The PRINSU How To Thread

As the windscreen comes down, it also moves forward with the slope of the rack. So that means I end up maintaining about the same gap, trust me I tried it. If the deflector was coming straight down instead of forward at the same time, then the gap would close up no problem.

 

Mine is an 07. I will try moving the deflector down to the next set of holes again to see how close it gets to the roof, but I know it will not fully close the gap. I can move it down, then put a slight bend in it as well if needed to get it to seal against the roof.
Also at certain speeds on the highway, the cross bars will start to vibrate a lot. It creates a loud roaring noise that is quite annoying. Is there a way to cut down on that? I know it makes a difference if the cross bars are not square with the side rails, I adjusted everything to make sure it is as flat and square as possible. Currently I do not have anything mounted on the rack. Does it help cut down on vibration if something is attached across the rails? Also do you recommend using the little T-track rubber trim fillers for the tracks that are not being used? Seems like that would help cut down on noise and vibration as well.

 

I had that humming/vibration noise previously. It was definitely coming from the wind deflector which I'm guessing yours is too. Since it's not touching the cab and it's thin, it'll catch the wind and start vibrating. When it starts, stick your hand out the window and push down on the wind deflector and I bet it'll stop. Once you solve the issue with the gap it should solve that noise as well.

Your edge trim looks different than mine, I'm not sure if yours is thinner, maybe that's a contributing factor?

Have you tried loosening the rack and pushing it back as far as it can go?

 

Weird. Mine makes quite a bit of noise right now but I haven't put my rubber trim on and I believe my light bar is sitting too high but can't say any of my cross bars are making noise. I agree with @winguyen above, try solving the wind deflector first and then see if that solves the issue. Even though moving the defector down to the lowest setting won't remove all gap it will make the gap smaller which will then allow the trim to fill that up.

 

Well now I feel like an asshole because I just went out and moved the deflector down to the next (lowest) set of holes. It pretty much closed the entire gap against the roof. I swear I tried this in the beginning with no luck. But in my defense, I did loosen the entire rack and slide it back as far as it would go a couple months back after the first installation. I did that in hopes of helping close up the gap. But at that time I also forgot to try moving the deflector down to the lowest setting as well. Apparently doing both of those things solved the problem. I will be test driving it later today and hopefully a lot of the vibration is gone!

 

Nice. Keep updated on how much noise this reduces...

 

Will do!

 

@zscott - you should have 2 emails and 1 PM from me from this week with some questions. Hoping you can take a couple mins to have a look and respond.

 

I got your emails just haven't had a moment to respond yet. I am getting there.

 

Just got your response to my questions, thanks Zach!

 

Can't speak for the '07, but in my '17 these are the things I did that have cut down on most wind noise unless I'm going 70 on the highway.

-Deflector to lowest position
-Use the rubber trim on the bottom
-Front crossbar moved back a few inches so the wind can truly deflect over it vs. hit it and cause vibrations and resistance
-Cover up exposed holes (in the front) with hardware or electrical tape (caused whistling which I've mostly taken care of with this thanks to another TW member)
-T-slot covers. Buy a bunch - I originally bought a few for the front, but then decided to order more and every exposed slot I cover up seems to improve the vibration and noise a bit more, so I'm now placing my 3rd order for a few more of these to cover any area I don't have something mounted to.
-What I overlooked initially was not covering up the t-slots on the bar that holds the deflector. A lot of wind comes in through the sides of the deflector even when it is flush with the roof and this seemed to be a big culprit that was particularly annoying when in the driver's seat. When I covered up all 3 sides of the bar, there was a noticeable difference.
-Make sure that the deflector and it's bar are perfectly flush, during final install mine shifted about a millimeter or 2 but was enough to create a little bit of binding in the front of the rack which was at least a small part of my initial noise.

Still more tweaks to do to help with the higher-speed noise, but if you have some patience and take a trial and error approach you can get it to quiet down a lot.

 

Woah. That's some serious work in the sake of noise reduction!

 

Yeah, I've probably spent 12 hours tinkering with this rack, but I'm getting there. Considered a competitors product for a bit, because I've really spent that much on hardware, t-slots, and my time BUT, no rack looks as tough and custom-made for our Tacos (imo) than the Prinsu and it's not as heavy as FR which I think is a plus. folks on here (including Zach) have been helpful in providing some good tips. So, if you get your rack after your long waits and get pissed at the noise like I did - take a deep breath, tinker with it a bit, and I believe you'll get it down. Now, unless it's high wind I can barely tell it's up there until I get on the interstate. Then I still get quite a bit of roar from the air flowing underneath the deflector. @LEXICON moved his first bar DOWN flush with the deflector and saw some improvements as well. I could see that being a help in that it would actually restrict airflow underneath the other bars. That's the next tweak I'll be trying!

 

I'm half way deaf from years of construction, so with that and turning up the radio a bit I don't hear much wind noise.

 

What kind of hardware do I need to mount a Prinsu rack on Thule rails?

 

Pretty great. It's strong and sturdy enough that short and medium length (up to 8') centres well and lashes down firm with ratchet straps.
I have a Softopper so I can't use that for the longer material, so I got this:

$95 SEEK Steel Load Extender, Vertical or Horizontal Truck Bed Roof Rack E-Z Hitch Mount Cargo Extension 2" Hitch Receiver, Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HDL2DX6/ref=ya_st_dp_summary

 

Damn i was picturing the prinsu rack on shell but looks like you got best of both worlds goin on. Nice setup! thanks for response

 

What's the verdict?

 

can someone drop me the link to install the rack while keeping those weather strips

 

http://media.wix.com/ugd/e5eb7b_9f8901546217405eb3d3cba3abbcfb31.pdf