Thule Box

[Benny Profane]

It's not so bad. Most noise comes from tires. Check out a Tesla going by at 40mph. About as loud as a normal car without some stupid exhaust modification. Take it from a roadie. Furgetabout pickup trucks with off road tires, or snow tires in general.

The square Thule bars can act like an instrument reed sometimes. After I had a new base rack installed on my Honda last year, I turned right back to the store and ordered up a fairing/wind deflector, after listening to that rack for a few miles.

[::: :::]

Always wondered why the fairings & people warning of noise...we never had noise issues with square bars on Passat wagon (no sun roof) w/ that Thule cascade coffin + bikes

noise sensitivities?
rationalizing the fairing purchase?
specific car shapes?
I’m most suspicious of sun/moon roofs being the issue

[Benny Profane]

It was pretty loud. My old Subarus never had the problem. Go figure. But I refuse to use the aero bars. Hate the attachments.

[Brownski]

I got my Subaru in July and put the Subaru bars on it (also the cheapie option) and have no complaints with either the bars or the box. The bars with an empty kayak rack make almost no extra noise. The box makes noise but nothing like what I expected. Maybe I have a high tolerance for wind noise? My previous vehicle was an old style Chevy Colorado with square Thule bars on top of a cap.

[BmillsSkier]

Looks badass! What bars are you using? I may need an upgrade from the stock bars

Thule Evo Wingbar

Any wind noise? I had to put a fairing up front to stop that, box or no box.

The rack itself has next to no noise. The Audi has a shitton of insulation, so not sure how much of that I can attribute to the rack. I was honestly very surprised at how little wind noise the box added. I had it up to 90+ for a few bits on my run up to the mountains yesterday and it was only slightly noticeable. The drag is really more the thing you notice under your right foot if anything.

Must feel good knowing you can fit all your friends’ big sticks in your box

Also, this did not go unappreciated

[Mustonen]

I just got a Thule motion xt alpine on the allroad. Bad experiences with taller boxes and garage doors on taller vehicles make me gravitate toward the lower profile.

Disappointed at how noisy it is on the road; not just wind noise, but rattling. I’ve been playing with position fore/aft for the former, was thinking about adding some window gasket tape for the latter. Anybody here tried such a thing? My old Thule spirit was a good bit quieter.

[plugboots]

When I first put the bike rack on the hitch or the box/rack on top of the BMW, I had some whistle sounds, so I put a bit of packing tape in strategic areas and problem fixed. Whistling is not allowed, some additional wind sounds are expected.