Excessve roof cross bar wind noise.

[Offroadnutz]

Installed these the other day and they are drivng my crazy with how much wind noise they have.


Im hoping it subsides when I install by traction boards but im not holdng my breath. Anyone have sucess suppressing wind noise on these type cross bars?

 

[persquank]

I've seen people wrap bungee cords around them to break up the air flow. Just wrap one cord in a spiral down the length of each bar. Another option would be a wind fairing to direct the air over the bars.

 

[Boort]

@Offroadnutz

Had very similar rack on a work van. Fix will depend on the type of noise.

1) wind whooshing pitch increases with speed try:
- adding a low angle wind fairing
- rope or bungie around cross bars. Vary number of wraps see what works best
- lower cross bars closer to roof if possible

2) hollow warbling sound like blowing over a beer\soda bottle... tape over any holes. Like the ones on the towers.

3) vibration
- tighten everything re check after 50 then 150 miles
- lower bars closer to roof if possible
- add weight to dampen

Boort

 

[Offroadnutz]

Thanks I will try what you all mentioned!

 

[Boostpowered]

Look at a Thule rack and copy what they do. The one thing that will help most for the noise is a plastic wind deflector onthe front of the rack. For a quick cheap fix to see if you can kill the noise would be go to Walmart and get a pool noodle cut a slit lengthwise and zip tie it to the front bar it should deflect most of the wind.

 

[MMc]

I wrapped a Poly rope around mine. Helped a lot.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

I dont know how married you are to that rack in particular but I few things come to mind:

1) are you sure it's not the shovel causing all that noise?
2) any holes will make noise
3) try the much- mentioned wind fairing
4) Trac Rac (now owned by Thule). They do pickup racks, van racks, and racks for pickups that have a Leer (or similar) bed cap on them. Very strong and very quiet

 

[Offroadnutz]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Wrapping the bars with bungie cords did the trick and its now nice and quiet!