LC250 Wind Noise OEM Roof Rack vs Rails

shwazz714 · Friday at 4:41 PM

Has anyone had the chance to drive an lc250 with the oem roof rack and roof rails? Curious to get input on wind noise difference.

Mine came with a roof rack and it looks awesome & provides a ton of utility, but I don’t honestly use it that much. Think I’d be fine with the roof rails.

Thinking about making the change to lower wind noise and maybe increase mpg a bit

LChomie · Friday at 4:48 PM

I've had both and honestly didn't notice a difference in either wind noise or mileage. If you truly don't plan to use the roof maybe a full delete would be different. I wouldn't worry about it. Definitely don't spend a bunch of money on rails expecting a difference.

shwazz714 · Friday at 5:32 PM

Thanks - lll stay the course then. I was thinking of just doing a trade with someone but seems like it won’t make much of a difference so I’ll move onto other fun items

TrailWhale · Friday at 5:48 PM

Not sure about noise with just the rails, but the OEM crossbars (mounted to the rails) start to howl noticeably around 65-70+mph. They don't howl when you have something mounted on there, like a cargo box (which still makes wind noise, but regular higher pitched noise like the mirror wind noise, and can be quieted by closing the sunroof panel).

cvx5832LC · Friday at 6:09 PM

Same experience. Cross bars installed creates a lot of noise. So I removed it and kept the rails. Still some noise but a lot less. But if I don’t use it in the next year I’ll do the 1958 mod with the blanking caps posted here.

hookem512 · Friday at 6:39 PM

I started with rails + crossbars and took the cross bars off within 2 days. Those things were stupid loud. Just the rails were quiet.

I’ve had the OEM roof rack on for about a month now and don’t notice much wind noise at all.

basicxj · Friday at 8:56 PM

I had a twenty minute test drive in a Land Cruiser that had the FE style roof rack installed, but ultimately bought one equipped with the rails. As mentioned by others, I didn’t notice a big difference in wind noise between the two.

I don’t have or need crossbars, and would probably have been happy with either but was drawn by the slightly lower height of the rails. I do like the look of the FE style rack (and think Toyota nailed it), but just didn’t see the added cost to be worth it seeing as I’ll probably never load anything on it.