People utilize roof boxes for a variety of reasons, such as Carrying bicycles, luggage, and many other things. Roof boxes are a beneficial addition to any vehicle however, if you’ve ever been traveling at high speed and heard an annoying wind noise, it’s probably from your roof box.
In this article, we discuss the reasons that make your roof box makes such a noise, and how you can prevent it by doing simple steps.
In short: stopping your roof box from making wind noise is easy and simple, but the key is to know how the noise is generated in the first place.
Why Do Roof Boxes Make Noise?
Roof boxes are assembled from more than one part. If the joints and bolts aren’t tightened enough they would squeak and raddle during trips and on heavy winds as well.
Sometimes especially if your roof box is old and it was sitting for a while, the bolts and nuts might get rusty, which might lead to the roof box being loose and making much noise on the road. Be careful that loose roof boxes are dangerous for everyone on the road and should be fixed.
Another reason is that your roof box isn’t mounted probably on your roof. The roof cross bars might not be aligned probably which prevents them from sitting flush with your roof, creating gaps that air, water, and dirt can slip into and make noise on the road.
If you have trouble mounting your roof rack probably, you can check our article on How to probably install a roof rack.
On the other hand, you might have mounted your roof box probably and everything is working fine but the roof box still produces so much wind noise. Well in this case it’s probably the design of your cross bars and roof box which lacks aerodynamics and therefore makes wind noises on the road.
When the wind passes over or through items it creates a sound, and the installation of a roof box presents additional objects for the wind to pass through or over therefore more sound, the more aerodynamic your roof box the less the sound will be. This phenomenon is known to be Aeolian.
How To Stop Roof Box Noise
After figuring out how the noise is generated, fixing it is a matter of time only. There are many ways of getting rid of that annoying noise that keeps you from enjoying a lovely trip with family and friends
Don’t Use Your Roof Box
Obviously, if there is no roof box on your vehicle there is no noise. We recommend actually using roof boxes only when needed as keeping the roof box mounted all the time on your vehicle can have a negative effect on your fuel economy as well as being a target for thieves.
Check The Condition Of Your Roof Box
As we mentioned earlier, a loose roof box can not only make noise, it can be dangerous. Make sure to always double-check the roof box and roof rack bolts and mounts and if they are mounted probably before heading to your destination.
Mount A Wind Deflector For Your Roof Rack
Their function is self-explanatory as they divert wind away from the roof rack, thereby eliminating the whistling wind noise.
Roof rack wind deflectors are all over the market with many brands, like the YAKIMA – WindShield Fairing for Roof Racks for example. We always recommend before buying checking the measurements of your vehicle, so you can choose the correct wind deflector.
Don’t want to buy it? What about a DIY solution? roof racks wind deflectors are easy to make check the next video explaining a DIY wind deflector.
Use Padding On The Roof Rack Cross Bars
An inexpensive solution for all the noise is to buy padding and cover your cross bars. Cross bars padding interrupts airflow since they round the shape of the cross bars, and the soft rubber material has a greater drag coefficient. Given that they roughly cost around $30 for them, they provide a quick and straightforward solution.
Get More Aerodynamic Roof Rack Cross bars
There are mainly two different types of roof rack cross bars, load bars, and edge bars. Usually, load cross bars can withstand more weight but they are squared shaped hence more wind noise.
On the other hand, edge bars are typically round or oval in shape and are significantly more aerodynamic than load bars. The main disadvantage of using edge bars is that your roof rack may not be able to hold as much weight.
So if you could sacrifice some weight capacity, you can always buy a more aerodynamic roof rack cross bars. Check our List of the best roof rack cross bars.
Change The Roof Box It Self
Sometimes, the roof cargo box itself is squared in shape and produces a lot of resistance to the wind, therefore, making a lot of noise as well. But as the same as the roof rack cross bars, getting a more aerodynamic roof box would result in lower storage and weight capacity.
If you consider changing your roof box for an aerodynamic more modern style you can check our list of the Best Thule Roof Boxes.
Drive Slower
A more unpopular solution we can offer is to drive slower. Driving at a lower speed leads to a lower wind speed crossing your roof box hence a lower wind noise. Even a 10 mph reduction in speed might have a significant impact on the wind noise.
Safety first remember, we recommend driving at comfort speed, especially when having a roof box mounted on top, and also when driving on unfamiliar roads.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier a wind noise from your roof box can be generated in multiple ways, thus the solution would vary depending on that.
But usually, the most annoying noises mainly come from loose or rusted bolts, so check your roof box as we recommended before going on a buying streak.
Otherwise, if you have an open budget, you can consider buying an aerodynamic roof rack cross bars. As they offer a lot of features other than just reducing wind noise.
Finally, We hope that our small article is simple, useful, and enjoyable. If so feel free to support us by sharing as it motivates us to produce more content.
