Has anyone noticed a difference in road noise when putting a fairing on the roofrack of your cap?

Well... I guess the title states it all!

I picked up a 2014 Tacoma TRD Sport that came with an ARE cap with Yakima rack tracks on both the cab and cap along with two racks and a spare set of landing pads on the cab. I imagine that this will be nice when putting a canoe on the roof.


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I am picking up my new fishing kayak at a show today, 15% off of all boats and accessories including yakima. This would be a good time to pick up a fairing if it will make a difference.Did anyone notice a quieter ride with a fairing on the cap? Because I will be occasionally putting boats on the roof, I imagine a fairing might complicate the process of moving the bar to the front position.

Here is a test fit with 13.5" Perception Carolina in the back of my bed with a Harbor Freight Goal Post thingey...


While stable, i am not so sure this is the best idea for longer trips, so this boat will need to go on the roof. My new boat is a Feel Free Lure 11.5, and should fit better in the bed.

 

I don't have a Yakima set on my truck yet, but I can tell you from having many cars with Yakima racks that the fairing does stop the wind howl you get without it. If I were you, I'd leave the bars where they are on the cap and buy a third bar for the cab. You might have to contact Yakima to order one bar and one set of landing pads (they do sell them that way, just most stores only buy pairs of bars and 4 towers - REI sells singles sometimes). Or buy something off Craigslist.

On a side note, I can't believe the previous owner went through the trouble of drilling through the roof of the cab to have the tracks installed. Yikes. Watch out for leaks. So many other ways to get bars on the cab without going that far.

 

I have had a fairing on my old wrx wagon... I removed it to clean surfboard wax off of it. I couldn't believe how loud it was. I searched through page after page of the "show me your cap thread" and didn't see many fairings so I was wondering if they were worth it on these caps.

I might just leave the track in the front position instead of moving it when necessary. It looks like they did a good install on the roof of the cab. There is no evidence of water marks on the headliner. I imagine removing the headliner is the only easy to really check the work

 

There's 2 ways to install those tracks: one for truck caps where you can get access to the underside and one for vehicle roofs where you can't. My guess is they went with the 2nd. They drill holes and use an expanding insert. You should be able to unscrew the tracks and see if they put silicone on the holes. Or at least re-apply some more.

There are other ways to reduce the wind noise without a fairing. They make a wing-like piece that wraps around the bar to break up the wind. You could make something similar yourself. Or just wrap a rope around the bar (so it looks like screw threads from one end to the other). You basically just need to keep the wind from spreading smoothly over the bar and then colliding together on the backside. The rope trick is pretty simple and easy.

 

Dont have a cap on my truck, but have had Thule racks, on my past 3 vehicles. The fairing definitely made a difference in the level of noise while driving.
Also it can be a great place to put stickers.....

 

Yup... They do look cool

 

Well, I decided to get a fairing. We will see if it reduces noise.

 

Little late to this thread but yes, I have a fairing on my Yakima and no, it doesn't really seem to make any difference in noise. I ran my rack without the fairing from 2006 until the first of last year when I found a fairing on sale for half off. Mounted it up and nope, can't really tell any difference, I guess because it's behind the cab. If you had a bar on the cab and put it there you'd probably notice a difference since it looks like you have a non-aggresive tire; a louder tire and I'm not sure you'd notice. The fairings look cool though so I leave mine on.

 

Yah... it didn't really make a difference. I will probably move the rack to the front position pretty soon, we will see if it makes a difference. I think that if my bars are completely spread, then even if the front one doesn't whistle, I imagine the rear one will.

 

When it's just the rack it makes a little noise and maybe a fairing would change that but once I have boats tied down up there the fairing and bars don't matter as much.

 

I haven't seen an airflow picture over the Tacoma but I suspect that the air is pretty broken up as it comes over the cab so it's not as big a deal as when it's up front or on a more aerodynamic vehicle. That and the truck is loud to start with, especially so if you have more aggresive tires. Pull the interior panels and headliner and there is basically no noise dampening.