But how do you reduce road noise? Different tires?

Most of this is from wind.   This is one of the
leading reasons that the Vanagon was discontinued.
YOu need to add a nose to the body to break the
wind before the passenger compartment.  Good luck
with this one....          Eric

Reinhard Vehring wrote:

>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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