The aerodynamic discussion has gotten me on to my
favorite topic of late: noise reduction. I know there
is plenty of stuff in the archives, but lots of this
isn't objective. It's pretty normal to believe your
vanagon is MUCH quiter after you spent a whole weekend
putting sound deadening stuff into the doors. (Tell me
about it) Well,I got myself a sound level meter and
went hunting for the noise. After some quick victories
(like insulating the rear hatch: it takes 3 dB off the
engine noise)I'm now stuck. The main source of noise
in  my vanagon is road noise: 80 dBA at 65 mph on a
reasonably smooth highway. Same rpm (about 3600) in
2nd gear and the noise is down to 73 dBA, huge
difference. Bottom line, there is no point in trying
to reduce engine noise any further.
But how do you reduce road noise? Different tires?
Haven't heard of anyone MEASURING the difference. It
would be nice to hear from other listmembers how noisy
their vanagon is. A meter from ebay or radioshack is
cheap. All we'd have to do is agree on a measurement
position. I usually just put the meter next to the
gauge cluster on the dash, facing forward.
I also use the meter to measure the frequency response
of the vanagon interior and equalize my stereo. I'm
still thinking with the large interior the vanagon
could be a great vehicle for HIFI car stereo, but I
need to find a way to reduce the noise. 80 dBA is just
too much. BTW I already know that the best way of
reducing road noise is to slow down :-) Actually best
is not to move at all.
Reinhard , 83 Westy "Moose"

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