Hi Folks,
New here. Purchased a 2024 Premium plus about a month ago. We are mostly happy but having some issues with the crossbars. I've seen it brought up in a few other forums but didn't see this specific issue addressed and hope this forum can help! Our car has the flush rails with OEM crossbars. We are up in ski country and the primary purpose of this vehicle in winter is to get the family (4 humans) up to the ski hill. I've noticed the crossbars are loud at highway speeds (+60mph). As a point of comparison they are significantly louder than the crossbars (OEM and Thule) I've had on previous Audis and VWs, but it's mostly loud wind noise and manageable. I recently mounted a new ski rack (Thule snowpack extender - 6 pair skis) and +55mph the noise becomes a very loud drumming sound. This is not wind noise that you could ignore by turning up the radio but a drumming that I could hear and feel in a my ear drums. After 1 drive up the hill my wife had me remove the rack because it gave her a headache. I tried an older ski rack I used to have on another car (Thule 724 - 3 pair) and this rack works slightly better, however, it still causes a drumming +75mph. I've driven that ski rack +100 mph on previous vehicles with no noise issues, and I have owned any number of Thule/Yakima ski racks in my lifetime and never had an issue like this.
What I have noticed: There is some inherent play in the crossbar. It can rock back and forth about 2mm each way in the foot/mount that attaches to the flush rail. The old Thule 724, by virtue of its design, I can screw it down in a way that it clamps down on the footer/mount which slightly reduces this play. Perhaps that's a reason for lessened drumming, or maybe its just because the rack is half the size. Hard to tell. I tried to rock the OEM bar on my VW (manufactured by Thule) and there is zero play in that bar - it doesn't move at all in the feet/mounts. Could this be part of the noise issue? I poked around and haven't found a way to tighten this linkage between the crossbar and the foot. to note, the connection of the foot to the flush rail is secure and there is no play there.
Net-net: Has anyone here had any luck with ski racks and mounted them successfully without this drumming sound? Do other folks have this play in their cross bar, and/or found a way to tighten it? Any fixes that have reduced the noise of the OEM crossbars? Are there any aftermarket crossbars (not whole racks) that would work? Given the specifity of the mount I'm not optimistic Thule or Yakima will develop a solve? My preference would be to not wrap paracord as it's not going to work to unwrap the ski rack each time I want to use it and I'd rather not go with a whole box (personal preference, partial to rack over box) nor would I want to purchase a box just to find that I have the same issue with noise.
Thanks for your time!
New here. Purchased a 2024 Premium plus about a month ago. We are mostly happy but having some issues with the crossbars. I've seen it brought up in a few other forums but didn't see this specific issue addressed and hope this forum can help! Our car has the flush rails with OEM crossbars. We are up in ski country and the primary purpose of this vehicle in winter is to get the family (4 humans) up to the ski hill. I've noticed the crossbars are loud at highway speeds (+60mph). As a point of comparison they are significantly louder than the crossbars (OEM and Thule) I've had on previous Audis and VWs, but it's mostly loud wind noise and manageable. I recently mounted a new ski rack (Thule snowpack extender - 6 pair skis) and +55mph the noise becomes a very loud drumming sound. This is not wind noise that you could ignore by turning up the radio but a drumming that I could hear and feel in a my ear drums. After 1 drive up the hill my wife had me remove the rack because it gave her a headache. I tried an older ski rack I used to have on another car (Thule 724 - 3 pair) and this rack works slightly better, however, it still causes a drumming +75mph. I've driven that ski rack +100 mph on previous vehicles with no noise issues, and I have owned any number of Thule/Yakima ski racks in my lifetime and never had an issue like this.
What I have noticed: There is some inherent play in the crossbar. It can rock back and forth about 2mm each way in the foot/mount that attaches to the flush rail. The old Thule 724, by virtue of its design, I can screw it down in a way that it clamps down on the footer/mount which slightly reduces this play. Perhaps that's a reason for lessened drumming, or maybe its just because the rack is half the size. Hard to tell. I tried to rock the OEM bar on my VW (manufactured by Thule) and there is zero play in that bar - it doesn't move at all in the feet/mounts. Could this be part of the noise issue? I poked around and haven't found a way to tighten this linkage between the crossbar and the foot. to note, the connection of the foot to the flush rail is secure and there is no play there.
Net-net: Has anyone here had any luck with ski racks and mounted them successfully without this drumming sound? Do other folks have this play in their cross bar, and/or found a way to tighten it? Any fixes that have reduced the noise of the OEM crossbars? Are there any aftermarket crossbars (not whole racks) that would work? Given the specifity of the mount I'm not optimistic Thule or Yakima will develop a solve? My preference would be to not wrap paracord as it's not going to work to unwrap the ski rack each time I want to use it and I'd rather not go with a whole box (personal preference, partial to rack over box) nor would I want to purchase a box just to find that I have the same issue with noise.
Thanks for your time!
