IMHO a full height wind fairing is often unnecessary (but not always since they do have their applications). Don’t shoot me!
It’s just my take on this and hence this thread to find out what people have on their roofs and their experience with their wind fairing. My Whitson full rack is going to be delivered soon and I’m thinking a shorter fairing that hugs the roof and just goes past the lower front bar should suffice. The question is the angle, distance from the rack, and height. The fairing will be curved to match the top of the windshield/roof line so it will be pushed out more in the middle which should also push some air to the sides.
Ok, so just imagine splashing water from a hose on a flat surface like a plate. At low water pressure, the water will just flow and drip over the edges of the plate. As you increase the water pressure the water starts to stream away from the edge of the plate before dropping off. I’m thinking this should be the same case with a wind deflector, as your speed increases the wind will be pushed way past the top of the wind fairing that it does not have to be the same height as the roof rack. Hopefully at highway speeds 65mph the shorter wind fairing at the proper angle and distance from the rack will push the air high enough that it clears the top of the rack and over to the back.
If you have something tall (12” +) on your roof rack all/most of the time. Then a full fairing might be ideal but most of the time that roof rack will be empty and the objective is to eliminate wind noise and reduce drag while the rack is empty and get decent performance when the rack is loaded.
Remember the bigger the wind fairing the more drag it creates on its own.
Plus you can always run roof lights and the short fairing will block reflections off your hood.
Maybe even have 2 fairings? One for daily use when the rack is empty and one for full loads. I’m going to have to install the sunroof insert for camping trips so what’s a few more screws to replace the wind fairing.
The challenge here (apart from finding the right setup) is that the roof rack sits so close to the roof that you might not have enough height between the roof and just above the lower front bar to put a decent fairing.
Please let me know what you think, what you have, and did you try other setups before settling with what you have. Any aerodynamicists out there?
Sorry no pics mounted on my rig as I don’t have the rack yet, but there’s a ton of pics on this thread.
Roof Rack Special for August
Thx!
Arv