An idea to use with a roof basket....

Rayze78 · **Joined:** Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:41 pm **Posts:** 36

I have had my Liberty for almost 2 months now and I want to get a basket for it. I'm still trying to figure out which one I want to get.

But I had an idea, and dont know if its been done, or if it would look ok. My plan is to get a basket and mount a pair of round off road lights, Hella or whatever. I have seen those Thule fairings that typically go the front of a roof rack. I was thinking... if I got one of these it would probably hide most or all of the basket. So what if you cut semi circles out of the fairing, so the lights could be exposed, but the rest of the rack & basket would still be behind the fairing?

I suppose I could just try it without it at first, and then get a fairing and play around with it. I am assuming that the baskets make a lot of wind noise? I put some aftermarket cross rails on, and I def. notice some wind noise with those. Any comments on the wind fairing idea? How bad is the wind noise if you dont have a fairing?

Regardless, I will be getting one. Its one of the first things I wanted to do since I bought it. Thanks!

FastTRX · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:00 am

You have the same goals as I do on the roof basket. I hopefully have one coming in the next week...a coleman with the front wind shield.

I was thinking of how to fab up a bracket bar...or get small brackets to mount on the top or in front of the front wind shield. I was thinking of 4 Hella 500's with covers....this seems to be a common setup, or so I've seen on here. I debated getting the mopar light bar...but dont want to drill into my roof...and not sure I won't want to take it off sometime. I like the look of the Hella 500's and they seem pretty affordable.

I would plan to use the basket to mount my hi-lift and put the spare on in the near future. I'm not sure if I'm going to need cross bars or not...but I'm sure it'll require them since the spare isn't lite. I'm guna look into making a bar for the top of the rack in the coming weekends. I've got a lot of projects for the libby in store....

My father and I just finished a set of homemade rock rails welded and fabbed up by him and me so I dont think it would be out of our league to attempt something like this. Seems quite easy infact. I know we have the material to do it, it's sitting on our rack in the shop....just a matter of time to get it into the works.

Post some pics of your setup when you get it...

Weegie5 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:33 am

I have the Black Widow basket and it was pretty loud until I installed the wind fairing; that made a huge difference. It is still louder than stock, but substantially quieter than without the fairing.

What aftermarket crossbars do you have? I have the Mopar ones and I don't notice any noise, but that is because of their low profile. The Thule or Yakima bars are loud on any vehicle because they're not aerodynamic whatsoever. Some unistrut would work pretty well (as others have done), and it has a much lower profile than the Thule or Yakima bars.

Rayze78 · **Joined:** Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:41 pm **Posts:** 36

Weegie5, yeah, my crossbars are just some cheapos that I got on ebay. I only paid about $30 for them. They are just black tubular rectangle shaped ones. Simple but they get the job done I guess.

FastTRX, I think I may get the Coleman one on eBay too. That way at least it will come with the fairing if I need it. Some one made some racks on here as Weegie5 mentioned, out of unistrut. I may look into getting a piece of that and some u-bolts and fabricate some kind of light bar. I'm not exactly how until I can actually get it and look at it. Personally, I want them right in front of the basket rather than sticking up over the top. I'm sure I will come up with something. Its hard to tell what to do until you actually have the parts. [/i]

hyedipin · **Joined:** Thu May 11, 2006 10:20 am **Posts:** 1667

I have mopar basket with the wind deflector, I haven't noticed any additional drag or noise from the basket.

Pote · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:05 am

...and definitely look into the mopar cross rails. they are absolutely just as quiet as NOT having them on the rails. they are so low profile and flat, that there is nothing for the wind to whistle on. they are a perfect design for cross rails. can't even tell they are on when going at any speed, with windows down. zero wind noise.

Rayze78 · **Joined:** Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:41 pm **Posts:** 36

Well, I ended up getting the Coleman basket yesterday and I already put it on. I really like the look of it. I was surprised how quiet it was going down the road. (As I mentioned my aftermarket crossbars hummed a little at around 50 mph). Now there is no humming. I also took the wind deflector off and there was still no noise. I noticed a quiet "blowing" sound at around 60 mph without the deflector. I may keep it off if I get some lights for it. Next step....lights!

myjeepwalks · **Posted:** Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:13 am

Rayze78 wrote:

Well, I ended up getting the Coleman basket yesterday and I already put it on. I really like the look of it. I was surprised how quiet it was going down the road. (As I mentioned my aftermarket crossbars hummed a little at around 50 mph). Now there is no humming. I also took the wind deflector off and there was still no noise. I noticed a quiet "blowing" sound at around 60 mph without the deflector. I may keep it off if I get some lights for it. Next step....lights!

I got the coleman basket and like it. I take it off when not using it because it kills my fuel mpg. Haven't really noticed any annoying noise from it. Got the mopar cross rails and they make no noise. I can't open the sunroof with the coleman rack becuase the wind deflector on the rack blows all the air inside the jeep to the point where it's annoying. It's like driving down the road at 60mph with your head out the window. :lol:

Rayze78 · **Joined:** Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:41 pm **Posts:** 36

How much of a difference did you see in gas mileage?

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:24 pm

I have ran mine with and without and really notice no difference to amount to, mines been on for over 40,000 miles now with a homegrown deflector. To me not worth the hassle of removing and installing it may help that I have it mounted down low, bottom of rack is even with the side rails

Tom
Oh I have one of the BVGs that a lot of us bought a couple of years ago...

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:32 am

Here is my Coleman with lights. I only put 3 lights on because I wanted the 4th. as a backup light. I like how the shape of the lights goes with the basket. But I'm thinking of going to round Hella's.

Terry

Pote · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:21 pm

myjeepwalks wrote:

Rayze78 wrote:

Well, I ended up getting the Coleman basket yesterday and I already put it on. I really like the look of it. I was surprised how quiet it was going down the road. (As I mentioned my aftermarket crossbars hummed a little at around 50 mph). Now there is no humming. I also took the wind deflector off and there was still no noise. I noticed a quiet "blowing" sound at around 60 mph without the deflector. I may keep it off if I get some lights for it. Next step....lights!

I got the coleman basket and like it. I take it off when not using it because it kills my fuel mpg. Haven't really noticed any annoying noise from it. Got the mopar cross rails and they make no noise. I can't open the sunroof with the coleman rack becuase the wind deflector on the rack blows all the air inside the jeep to the point where it's annoying. It's like driving down the road at 60mph with your head out the window. :lol:

You need to move the cross rails and the basket back on the side rails. My basket and fairing are about 2-4 inches back beyond the sunroof opening and no air is pushed down...its strange you are getting that anyhow, the way the fairing is designed, all air is pushed up and over and is impossible to push down...maybe because you have it over your sunroof, you are causing some strange effect. but move all the parts back on the side rail so the sunroof and fairing have no issues with each other.

An idea to use with a roof basket....

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