my suburban with the same box, but haven't done so here yet. For us- it's a carrier of duffel bags or beach chairs, depending on destination. Definitely a space saver but I agree, easy to overload.