My wife and her cousin (and four kids) are preparing to leave soon for a 2500-3000 mile trip up and down the east coast. They are planning to take our 2012 highlander hybrid. As much as I love the hihy it doesn't have a lot of cargo space... Especially with 6 people. It already has a hitch, so I'm debating getting a hitch mounted cargo carrier for them, but I'm a bit concerned about how much it will affect their fuel economy. Over 3000 miles it could make a big difference in gas costs. I know a roof mounted carrier can cause a pretty big hit. At one point shortly after we got the hihy we strapped a stroller to the roof and just that caused a good 3 or 4 mpg drop on our short trip. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks
It's a good question. No direst experience, but it will have a much lower impact than anything mounted to the roof. If there is any impact, it will be less on a SUV than on something like a sedan. I think the impact will be small to begin with, but to minimize it, get the carrier that is smaller than the width of the Highlander. Picture a Kammback taper coming off the sides of the SUV, and keep the carrier within that. You can even experiment with mounting panels on it to clean up that rear airflow down the road.
