The clue's in the name.

$200 by the standards of what my local dealership quotes is more than fair.

(I'm similarly short-armed and deep-pocketed )

 

I have the cloth roof and the roof rack and it does get noisy after 75 mph. It’s also noisy when it’s windy outside even as low as 45 mph, not gonna lie, so I’m going to get the CFC fairing to try and minimize the noise.

 

I’ll also say that the worst noise came when we had stuff over the rack and we were driving 90mph on some Texas toll roads. My wife complained of a headache because the wind hitting the cloth was pretty loud. I was fine, but she wasn’t too happy. This is her vehicle btw so she’s fine with it as a daily driver because she rarely goes over 70mph and she has almost never said anything about the noise except for that one time.

 

As for time, just think that it took these guys about 25 mins and they know what they’re doing, so an hour and change is about right for the normal person + need someone to help you out.

 

I've seen photos online of the cloth roof open bunching up and hitting the expedition rack slats. Slightly, and the canvas roof opened and closed fine, but it did hit the silver rack slats. There's a guy on a Facebook group who posted up about this perhaps 18-24 mos ago, and he ended up removing or moving one of the slats in his expedition rack. But there is definitely a potential clearance issue with the canvas folding roof and the rack.

I remember this well because it is what convinced me not to get one with a canvas roof (which I still would really like).

Of course, I can't find the post as Facebook's search absolutely sucks...

 

Just updating for future reference if anyone searches this topic. Took the guys doing it just about an hour to install -

The wind noise is noticeable, but by no means obnoxious like I was concerned about. This is with just the rack on by itself, no items. I bought a waterproof large bag that will go along with me on the drive across the country and I will report back with my own experience with the roof rack and fabric roof.

 

If you will be using the roof rack, roof racks often get ratchet straps, and ratchet straps have loose ends; those will bang the roof of the car + they can vibrate if you travel at speed (like a highway). I have a glass panoramic roof window, and the noise is bearable, but not great. If all you have is cloth, maybe it's OK if you are on a trail, but highway driving with a cloth rooftop + loaded roof?! Probably will be loud. They don't sell Defenders now with a solid roofs anymore, but if they did, that would be a good pick for someone that used the roof alot.

 

i had same thing happen to me when I had a large item on the roof. Sure, when you drive around with nothing up there, there's no problem! But when there was something up on the roof, my highway driving got lots of complaints. I have a glass panoramic window - I can only imagine what would happen if the roof were roll top like.

 

Update: even just driving around at speeds above 55mph with nothing on it, if it's windy outside it's very loud. About to drive across the country tomorrow with the roof rack loaded....

Probably wouldn't recommend this unless it's a necessity. When I get to my new home in California I am taking it off most likely.

 

lol I told you so, but glad I’m not the only one who has noticed it.