Roof Rack Wind Noise Help !

[San Moritz LR4]

Issue: Roof rack is making wind noise when traveling at moderate rates of speed.

Cause: As the air flows through and around the rood rack, it creates a harmonic resonance that you hear as noise.

Solution: Disrupt the flow of air. This can be done by wrapping your crossbars with something like paracord. Wrapping each crossbar in a spiral fashion an approximate 2" to 3" gap between each wrap. Your fairing may still need to be modified to close the gap between the fairing and the roofline. Lastly, your recovery boards are likely making a lot of noise. Rotate the recovery boards 90 degrees. The recovery boards need to be facing lengthwise and NOT crosswise.

When making the mod, remove the recovery boards completely. Then add them back after wrapping the paracord around the roof rack crossbars.

YouTube has a lots of videos on the subject. Hopefully you will find a solution. Good Luck.

 

[mm3846]

My bare crossbars make more noise than when I have a RTT and awning mounted.

 

[bbednar]

Check out Colorado Fairing Company, they have fairing options to eliminate the wind noise while driving.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

I was asked about wind noise on my recently installed Baja standard full-sized rack. At 50 mph and under, there is absolutely no noise that I can tell. When I listen closely at speeds above 50 mph and at freeway speeds, I can hear a faint "white noise" sound. As I mentioned elsewhere, the sound of the tires over the road and engine noise is probably a bit louder than any noise coming from the roof rack.

That said, I may just have been lucky. When I was researching roof racks I talked to a dealer in Colorado that does a lot of them and he said that you can have the same roof rack on the same make/model/year vehicle for two different rigs and one will be silent and the other will be noisy. That kind of blew my mind.