: With the current gas prices anyone ever compute the difference in gas mileage
: in driving your car with a kayak on the roof vs. without it? I've never
: bothered and now am faced with a 1000+ mile trip with a yak on the roof.

: Bill H.

Hi Bill,

I'm also leaving for a 700-mile trip Friday and will be carrying my sailing kayak on the car rooftop, deck side up. $4.00 gas isn't going to be pleasant. What I'm doing to save gas is inflating my tires to nearly 40 lbs psi and covering my large cockpit with a throw rug, rubber side up and held with two ratchet straps. And I'll try to keep my speed to 55 mph but that won't be easy on the Interstate. With out the throw rug on past trips, this wide stubby kayak starts to sound like a base fiddle when the air flows into the cockpit at high speeds, and the kayak hold down straps added their own music. So I slipped the straps into a garden hose to make them more air dynamic and now it’s very quiet riding in comparison to they way it used to be.

I had this same boat on an 1800-mile trip a few years ago and I didn't think my gas mileage was that bad,but then gas was a whole lot cheaper.

John