Roof Racks & Wind Noise (oh joy!!)

[98 SNAKE EATER]

OK, I had a full length roof rack design all planned out for the the past few weeks (long before I actually got my rig)


Here's a professional paint rendering

From the top:

Now, I got started on the base and mounted it up over the weekend for a test spin and it's solid enough to jump up and down on, but damn the wind noise is a killer

It's weird cause I never had an issue with wind noise on the full rack I had on my Previa

Thing is, this time around I used square tubing for crossbars and with the Previa's rack it was all notched round tube, so I'm wondering if the square tubing would really make such a big difference in noise

 

[Driley]

Does the Previa have a sunroof? I notice quite a bit of wind noise if I slide the panel open but leave the glass closed with my Thule rack and Yakima box.

Riley

P.S. Nice little chopper (is that a solid rear tire?). Is that a Pontiac Firebird under the cover?

 

[photogod]

Sunroof and a bit of sound abaitment in the Previa.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Does the Previa have a sunroof?

No sunroof, but even with the windows down, it didn't make any noise at all


Sept when i blew the horns

P.S. Nice little chopper (is that a solid rear tire?). Is that a Pontiac Firebird under the cover?

Yes and yes

 

[alia176]

Couple of ideas....

Your previa has a mesh design and the basket is full. Wind isn't allowed to go up/down through the floor.

Your 80 Rack has open floor. The wind is going over & under the floor of your rack. Two things to make an open rack quieter:
- have a wind fairing. But that's not enough as the wind will be trapped between the rack and the roof top.
-have a solid rack floor. This usually cures the wind buffeting sound that you're hearing now.

Experiment with a sheet of plywood on the floor of your rack and you'll see the difference.

For one of my previous home built rack, I used a frosted color Lexan as the floor of the rack. It was 1/4" thick and handled the U.V and normal abuse quite well. The frosted (like a shower door) allowed some sun light to come through.

Your roof lights will also add to the noise factor. While they look cool, you may notice increased wind noise and loss in MPG. I'd make a tilt down design so that the lights lay down when not needed. Just my opinion.

Cheers.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Get the rack as close as possible to the roof, that will help a lot.

My old ARB rack was really noisy, then I adjusted it tight to the roof, and it got a lot quieter.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Well, the 3 rear crossbars are all touching the rubber rail thingies on the roof, so it won't go any lower.....


The front crossbar is higher cause of the front drop (and lack of rubber rail thingies)


Actually, I just made a ghettofied fairing by adding an old bugshield to the front crossbar using zipties and it seems to have reduced the wind noise quite a bit


I'll work on some more fixes and tack weld a few joints before completing the rest of the rack....






rick

 

[MJADDICTION]

Try a faring, they make a big Dif.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Been busy lately, but managed to get a little more work done on the rack today

I think I'll go pass out now (galvanized conduit IS THE DEVIL!!!)

 

[450 DUDE]

I wonder If one of those Yakima Fairings would help?

I thought about doing this many times.




And yes galv is the devil.
ken

 

[SOCALFJ]

Believe it or not your rack will be louder with nothing on it. The wind will want to blow through it instead of over it. My rack is loud as hell with it empty. It's much more quieter with it loaded... Get some crap on it and then see how it is.

 

[FJason80]

Whats with the Audi symbol on the Previa. I used to have one of those, then the sliding door fell off.

 

[FloridaFJ80]

Like what your doing with your rig.. looks very nice.. whenever your in orlando drop me a line...

frank

 

[ded6080]

Did you use a conduit bender to bend the conduit and what dia is it?
Thanks

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Whats with the Audi symbol on the Previa. I used to have one of those, then the sliding door fell off.

It throws off the meter maids that write him parking tickets all the time. They write Audi on the ticket, which is obviously incorrect, which gets the ticket thrown out. Pretty smart if you ask me. Too bad TOYOTA is written across my grill you'd have to be blind to miss it.

 

[concretejungle]

i don't think you can do much about it other than live with the noise. My 3/4 ARB rack is loud. Super loud if you open the sunroof. So i just take it off for the most part. I'll put it back up if i'm taking a long camping trip and need the storage space.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Did you use a conduit bender to bend the conduit and what dia is it?
Thanks

Nope, just regular 90* elbows (my pipe bender sucks for tight bends)


It's all 1" conduit that was leftover in my shop...

I just bought a few threaded joints, threaded them in tight (a few ends had to be heat expanded to fit), laid them flat on the chassis rack and just welded them together

i don't think you can do much about it other than live with the noise. My 3/4 ARB rack is loud. Super loud if you open the sunroof. So i just take it off for the most part. I'll put it back up if i'm taking a long camping trip and need the storage space.

I have an idea I'm gunna try out once it's up there

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Today's update

About to throw the first coat of paint on it

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Fresh paint

And these will be bolted on tomorrow

 

[450 DUDE]

Hey I was wondering are you gonna stick any lights on that thing?
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OH I guess you got that covered. Cool

ken