50" light bar help with whistle and interference

t8er · Aug 20, 2014

Just installed a 50" Cree LED bar. I have the typical whistle and outside of removing it what are the best solutions you've come up with to stop the whistle. Also I'm getting an electrical interference which I never had before. I routed everything following all my current wires for my other 2 sets of LED's and my CB radio. Thank you for any help /advice.

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SmokinV10 · Aug 20, 2014

The 50" bar is noisy....so noisy at speed that I sometimes regret buying it. As far as the whistle goes, I made two neoprene "caps" that I screwed into the sides (I found a stainless steel screw that would "screw in between fins") to cap the ends of the light bar. I recently switched to a rigid bar and it comes with three molded rubber inserts to place in the fins. That removed the whistling completely but doesn't help the wind noise at 70+mph freeway speeds.

ridg3runner · Aug 20, 2014

SmokinV10 said:
The 50" bar is noisy....so noisy at speed that I sometimes regret buying it. As far as the whistle goes, I made two neoprene "caps" that I screwed into the sides (I found a stainless steel screw that would "screw in between fins") to cap the ends of the light bar. I recently switched to a rigid bar and it comes with three molded rubber inserts to place in the fins. That removed the whistling completely but doesn't help the wind noise at 70+mph freeway speeds.

Got any pics of this?

SmokinV10 · Aug 20, 2014

ridg3runner said:
Got any pics of this?

Unfortunately I sold the light bar where I made the neoprene caps I made and never took pics. If you are asking about those, the best I can describe what I did was to cut a triangular shape out of cardboard that fit the profile of the cooling fin "exits" at the very end of the light bar. My goal was to keep air from traveling down the fins and exiting the sides. I was essentially making a cap for the fins. When I got a cardboard piece that fit perfectly I used it as a template on an 1/8" thick piece of neoprene. Found a stainless screw (you'll have to experiment with sizes) and gently screwed it in between the fins. It was enough to keep the neoprene secure. Still was some minor whistling that I could sometimes hear at slow speeds with the windows down or top off but not bad at all. Feel free to PM me if you want more details. I don't have the jeep until Friday so I can't take pics of the rubber pieces that rigid supplies. Those work fantastic but I would GUESS that they only fit rigid bars. If no one else offers pics of that setup I'll try to remember to snap some pics of those later this week.

noroad · Aug 20, 2014

Darkknight1999 had the same problem with his light bar and ended up putting door trim on the back of the light and the noise went away!

ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1408520463.529616.jpg

ridg3runner · Aug 20, 2014

How much heat is really generated in those lights to warrant the cooling fins? I never thought LED lights would get hot. If the fins don't get too hot then how about a bead of silicon between them? Would it work? I've been tossing around the idea of a lightbar myself and this is actually the first I've heard of wind noise so I would want to find a good fix right away before the noise has a chance to drive me batshit crazy(er).

darkknight1999 · Aug 20, 2014

ridg3runner said:
How much heat is really generated in those lights to warrant the cooling fins? I never thought LED lights would get hot. If the fins don't get too hot then how about a bead of silicon between them? Would it work? I've been tossing around the idea of a lightbar myself and this is actually the first I've heard of wind noise so I would want to find a good fix right away before the noise has a chance to drive me batshit crazy(er).

The light make 2 different noises really. The light (at least mine) produced a heavy harmonic sound, that I honestly couldn't stand. I left my hand out the roof holding it so it would stop... drove my OCD crazy. However they also have the noise from the wind simply passing around it. A bead of silicon should also work... it will correct the harmonics no problem. I'm not sure if that will help with the wind noise though.

The trim I used work for both the harmonics and the 85% of the wind. You can still hear it sometimes but you won't hear it if your wheeling

and if your driving... people talking or the radio it almost completely hides it... or just turn the radio up louder and it is completely hidden lol.

I'm going to develop a wind deflector that can stop the rest of the wind noise over the winter... at least that's the plan... :yup:

t8er · Aug 20, 2014

darkknight1999 said:
The light make 2 different noises really. The light (at least mine) produced a heavy harmonic sound, that I honestly couldn't stand. I left my hand out the roof holding it so it would stop... drove my OCD crazy. However they also have the noise from the wind simply passing around it. A bead of silicon should also work... it will correct the harmonics no problem. I'm not sure if that will help with the wind noise though.

The trim I used work for both the harmonics and the 85% of the wind. You can still hear it sometimes but you won't hear it if your wheeling and if your driving... people talking or the radio it almost completely hides it... or just turn the radio up louder and it is completely hidden lol.

I'm going to develop a wind deflector that can stop the rest of the wind noise over the winter... at least that's the plan... :yup:

When you ran the door trim I'm having a hard time seeing in the pic posted did you run it all the way across on ever fun or did you cut strips and place them randomly?

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darkknight1999 · Aug 20, 2014

t8er said:
When you ran the door trim I'm having a hard time seeing in the pic posted did you run it all the way across on ever fun or did you cut strips and place them randomly?
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I ran it all the way across on every other fin. Then on the fins that had none I just added smaller sections in front of each seat. The LEDs do produce a fair amount of heat. I wanted to leave some room for the heat to escape. I only bought 18' worth, so I only had enough left to do those smaller sections. But it seems to work good enough really.

I want to make an air dam for it... and I will once I have some extra time.

t8er · Aug 20, 2014

I'll keep an eye out for the air dam and I'll do the door trim tonight. How'd you run your wires also. I'm getting interference from my motor. Thank you again

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Dukes_of_C.Rock · Aug 20, 2014

I did two fins with door trim and then I also put in three places the 1/4 inch irrigation tubing between the fins. So the whistle is gone once I get above 30mph and under 30mph it's just a real slight whistle sound.

ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1408563808.666692.jpg

ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1408563823.524450.jpg

SmokinV10 · Aug 20, 2014

I just tie wrapped my wires to the mount and ran them down the A pillar into the cowl and then to the SPOD. No interference or noise.

An air dam would be a great idea for the general high speed wind noise. A few questions would be how to attach it. I wouldn't want to remove any of the screws on the front lens as it might affect the watertight seal. Also, someone should test how effective an air dam may be. I suppose a good way of testing this would be to use race tape between the light bar and windshield screen. Drive around at 80mph and see if there is a difference before investing any real time in fabricating something.

darkknight1999 · Aug 20, 2014

t8er said:
I'll keep an eye out for the air dam and I'll do the door trim tonight. How'd you run your wires also. I'm getting interference from my motor. Thank you again

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You have interference from your motor showing up in the lights? That sounds like a ground problem.

I built a secondary fuse/relay box for all my accessories. I have everything routing through that. The wiring for the light bar itself is just running behind the mounting bracket. Its a little crushed but it will be fine. I can take a picture of it and post it later on this afternoon when I get home for you.

Fuse/relay box:

Each of the accessories is feed with a pair of wires like this (braided wires encased in flexible expandable sleeving):

But I'll get you those pictures later on tonight when I get home.

t8er · Aug 20, 2014

Right now the ground is running back to the battery should I run it somewhere inside instead?

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darkknight1999 · Aug 20, 2014

t8er said:
Right now the ground is running back to the battery should I run it somewhere inside instead?

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Well... back to the battery is about as good as your going to get. How about the power and switch leg for it... how is that wired up?

utiadam · Aug 21, 2014

I have the 50" black box logistics bar. I have found that if you adjust the aim of the bar slightly downward the whistle goes away. I haven't tried the door edging yet but eventually I will.

ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1408576202.378986.jpg

jfallon1 · Aug 21, 2014

I have the same problem with interference. Gonna go back through my wiring. Check back in if you find a cure.

SmokinV10 · Aug 21, 2014

When is the electrical interference present? Constantly? Or only when the light bar is on? I don't have it at all with an spod. I believe the spod is grounded to the battery.

t8er · Aug 21, 2014

It's not a constant and off or on it doesn't matter. I also pulled the fuse to kill all current and it was still there.

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jfallon1 · Aug 21, 2014

Not sure if this is related to to the OP problems but I done some testing tonight. With everything unplugged and off (sPod, sub/radio, winch, ac off, lights) it still makes the noise. The interference seems to be speed related here. Anywhere between 15-50mph with 25-50mph being the worst. Anything over 50 it seems to go away. The faster I go, the less it gets. It's not rpm related, strictly mph. I'll add a link to sound clip here.
http://youtu.be/h_KxzxeOVbI

50" light bar help with whistle and interference

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