Soft top sound at speed?

[Moab]

So I have a cheap Rampage top. Fairly new. About 6 months old. While installing it I made the mistake of removing the foam padding from the cross member. At speed on the freeway it flapped and made ALOT of noise. I replaced the foam with the same size from HD. It stopped the flapping. But I still have a reverberating loud sound at speed. Almost like when you open one car window and not another. And it sounds like air is popping in and out of your cab.

The other thing I did when installing it. Was I placed the front header plastic strip down without folding over once. The one that you screw down along its length? I don't know if that makes sense or not. But I was having trouble getting the top to fit with the plastic strip folded over once. Like I think it's supposed to be installed. Which gave me an inch or so of extra material in the tight-ness of the top as it stretched back onto the frame. I think if I take the top off and add that fold back into the front plastic strip. And rescrew it down. It will tighten the top quite a bit. And I'm hoping help with the sound from the soft top at speed. It's pretty annoying and loud.

Do you think this issue is just from a cheap top? Is this common?

If I can't get rid of it by tightening the front plastic strip up. I'm going to consider getting a Bestop. It's so loud at speed (about 60 mph and up) you have to almost yell to hear each other speak.

 

[Chris]

If I remember correctly, I believe the way to stop that reverberating sound was to turn on the recirculating air, or maybe it was just turn on the air vents letting in outside air. I can't recall for sure, but it was something along those lines.

It shouldn't be reverberating like that though.

 

[Moab]

If I remember correctly, I believe the way to stop that reverberating sound was to turn on the recirculating air, or maybe it was just turn on the air vents letting in outside air. I can't recall for sure, but it was something along those lines.

It shouldn't be reverberating like that though.

I usually have the ac on when driving. But I'll give that a try. It's usually on recirculation. So maybe if I switch to outside air it will help. I think the majority of the problem is that it's not tight enough without that front plastic piece turned over one time. And looks not quite right above the windshield. I'll get to it this weekend. As it's really annoying.

Been driving my kid to and from college this past couple weeks. Until he solidifies transport. So like two or three 30-60 minute trips a day. to and from. I can barely keep up with LA traffic. So I have to maintain about 60-65 to keep up. Which is about the max I feel comfortable with on our earthquake messed up roads. Lots of dips, swails and cracks in the concrete and asphalt. You'd think it would be ridiculous for anyone to have a 4x4 in the big city. But the streets here are actually very messed up. It helps to have a suspension that can handle it.

 

[Chris]

I know the sound you're talking about. My Bestop Supertop NX made the sound ever since I installed it brand new. That was ultimately one of the reasons I ended up getting rid of the soft top permanently, in favor of a hard top.

Why it was making that sound, I have no idea. However, I tried everything, and nothing seemed to fix it at all. Ultimately I just got so fed up that I never went back to a soft top. In all fairness, it didn't start happening until I would get over 60 MPH like you said, but it was annoying enough to drive me mad.

I tried both the outside and, the recirculating A/C, etc. None of it worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you!

 

[ranger101]

Does yours catch air while you’re going down the road? I’m not sure if all soft tops do it or not, but mine seems like it’s catching air and is always pushing the top up which gives me some extra noise. No difference between having the windows up or down.

I’ve also considered replacing the foam pads that install over the door surrounds to remove any slack that may be there from the fabric stretching over time.

 

[bobthetj03]

They are just plain noisy. The factory soft tops seem to have a thicker material, which helps with the noise some. Don't be fooled by cheaper tops. They have thinner material and are stupid noisy. Bestop's twill top would be the quietest of them all, but they aren't cheap.

 

[BryantJT]

My unknown brand soft top that I bought, used, for my 06 I picked up this summer was unbearable above 45. I'm talking wear earplugs or have your ears ring. I made a "top prop" from pvc and foam insulation and that actually made the popping worse.

I scored an open box return on a Besttop Twill Replace a Top on Amazon for about half price. It is nearly as quiet as the OEM hard top that I had on before switching to a soft top. The Twill top is much thicker and tighter than what I had on there.