Would Adding a Fairing to a Roof Rack with Roof Basket that has Integrated Fairing Help or Harm?

Question:

I have a fairing from car roof to rack. But then I added a cargo basket with its own fairing. Double fairing. Good? Bad? Its super loud

asked by: Greg W

Expert Reply:

Adding a cargo basket to your roof rack will absolutely add wind noise. The fairing on the cargo basket like seen on the Thule Canyon XT Roof Cargo Basket - Steel - 49" x 40" x 6" - 150 lbs # TH859XT will help some to reduce the wind noise at the point the air hits that fairing to deflect it over your cargo. Since you have a fairing already available, I would absolutely test it out.

The positive is it will move the air under the rails to deflect over the rails which could reduce the wind noise when the cargo basket is unloaded. The possible down side is that fairing could deflect the wind directly into the cargo in your basket when it is loaded which could be counter intuitive.

Since you already have the fairing, I suggest doing some testing to see which you prefer. We have not tested a double fairing option, but each fairing angle and product could change the impact making it a good choice for some options and a bad choice for others.

expert reply by: Jason S