In my experience, anything roof-mounted will create wind noise. Some things are worse than others based on their design, but there is a substantial amount of air moving up and over the vehicle that will contact anything up there and create all kinds of buffers and eddies that create noise. Similarly is the reason why fuel economy takes a hit. Hitch-mounted external carry cases/racks are far superior in this regard.

Given that the use is so infrequent, we just live with the noise and take comfort in knowing the skis are still up there. For the rest of what we do, we've shifted to hitch racks.

 

In my experience, anything roof-mounted will create wind noise. Some things are worse than others based on their design, but there is a substantial amount of air moving up and over the vehicle that will contact anything up there and create all kinds of buffers and eddies that create noise. Similarly is the reason why fuel economy takes a hit. Hitch-mounted external carry cases/racks are far superior in this regard.

Given that the use is so infrequent, we just live with the noise and take comfort in knowing the skis are still up there. For the rest of what we do, we've shifted to hitch racks.

I completely get that and agree with everything you say here. That being said, I've had roof mounted devices of all sorts on a variety of vehicles and never experienced anything quite like this. Even the cargo rack I had on my old Jeep GC was quieter. Also, I had an old yakima box that I threw on the Volvo for a week or so and it was dramatically quieter, despite being bigger than this "aerodynamic" box. It was old and far bigger than I needed so I sold it to get this one lol.

Additionally, I don't think it is an issue with this box necessarily--a friend of mine has the same one and recommended this to me in part because of how quiet it is! I believe it is a combination of this box, mounting location, car, and crossbars.

 

Here are the photos

 

Without having access to a wind tunnel or CFD setup, nobody here will be able to tell you exactly what is causing the noise. However, I can speculate that the issue is with the contour of the inno box and/or the significant lip on the edge of the underside, combined with the aerodynamics of the Volvo itself. From your pics, I see two channels on the underside of the Inno box that pass over the top of the crossbars. Additionally, there is a significant gap between the top shell and bottom shell at the lip. Both of these locations have the potential to create excess noise if the aerodynamics of the car channel fast moving air over/through these areas. I would personally look for a box that sits flush on the cross bars and has as few contours as possible to minimize noise. The more holes, channels, gaps, bends, etc that are present, the more opportunity for air to make noise as it passes over/through.

Additionally, you mention you like to drive fast... I do too, so completely understand your frustration here. Inno does not seem to publish any speed limitation on this box, which seems strange to me. My ancient Thule box has a published limit of 70MPH, IIRC (though might be lower). I routinely drive over 80 with it on the car and loaded, and have for years, so not worried about structural issues. Rather, I say this to warn you that you might simply get a response from Inno that you are driving too fast and need to keep below 70 or so.

Good luck! As others have said, anything on the roof will create extra noise, but my experience says that even a large box driven at 80+ should still be tolerable on these cars. It may be that this particular box just does not work well with this particular vehicle and cross bar combo.

 

Without having access to a wind tunnel or CFD setup, nobody here will be able to tell you exactly what is causing the noise. However, I can speculate that the issue is with the contour of the inno box and/or the significant lip on the edge of the underside, combined with the aerodynamics of the Volvo itself. From your pics, I see two channels on the underside of the Inno box that pass over the top of the crossbars. Additionally, there is a significant gap between the top shell and bottom shell at the lip. Both of these locations have the potential to create excess noise if the aerodynamics of the car channel fast moving air over/through these areas. I would personally look for a box that sits flush on the cross bars and has as few contours as possible to minimize noise. The more holes, channels, gaps, bends, etc that are present, the more opportunity for air to make noise as it passes over/through.

Additionally, you mention you like to drive fast... I do too, so completely understand your frustration here. Inno does not seem to publish any speed limitation on this box, which seems strange to me. My ancient Thule box has a published limit of 70MPH, IIRC (though might be lower). I routinely drive over 80 with it on the car and loaded, and have for years, so not worried about structural issues. Rather, I say this to warn you that you might simply get a response from Inno that you are driving too fast and need to keep below 70 or so.

Good luck! As others have said, anything on the roof will create extra noise, but my experience says that even a large box driven at 80+ should still be tolerable on these cars. It may be that this particular box just does not work well with this particular vehicle and cross bar combo.

Are you telling me that nobody here has a wind tunnel I can use? Joking but that would be super interesting to see and play with setups.

I definitely think the overhang is the source of the issue, combined with the specific aero of the car. You can see the top clamshell flexing and vibrating at speed. In my email to Inno USA I framed it as more of a general noise thing than something that occurs above 70-75 or so.

I plan to play around with the positioning more and maybe I'll figure something out. I got a good deal on it and the low profile boxes from Thule/Yakima are a good bit more expensive.

Anecdotally, this is crushing my MPG's. Probably losing 4mpg the way its setup right now.

 

Looking at your images, my armchair analysis is in agreement with RecoveringSaabaholic in the significant lip on the underside combined with the aerodynamics of your Volvo is likely the cause. The windshield is pushing all that air up into the underside of the box where the air is rumbling around in that void created by the lip. On an SUV or something where the nose of the box was further back with the slipstream pushing around the noise might be different (like your friend observed). The box appears designed to create a low-pressure space above it (like an airplane wing). On SUV that low pressure would extend down to the roofline. With the box being forward of the Volvo windshield, the slipstream is instead creating a high-pressure space underneath the box - thus the noise as it tries to push its way through that tiny space.

Perhaps a box that was more flat on the bottom?

 

I have a different box, but also had significant wind noise when I first installed it on my V60; much more than on the Saab 9-3 SportCombi that the V60 replaced despite the fact that without the box the Volvo was much quieter. I wound up buying a wind fairing, specifically the Thule AirScreen XT in size M, and that improved the noise level considerably, though it's still enough that I only have the box mounted when I absolutely need it.

 

I have the same cargo box on my V60 I have the same problem with the noise. The same cargo box on our XC90 is so much quieter so I think it's due to the overhang. Our previous Thule box which also had the same overhang also was just as noisy so I don't think it's the cargo box's fault.

 

Had the same issue with thule old box, yet after attaching Rhino rack wind fairing (for V90CC it was 44 inch) to front crossbar noise is down to not noticeable level.

 

ooops, sorry for double pictures

 

Thanks for the input guys. Like some of you I normally take off anything roof mounted when not in use due to noise and mpg's but I was really hoping this was something I could leave on. This is primarily for skiing and usually I am going every weekend from December through March. Previously I'd just leave my stuff up north but we are doing things a little differently this year which means more schlepping equipment around.

Also, it is really convenient to have extra storage because the dog uses the cargo area.

Ideally I'd like to make this box work because, frankly, it looks cool on the car and it is the perfect size for my needs. I think I can return it to REI without too much fuss if that turns out to be impossible. Or maybe I could slow down!

 

Have you tried to move the rear cross bar to force the nose down a bit? Not sure if this would help or not...just a suggestion.

 

Have some updates--moving the box forward about 3-4 inches dropped the noise down quite a bit to an acceptable level. I also added some automotive style rubber weatherstripping between the two clamshells. I was not getting any water inside the box, despite our heavy rain lately, but I wanted to see if it would tighten things up and lessen vibrations. Hard to say what the weatherstripping did and it was not a necessity.

I'll post up some photos later but for now I am pleased with the looks and performance of the box for the price (~$500 with some REI dividends and coupon). In a perfect world I would have upgraded to a skiguard but I can't justify 3X what I paid.

I think this box could be upgraded with some ribbing bonded to the inside of the top clamshell to stiffen it. Impossible for me to see whilst driving but the flexibility of it is doing no favors in terms of noise. Just a thought after looking at other options and what the differences are.

 

Looking at your winter tire thread, it looks like you moved the front load bar a few inches forward of the B pillar. Just wanted to confirm the fitment before I make the same change on my Inno setup.

 

Yes-for now. I am going to try moving the box even further forward to see it that helps even more.