Tip time, does your vehicle have roof rack or rails and gets noisy in use?

Bill Masen - March 7, 2021

As per the header, many of us install lateral roof bars or roof racks on their vehicles for extra load carrying capacity, But many people suddenly find out that they create a booming resonating noise inside the vehicle when its moving. This often is so loud that people remove the rails or racks pretty quickly.

But you do not need to, the noise is caused by the passing air causing harmonics that radiate through the rails / rack into the vehicle.

This can easily be resolved with either a length of good nylon cord or as I prefer elasticated cord about 4 to 6 mm thick.

All you do is wrap it in an open spiral ( like a coil spring) along the from most cross rail / bar, this in turn disrupts the airflow and stops the booming noise. without affecting fuel economy or load carrying capacity.

My bars shown below.

2  

Bill – Many thanks for this tip – My husband had seen roof racks wrapped this way but didn’t know why. We don’t have a rack yet (can install three due to length of van), but we will definitely remember this tip. Thank you again.

 

I’ve been thinking about getting a rack on the top of my SUV so that I can add a bunch more storage space in case we ever had to bug out. I didn’t know that this was an issue, but now I know what to do if I experience it. Thank you for sharing the tip Bill!