Roofrack wind deflectors

Dunno.

But they LOOK good, and that's enough reason, ain't it?

Wolfie

If designed correctly, they can improve noise, and air flow, but the most important part is the distance from the vehicle roof, to the bottom of the roof rack, where most of the noise is generated.

V8, I found my basket made quite a lot of noise until I had something in it or exentually sliced a section of 160mm stormwater pipe and hold it on the front with cable ties. Painted black is ok until the stone chips take the paint off and it is a good place to put your EO sticker..

I found the noise seemed to come from the back of the basket when I had stuff in it even, before I put the deflector there.

The big aluminium deflector I put on doesn't seem to have reduced the noise factor, but maybe the 40mm (approx) gap I've left between it and the roof has something to do with it....might try and move it down another little bit...

I don't think anything saves from the fuel hit of a roof rack.
I tried all sorts of shapes and style. While I did manage to kill some of the noise, nothing helped the massive hit on fuel consumption. I would not have another roof rack.

I agree with most posts - have experimented a little and no difference. Bloke at a 4wd shop said the same. However, one of their best functions is to keep bugs/bees/moths from hitting your lugguage on top and splattering their guts all over it. Ever been through a locust plague - you'll be glad you had a wind deflector. Believe it or not, also helps keep lugguage up the front a little drier too in rain at hightway speeds.

D-Jack

p.s. I hear Hiclones are good for fuel consumption!

I have a clear plastic wind deflecter on my RR It came with the RR. Get no noise from the RR so the deflector must work to some extent.

Hi V8Diesel,

I had an ARB rack on my 80 series and always found it very quiet. Then my mate borrowed the rack for his 80 series and complained how noisy it was. Went for a test drive and couldn't believe how noisy it was in his cruiser (rack was in same position). But then we realised I had a sun visor on my cruiser and it must have deflected the air over the rack just right to stop any noise.

When i got my patrol, I transferred the rack across and it was one noisy bugger. Have ended up putting a 160mm black HDPE pipe cut in half across the front (see rig pic below) and it makes all the difference.

I think its a matter of experimentation to get the deflector to flow the air right to stop the noise. Roachie has one big deflector yet sounds like it doesn't perform as well as the small half pipe types. Will be curious to read Roachies results after lowering closer to the roof (I think it actually may be worse, but will read about it soon enough!)

Cheers

Captain

Thanks for all the responses folks, I'll start buggerising around and report back. Looks like pipe gets the nod at this early R&D stage due to low cost and positive feedback.

Big fan of the K.I.S.S. theory myself.

Cheers

Dono