: At terribly terribly infrequent times , I happen to go fast w/ yaks on the
: top. At higher speeds you will find wind noise, but the humming or
: resonant sound can be eliminated by: make sure all the end caps are there
: and on, if not cover the end w/ duct tape.

: make sure no loose bits of rack rubber (old thule racks - mine) so glue down.
: especially on top.

: if still hum, break up the fluctuating flow by wrapping the rack tubes w/
: your rope going around and around say every 1in or 2. I believe most of
: the noise is from continual reattachment and separation of the air flow
: around the rack tubes, especially as some have flat tops(mine) or
: continuous slots. That has solved it for me to as much as I figure is
: acceptable.

: And use a front line to keep the yak inline w/ the airflow in case anything
: breaks. And if yak is loaded, use a rear line too, so you reduce chances
: of a huge spear if you hit someone or brake real hard. I've had every
: thing else go in a big cross wind at 60mph - but the front line still kept
: the yak sorta on top until I stopped.( The paddle was run over by a semi).
: Make sure the yak also horizontally in line w/ the air flow, if not turn
: over(or adjust racks somehow) so the resultant force at higher speeds
: keeps the yak down and the potential line tension the least. One of my
: kayaks flies right side up, so I turn it over - helps in the cornering
: too!!hehehe

: -mick

I agree with Mick,

I have a Yakima rack and it has a ton of wind noise by itself but I wrapped each bar with black coated electrical wire and it broke up the flow and reduced the howling greatly. It doesn't look too bad either, the black wire isn't really noticable. You could get a color to match your car if you want to get fancy. I tuck the ends of the wire in the end caps of the bars. It increases time when changing from summer sport attachments to winter because I wrapped right around them. If you look at your radio antenna it has the same sort of spiral in it. This induces turbulence therefore eliminating the howl from flow separation. I wish the rack companies would put a spiral right in the bars so we wouldn't have to. Yakima coats theirs anyway. The coating might as well have some sort of turbulence creating feature in it. I was tempted to cut a spiral right in the bar coating but feared rust and other problems. Those darn lazy greedy rack companies. They must know about this and they sure get enough $$$$$ for their products to pay for a feature like that.