Hello all, new guy here.... My wife are the new owners of a 2008 Prius (1 week and counting). We love it (and averaged 55mpg for 90 miles yesterday...27 degrees...no mods!). Can't wait to see what can happen with warmer weather! One thing, is that we are frequent skiers, and would love to have a skirack...but the thule skirack I have was murder on the mpgs on the old buick, so I'm weary on denting the nice run I'm having with the new Prius. I've seen the cargo boxes for years and they seem more aerodynamic than the typical rack...my questions are: Anyone here have one or used one on their Prius? If so...do you like it? Any significant drop in mpg? I'm a realist...I know the mpg will go down...just wondering how much. thanks!
With snows and box expect 38mpg. Even less stability with box in high wind. Car will do it and is only way to go to hill with more than 3 pair of skis and 3 people. I use thule.
Although I haven't used it yet, I just purchased a Yakima Space Cadet which I plan to use this summer. I'm waiting till I absolutely have to mount the rack to do so. I'll be sure to update with our experience once we take our trips. I chose the Space Cadet because it's shorter than the long boxes so we should still be able to get in and out of the hatch without it hitting the box. The drawback is that it's wider that the long boxes and will take up the entire width of the roof, not allowing me to mount anything else like a bike or skis. I have a Yakima rack with the universal Q-Tower system. Although it's not really designed to be removable per se, with an extra set of hands it's easy enough to take off and remount when you need it it once the bars and towers are set. I intend to only keep it on the roof when necessary.
I've been thinking of removing mine when not in use too. So far I've only seen about 1 mpg drop from the rack though. The killer is putting 3 whitewater boats up there, though 35 mpg still kicks anyone else's nice person!:boxing:
