Roof Rack Noises

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Since I put my tire in my cargo basket (on my roof) I have had a lot of loud banging noises every time I go over even the smallest bump in the road. Sometimes it is so loud it sounds like the tire is just loose in the basket bouncing around. I have checked the cargo basket mounts to ensure they are super tight and I have tightened the tire down securely. I have also checked the roof rack cross bars to ensure they are tight as well.

My main concern is that the roof rack rails (that run with the length of the vehicle) are loose and need to be tightened. The only problem with that is I would need to remove the end-caps, which will most definitely result in breakage.

I may just resort to removing the tire completely and just hope that I can get a tow whenever I get a flat.

Does anybody else with a roof-mounted spare tire (Empty V, alexf20c, etc.) get loud noises when going over bumps? Do you guys experience any such noises at all?

[Empty V]

Since I put my tire in my cargo basket (on my roof) I have had a lot of loud banging noises every time I go over even the smallest bump in the road. Sometimes it is so loud it sounds like the tire is just loose in the basket bouncing around. I have checked the cargo basket mounts to ensure they are super tight and I have tightened the tire down securely. I have also checked the roof rack cross bars to ensure they are tight as well.

My main concern is that the roof rack rails (that run with the length of the vehicle) are loose and need to be tightened. The only problem with that is I would need to remove the end-caps, which will most definitely result in breakage.

I may just resort to removing the tire completely and just hope that I can get a tow whenever I get a flat.

Does anybody else with a roof-mounted spare tire (Empty V, alexf20c, etc.) get loud noises when going over bumps? Do you guys experience any such noises at all?

At first I got some creaking which was from the weight of the tire on the horizontal crossbars but that was it. I was planning on creating a support for the tire but totally forgot about it until now. I've got to say I'm somewhat surprised at how the crossbar sagged when considering it's rated for up to a 35" tire.

I thought you were securing it with truck straps? How are you doing it now, are you using an actual mount? Do you have pics?

Billy

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Well I was using ratchet straps, but after a couple of weeks I caved in a bought the Yakima tire mount. I don't have any pics of the actual mount on the vehicle (except for the side-shots in my older post), but below is Yakimas stock pics of it. I actually just took the tire out out the basket like five minutes ago and pulled all of the hardware off the basket. I'll have to drive around and see if the noises persist. All of the hardware and the factory crossbars and everything were still super tight, I just don't know why it's making this damn noise.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

UPDATE: So I've been driving around a little without the spare in the cargo basket and all of the noises are gone. Now when I go over bumps the interior is completely silent. I think the problem is that the factory crossbars (on the SE roof rack) are really wobbly with that much weight on them, the plastic ends on the crossbars which allow them to slide in the rails seem pretty weak and I think that's where the noise was coming from.

[alexf20c]

Pwnin, post some pics of our setup so we can get a better idea of what's going on.

i have my tire on the roof, but it's strapped directly to the Rola roof basket, which itself is bolted directly to the roof.

this is how i had it originally: http://i665.photobucket.com/al...1.jpg

now i have it setup this way:



they're electrical conduit clamps from Lowe's for $0.54/ea, and i used 8 of them. it's pretty damn sturdy, and it makes absolutely no noise at all.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Ok, I took some quick pictures of the cargo basket and its mounting hardware. I laid the metal plate for the spare tire mount on the basket to show where it is mounted in relation to the basket. The metal plate is mounted under the cargo baskets bars and held to the basket with some metal/rubber clamps.

You can see the plastic crossbar end caps which hold it to the upper rails.

[Empty V]

I would do as Alex suggest and mount directly to the front-back channels. That's how mine is setup and Surco doesn't even make a solution for mounting to existing crossbars. Take the plastic out of the equation and you've strengthened your rig.

Billy

[Pwnin O'Brien]

I would do as Alex suggest and mount directly to the front-back channels. That's how mine is setup and Surco doesn't even make a solution for mounting to existing crossbars. Take the plastic out of the equation and you've strengthened your rig.

Billy

I'm not sure if I can remove the upper "floating" rails without leaving huge holes in the front/back of the smaller rails. I would love to be able to do a setup like Alex's, I just don't want to end up ruining the factory roof rack only to find out that I can't remove the entire factory rack. It would also be nice if I could do all of this without removing the headliner.

Has anybody removed their SE roof rack before and have any input?

[Pwnin O'Brien]

So I was looking through the FSM at the removal procedure for the roof rack and I came across this sweet riced-out R50. Look at that sweet a** wing on the back hahahaha

[alexf20c]

i think the newer roof rack would be a direct swap for the older one like mine. on PCOA, i know some of them have swapped out their older rack for a newer one, and it was a direct bolt-on. i think the mounting legs on your new style are replaced by these simple end caps on my old style roof rack.

the channels look to be identical.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

I e-mailed NICO member JonathanPrem since he removed the factory roof rack from his '02 SE; hopefully he'll have some input on how to remove the roof rack.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

So today I got around to removing the entire roof rack to do some investigating. So when I removed the front/rear pillars that hold up the "floating" rails I could immediately see an issue. The channels on the SE roof rack are significantly shorter than the channels on the LE roof rack. The LE roof rack goes from one end of the vehicle to the other and they have nice little decorative caps on the end. The SE roof rack channels stop about 6" before the end of the vehicle on both ends, exposing the little rubber "adapter pads" (as shown in figure above in previous post) for the front and rear. I also noticed that the channels for my roof rack differ quite a bit from those on alexf20c's car. I temporarily removed the entire rack including the channels so that only the adapter pads remain on the vehicle. I'll have to do some more investigatory work on this. I'll also see if I can post some pics later.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Ok so I took some pictures and measurements today in the frigid cold. Below are some pictures of the roof without the roof rack or channels. Each side has three little rubber adapter pads which the channels and the floating rail pillars bolt onto. Those little adapter pads are bolted through the roof. My idea was to get some of those conduit clamps like alexf20c has or maybe some of the same rubber clamps used on my spare tire mount and bolt them directly to the adapter pads. The issue, however, is that the Yakima basket is just barely too small. The length of the basket is much smaller (about 6" smaller) than the distance from the front adapter pads to the rear adapter pads. I wouldn't feel safe just mounting the basket to the roof using only the middle and rear adapter pads. I also have the issue width-wise where the basket is literally 2" shorter than the adapter pads. You can see in the previous posts pictures that the basket looks like it is exactly the width of the floating rails but it falls just short of the adapter pads.

Using the channels on the SE roof rack are not really an option because the channels only bolt down to the vehicle using the middle adapter pad, so Nissan made them really more for looks than functionality. So I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place here. I want to keep my basket and my roof-mounted spare but I also don't want the plastic of the SE roof rack failing on the highway or something and causing some huge accident. The past few days I've had the spare mounted in the basket it has been REALLY loud and has been making a lot of noise. I think it was my drive into Hoboken (Hoboken is a suburb of NYC and it has a LOT of crappy roads and massive potholes) that really broke the camels back, so to speak.

I really need some suggestions. I need a sturdy solution that can withstand the crappy NJ roads and the harsh weather and road salt.





The following picture is a closeup of the passenger side middle adapter pad. You can see the bolt holes which the channel bolts into.





In the following picture you can see the three adapter pads on the passenger side of the vehicle.