Wind noise from a FWC

1

12valve

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
130
Location
Ventura, California
2005 Regular cab 4x4 Long Bed truck. I have a FWC camper and the wind noise that it generates is far too loud. I am sure it is coming from the area where the camper sticks out from the side of the cab and the space behind the cab and camper itself. Has anybody else had (have) this experience? Is there anything I can do. It really makes freeway driving for long distances a bummer.
 
Howdy

I don't have noise problems with our Hawk but here are a few questions that might help isolate the noise.

Do you travel with your jacks on the camper ?

Any rook racks on the camper?

David Graves
 
You can actually tell where the wind is directly hitting the camper if you will temporarily attach (scotch tape works well) something lightweight (in sailing terms, a telltale, a 10" piece of brightly colored yarn/plastic/whatever), to parts of the camper. Then have someone else drive the truck/camper with you in another car observing the telltales from all angles. Place a telltale in various locations, so you can do this "test" in one set-up. You might even take some photos.

If they are being hit directly by the wind, the telltales will stream in a consistent direction, if they are not, they will flutter all over the place in a wind shadow.

It has been my experience that usually the wind deflection off the windshield will cause a wind shadow on the part of the camper sticks out from the side of the cab and the telltale will flutter all over the place on that part of the camper that sticks out from the side of the cab. Also try putting a telltale or two on the side of the truck cab windows, maybe one or two on the side of the camper, too..

The front of the over cab bed section will be in the source of most of your wind noise, along with the front wall of the camper, just under the over cab bed section, right behind the truck cab, but not the part that sticks out to the side.

As Cayuse mentioned a wind deflector at the front of the over cab bed area will cut down a lot of the noise.
 
I did the wing to cut the noise. Also, try opening a window or putting your heater/AC on recirculate.

FullSizeRender%2B2.jpg
 
You want to be careful with the camper so close to the truck roof. Mine was approximately the same distance off the roof as yours. While off roading with my f-350 crossing two ditches space apart from each other there was so much flex in the frame that the bed board and roof came in contact tearing the two front tie downs bolts out of the wood box of the camper. Have since raised my camper an additional two inches.
 
I was lucky enough to drive in buggy areas and look at the dead carcuses to see a pattern. Will be making a deflector for the wind noise and bugs.
 
Just installed a wind blocker last week and took it for a quick drive with speeds up to 75mph. Wow. Amazing difference. Pics to follow, but I used a design I spotted here, so nothing new.
 
Vic Harder said:
Just installed a wind blocker last week and took it for a quick drive with speeds up to 75mph. Wow. Amazing difference. Pics to follow, but I used a design I spotted here, so nothing new.
Click to expand...
Vic, it may be "nothing new" but I'd still would like to see the photos and details/material of the job! Thanks in advance!
 
Ok Ok!!! :)

With apologies to Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, I discovered that measuring/planning fall flat when confronted with reality. I measured a bunch, and created this mock up
full


I bought 4' lengths of 1"x1" 1/8" steel tubing and used the mockup to create the angle cuts I needed. But the dimensions of the mock up materials are not 1"x1", so the angles where slightly off. Nothing the grinder couldn't fix, but less than perfect.

Design principles included:
- available metal was only 4' long
- avoid damaging the roof of the truck in the event of huge cabin/truck bed flex
- KISS
- make it strong, but don't go crazy

The latter meant I wanted as much of the 4' length under the cabover as possible to give the attachment points as much strength as possible.

KISS meant I used someone else's design and the same dimension hardware throughout.
http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/9879-wind-deflectors/page-5#entry112124

All bolts/nuts are 1/4" I used T-Nuts in the cabover bedding area, and cut threaded rod to length. The bolts used to attach the wooden fairing to the frame are 2" long, with washers on both sides, and slopped on SIlkaflex to keep them from loosening. The Silkaflex is what I used to "seal/glue" the surfaces where metal meets wood - 1) the fairing itself, and 2) the metal frame to the underside of the cabover. I decided NOT to use 3M 4200 or 5200 because that wood simply isn't strong enough to warrant a glue that tough. The painted surface would pull loose way before the 3M stuff let go.

As for flex and roof damage, once I had the fairing frame welded up and test installed on the camper, I put the truck up on two Rhino ramps, on opposite corners to induce max flex. The difference in clearance was almost nil, which inspired me to keep going knowing it would be unlikely on the roads that I drive that I would ever see 2" of flex and thus damage my roof.

Here are some more pics:
Installed on camper/truck
full


Pax side 1
full


Pax side 2
full


Driver's side 1
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Driver's side 2
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Clearance at camper roof
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Clearance at truck roof
full
 
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