"Wayne Harrison" wrote in message .com...
i have a jeep cherokee, with which i cartop a 14' royalex mad river
adventurer. i use the oe bars, with two nylon ratchet straps across the
body of the boat. the boat itself is supported by foam attachments against
the bars.

i have tried "twirling" the straps, using various tensions on the tie
downs--and nothing works. above 40 mph, this ceaseless, loud droning noise
permeates the car's interior.

surely there is some simple solution. after all, when i left the dealership
with the boat on top, i drove about 75mph for an hour to my destination
without a sound--and the damn straps were absolutely flat.

help! or do i just pop for those thule thingies...?

wayno

Wayno, have you tried setting up the straps both around the boat and
around the roofrack in such a way that there is hardly any place where
the straps are not touching anything?

I find that straps are only causing sound when they can vibrate, i.e.
when there is air on both sides of the straps and when the piece of
strap able to vibrate is long enough. Therefore (when carrying only
one or two boats at the same time) I always try to tie the boats top
down, so that the straps lie against the entire underside and sides of
the hull. Then the only place where they could vibrate is between the
boat and the roofrack, and by carefully placing the straps around the
roofrack, you can usually limit the distance that they have to be
unsupported.

HTH.

Wilko