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SoTxVx
01/19/2003, 05:49 PM
I'm stoked after picking up my '99 VX this weekend in Mobile AL. Clean, tight and just 20K miles. After 800+ miles over the last two days a have just two complaints. Concrete freeways with expansion joints that aren't flush and noisy roof racks. I stopped to take a look at the racks early on and found nothing loose except a couple of the flaps covering the clamp screws. Made sure the flaps were in place but the racks still howled. I had to crank the music for the 430 miles to Houston. ;eekr;

I removed the racks overnight in Houston and was blessed with a quiet ride home today but still had the expansion joints to deal with.

Anyone else had problems with wind noise from the racks at speeds over 55? Anybody fixed it already?

Thanks,

John

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/28999_vx-med.jpg

Moncha
01/19/2003, 07:11 PM
The noise comes from the shape of the wings on the rack. Nothing to do but either take them off or get a spoiler.

Ron, Newthings, myself and a few others have developed our own "spoiler" for the rack. Newthings and I have a Yakima Load Warrior but the concept is the same. The Load warrior comes with it's own spoiler but, I didn't care for the small size.

Ron's site (http://vehicrossconcepts.homestead.com/VXConcepts.html)

Newthings' custom spoiler
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/515/44wing3-med.jpg

My custom spoiler compared to original Yak
http://www.moncha.com/images/Modlinks/Loadwarrior/lwspoiler.jpg


See the whole thing (http://www.moncha.com/images/Modlinks/Loadwarrior/loadwarrior.html)

webdog
01/20/2003, 08:46 PM
John:

I had the same problem. Mounting a Thule #555 fairing on the front of the front roof rack took me from a howl to no noise at all. I had to use 3 Yakima Mighty Mount Wing horizontal clamps part # 3601 and some longer bolts to do the job. I found them at Mountain Gear, but understand that Isuzu bought most up and raised the price from $6 to $28. It took some creative bending of the Thule bars that came with the fairing. I bent them with my hands to a very low angle.

Navigator
01/21/2003, 06:28 AM
Thule PlayPen basket comes with a faring. Wind noise is a thing of the past with one of those on your VX. Also Dynamat the interior... and your road noise problems will go away.