How much do kayaks affect small cars?

My experience…
I can offer a few reference points:



Mercury Villager minivan without canoe at 70mph 23 mpg highway



Mercury Villager with one tandem canoe at 70 mph 20 mpg highway



Mercury Villager with two tandem canoes at 70 mph 16 mpg highway (there was a very noticable difference between one and two canoes)



Honda Civic without canoe at 70 mph 35mpg highway



Honda Civic with one WW kayak at 70 mph 32 mpg highway



Honda Civic with solo canoe at 70 mph highway 29 mpg (it did not have any issues keeping this speed)

Very true

– Last Updated: Feb-07-06 12:35 PM EST –

If you burn good quality fuel and add a diesel conditioner, most modern diesel cars do not stink, and hardly smoke at all. In fact, they run pretty clean once the engine is warm.

I run 8 oz per tankful of Diesel Kleen in my fuel, and it noticeably improved the smoking on acceleration/deceleration (VW's don't smoke much to begin with).

Given my experience at 52K miles so far, I may never own another gasoline powered car. The large increase in efficiency and longer engine life are just too good to pass up in the long term.

Wayne

No kidding
That’s why I specifically referred to “YOUR diesel”, meaning spray’s diesel truck that gets 20 mpg. My post was not addressed to you, as you can see from the indentation.



Anybody living in this decade knows there are diesels that can get high mpg. But they are not in big trucks.

4 bangers are notorious for blowing
head gaskets and warping heads when they are worked a little harder than intended, or even under normal loads. A V6 has the power capacity needed for hauling light boats, whether on top or behind, and will serve you better and cost less in the long run. The slight mileage difference is inmaterial. Remember that 4 cylinders have to crank at a much higher rpm to attain the power that 6 cylinders will produce at a lower rpm, and that the 4 will use more gas under load, and produces more heat, and causes more wear on engine parts. Good luck, and happy paddling!

Engines and what not
As someone with automotive background and education i have to say mickjetblue is way off. Some 4 cylinder motors live to be 400 km’s old with moderate and occasional hard use if maintained semi-properly. Some V6’s are prone to self destruction without abuse. Boo hoo. it all depends on the actual motor and how it was used and maintained.

My 94’ Firefly with a 50hp 3 cylinder definetely loses a couple MPG on the highway but still gets very decent mileage, and considering how little of the total usage of any vehicle is with the kayak on the roof, the mileage loss is negligible.

The extra drag seems to affect the car’s performance more than gas mileage, go figure-feels like it’s dragging a piano over 60 km/h. Gas mileage went from a typical 450-470 km/tank to about 410 with a kayak on the roof half the time. I believe something like a Toyota Echo would do just fine with a kayak on the roof on the highway.

Thank you for being kind,
as people who disagree with me usually say much worse things about me than being “way off”. And, to think about it, maybe I was generalizing too much. I think my point was more about work loads from start and stop driving, and going up hills, or even mountains. It is much less related to driving on a flat stretch of highway from point a to point b with few stops on the way. I have had to deal with 2 head warpage problems in the past, and did the work on the first myself, except for the head machining. I’ve heard from others about warpage in a head from using the a/c on a long trip with a 4 cylinder engine. Some are better than others, that’s for sure. The newer ones should be better. Happy paddling!

I think they make them sad.
A man who saves money on a small car so he can buy an expensive kayak obviously loves that kayak more than the car, and don’t tell me the car doesn’t notice. Straps “accidentally” start coming loose on the highway, and the kayak is left behind, a mass of splintered fiberglass on the asphalt. Cain and Abel all over again.

i had a motorbike like that once…
the first year i started riding in the states i had the option of buying a 1979 yamaha 600 or a 1980 yamaha 600 full dress.



i went for the naked one and rode it for a year only to find out i needed someplace for my stuff.



the next season (this was in minnesota) i traded it in for the full dress.



i swear that machine hated me for not choosing it first.



they were both purchased from a long time friend of my father’s (they were on the fire department together) so at least i had someone to fix it. on fact, he happened to be stationed at the fire house near where i lived so it wasn’t a long push when it came to that.



finally he got so tired of all piddly stuff he took it back for an “overhaul.” i had by this time mentined on several occasions that i thought the bike was holding a grudge. being a pragmatic, spock-like sort of guy he laughed and said that was ridiculous, it was a machine.



he his thing, kept it for a few weeks and rode it around to make sure everything was set to go, and then called me to come fetch it, which i did with glee.



not more that half a mile from his house the thing quit on me. this was long before i had a mobile phone so all i could do was hope someone came by soon.



well, as luck would have it someone did, and it was him. he stopped and looked at me and all i could do was shrug my shoulders. he looked the bike over and it ended up being one end of the tiny hose that creates the fuel intake vacumn had come off its dohicky. he stuck it back on and it was fine.



“see, it hates me,” i said. at which point he grudgingly conceded that, machine or no machine, i may have a point.


The question should’ve been ;
How does my car affect my kayak !



Well every time I have to tow my piece of junk ford out to the middle of the lake to dump it !



It always seem to slow me down about 2 or 3 knots !

No problem!
I carry my 9.5 ft kayak on top of my Saturn, using Yakima racks with saddle in front, rollers in back. Get 36 mph hwy with kayak, 38 without, leaving the racks on all the time.

My Buick looses about 6 MPG
with the Kayak and about the same with my Grumman on top. Power is not a problem with the 3.8 V-6.



My son is a professional auto tech. If you let me know ahead of time, I can ask him about the make and model for you.



Also, check the Carfax report, it’s worth the money.

don’t agree
I know of some poorly built 4-bangers that your generalization fits. Isuzu Troopers with a 4cyl come to mind.



Then again, my dad’s Comanche pickup with an anemic 2.5L I4 went 298k miles with two teenage drivers and frequently dragging a fiberglass bay boat that weighed as much as the truck.



Yeah, working something harder will make it wear out quicker but dropping a couple of mpg isn’t really working an engine that hard. If you don’t get 200k miles out of a modern 4cyl engine, it was either a P.O.S from the start or it was abused.