Rola Rack humming finally SILENCED

[alpinhi]

I have been running a Rola rack for about a year now and the humming coming from the wind deflector was brutal at highway speeds. I didn't want to remove the deflector becasue I was told the it would increase wind noise and decrease MPGs somewhat.
I stopped by Wal-Mart the other day and grabbed a 27" extra thick bicycle tube. I pulled off the defelctor and cut the tube to length. I cut down the middle of the tube so I could wrap it around the the top bar and bottom bar. I had to put a few drops of super glue on the tube to hold it in place around the bar. The tube is circular and was constantly falling off while trying to put the deflector back on. Once the tube was wrapped and spot glued around the upper and lower bars I cut out a small square section of the tube around the mounting holes. I reinstalled the deflector and viola, the noise has been decreased by 99% on the highway after a 12 mile test run. Ill continue to run it and report back if this ends up being a failure. :whoo:

 

[AuSeeker]

Photos are worth a thousand words, please!

Hard to understand exactly what you did from your explantion.

 

[alpinhi]

Photos are worth a thousand words, please!

Hard to understand exactly what you did from your explantion.

I figured, Ill take some photos and post it up. In a nut shell I wrapped the bars on the rack with a bicycle tube. This just creates a rubber isolater between the plastic defector and the rack.

 

[alpinhi]

Heres a few photos after I completed the job. I hope this helps my incoherent babbling.:noidea:
The plastic deflector vibrates against the metal bars its attched to on the rack. This is where the go awful humming is coming from. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=236634&stc=1&d=1485731736

I pulled the deflector off and simply wrapped the bars on the rack with a bicycle tube. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=236638&stc=1&d=1485731736

This is looking down on the rack after the tube has been attached. I cut the tire tube down the middle to open it up and wrapped it around the bars on the rack. The tube did not want to stay on the bars when I was putting the deflector back on so I used a touch of super to hold them in place when I installed the deflector.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=236636&stc=1&d=1485731736
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=236637&stc=1&d=1485731736

This is looking at it with the deflector back in place. The tube really isn't very noticeable at all. I may trim off some that excess hanging down.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=236635&stc=1&d=1485731736

I hope the photos help me explain this better. I read posts where people removing the deflector or trying fit a Yakima deflector on the rack to get rid of the humming. This seems to be a fairly easy and cheap way to do it. Hope it helps!
Travis

 

[alpinhi]

This is why I don't do photos very much. These are not in order but I hope it helps.

 

[Jackkill1]

This is why I don't do photos very much. These are not in order but I hope it helps.

It's very helpful. Thanks.

 

[WRENCHHEAD]

i wonder if rubber o-rings would work sandwiched between the deflector and rail

 

[Cement2017]

Remove it

i wonder if rubber o-rings would work sandwiched between the deflector and rail

As I did and problem vanishes

 

[kevinpt]

what about some vhb tape?

 

[pogi_T4R]

Did this today. Got rid of the awful noise


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[turner850]

I had to register just to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! I made custom brackets to mount the rack flush to the rails, and the vibrations from the air foil was shaking the whole car 100% undriveable.

Stopped at Walmart and installed Tire Tubes, ALL THE NOISE IS GONE! Drove 65,75, nothing but a small normal wind noise. All the terrible vibrations are gone.

 

[SilverBullet01]

I thought I was going crazy. No one else seemed to be in the 4runner when it made the noise. Pulling out a spare bike tube and doing this when the sun goes down!