Because We're Not North Enough To Be NOVA, We're Just Stuck Between the North and the True South

Nice man...they have a stamp right? Looks like a clean install! I currently got my girl's Xterra lights color matched and am putting them back together...need to install them without lenses on her ride first before I seal though so that my cutoff is straight.

Did you use morimoto's HIDs for yours?

 

Its sad how accurate that statement is...down in the Hampton roads area they mostly camp all the speed trap areas. Only good thing about being down south is they weren't always as picky with off-road/aftermarket products like they are up here.

 

I have heard dealers especially are being heavily monitored now for inspections which it sounds they recently updated their enforcing criteria. I would not be surprised if a dealer failed someone now as I think they are being told that it has to be identified as "dot" by stamp. Whether the establishment follows that...who knows. I got a place I go to to get mine inspected up here in Alexandria.

 

Well crap!! How the hell did I miss that??

 

Sleeping on the job?

You didn't miss much though. I showed up 10-15 min before it started, went in and ate, and came out 15-20 after it was supposed to start. There was one truck that had showed in that time. One more pulled in as I was leaving.

 

Still sounds better than back-to-school shopping, or whatever the crap I did Saturday.

 

OK.

So I took the Tonka out on the Interstate this evening; it's first high-speed drive since adding that Cali Raised light bar. I had noticed the past few days that when driving 30-40mph the bar created some wind noise which was tolerable. But tonight on I-95, I heard one HELL of a vibration coming from the roof. I checked everything when I got to my destination and everything is tight but on the return trip, I still heard the vibration.

I'm pretty sure the vibe is not coming from my Prinsu rack; I'd had it up to Interstate speeds previously with no problem. So I don't know if the vibration is coming from the bar itself or if the air currents over the combination bar and rack are causing something.

It's really loud, really obnoxious and not something I want to listen to on a 9-hour drive next weekend.

Any thoughts?

 

The first thing I would try is removing the fairing on the front of the Prinsu.

 

Maybe remove the light bar, drive and see if you hear the vibration, then go from there.

 

He didn't have the noise before the light bar, so it has to be the light bar causing it. It's a matter of finding what it's interacting with to cause the noise.

 

Yeah, the fairing was what I was going to look at tomorrow. Removing the light bar is not that easy. Since, per their stupid instructions, I had to cut and splice the wiring, I can't just simply remove it without cutting wires.

But I have a hunch on where it might be coming from. Stay tuned.

 

Down here in Chesapeake. Cannot believe I never stumbled into this thread. Somewhat local so I will start following. In my defense I have only been on TW 5.5 years. Thats a double duh.

 

Alright, I figured out the source of that Gawd-Awful vibration when driving at high speeds.

Thanks to @buyobuyo for suggesting I look at the fairing, but the fairing was not the problem per se. It was something I did to try to make things "better" and you know how that always winds up biting you in the ass.

Now, If you are familiar with the Prinsu, you know that the fairing mounts to a crossbar bolted diagonally between the side rails at the forward end of the rack. At the rearward end of the rack you are give two crossbars to choose from: a 1x1" crossbar and a 1x2" crossbar. The 1x2" is used if you do not have a Shark Fin antenna; the 1x1" is used if you do have a Shark Fin so the two won't interfere with each other. Since I do have the Shark Fin antenna I installed the 1x1.

This left me with an extra 1x2. Since the mounting holes on the forward end of the rack were already there, I decided What the Heck, I'll just install this extra 1x2 underneath the fairing; ostensibly to give it a little extra reinforcement.

Here the Red Arrows indicate the fairing-mount crossbar and bolts, while the Blue Arrows indicate the extra crossbar I added.


But the extra (Blue Arrow) crossbar wasn't actually connected to the fairing; only to the side rails. This made for about a 1/32" gap between that bar and the fairing which ultimately turned out to be the source of the bad vibes.

I removed the extra crossbar and took the truck for a spin down I-95. Surprise, Surprise; no hellacious vibration but the wind noise from the light bar was a bit worse.

Not to concede defeat just yet, installed some 3M Automotive grade double-sided trim tape to the crossbar and re-installed it with the sticky side towards the fairing. This, I theorized would provide a cushion between the extra crossbar and the fairing.



Swing and a miss.

I took a second high-speed drive down 95. The vibration returned, albeit not as bad as before but still loud enough to be obnoxious. So once again I removed the extra crossbar.

And that's where we are.

 

What if you reverse them? Put the fairing lower where the extra cross bar was?

 

The fairing would touch the roof. It only has about a 1/4" clearance as it is.

 

What happens if you remove the extra bar and the fairing?

 

As of now, I have removed the extra bar, and the fairing is still in place at its original mounting spot. No vibration. I'm happy.

 

I feel your pain man, before I even put my 50 inch light bar back on I had the prinsu installed with the fairing. That shit was angry at 45+ mph.

I later hacked up my old light bar mounts to bolt onto the front of the prinsu which created a thin cavity between the light bar that sat just in front of the fairing. It created some serious howling and vibs and so I removed my fairing. Now it feels like I just have a light bar on it again. Which to be honest, I think the fairing is very hit or miss and isn't really needed as many vehicles have just the two cross bars that work quite silently. I wish you luck in your continued experimentation, but if you do find a solution to this, that would be cool too.

 

Thanks. But now I have a bigger problem.

My doors seem to leak where the light bar brackets are attached to the insides of the door frames along the A-Pillar. Like the door gasket doesn't seal tightly against it.

I am really starting to hate this light bar.