I go back and read the reviews of our trucks and see all the comments about how quiet our trucks are. Yet I can't convince myself it really is as quiet as what all the testimonies make me believe.

I bought my '05 new. at the time, it seemed quiet. Now that my factory stock BFG tires are a bit more worn, it seems to have gotten a lot more noisy over time from road noise, esp at freeway speeds.

So in lieu of swapping out tires every couple of years, I'm trying to quiet down the cabin by isolating it. Obviously, my expectation level is low, but I'll accept anything 'quick and dirty' that yields some improvement.

I've gotten some 1/8" Frost King HVAC insulation sold at Lowes and Home Depot and covered the door skins and rear wall. That made a noticeable difference, both perceived and a measurable 'eyeball' average of a 2-3dBC drop on my soundmeter. Plus the rear doors of my screw now close with a nicer 'thud' sound rather than a 'thack'.

The next big hitters are the rear wall air vents -- they seem to let in *lots* of road noise. It's worse when I have the fan on since cabin pressure forces the vents to open and let yet more noise in.

Any of you guys/gals tackle this one with any success? If I stuff the air vents with rags, it helps a lot, but then when I close my doors with all the windows up, my ears pop.

The next big source of noise seems to be coming from the door seals near the bottom 1ft of the doors...where the factory gaskets end along the outer edges. Where can I find similar gasket material (aside from the dealer?)

Does lining the floors help much?

 

if you want a real quiet truck, you should Dynamat it....do the doors, roof, firewall, hood, the floor etc. There are so many applications of the stuff but it is a little $$. check their website out.
~jstnromero

 

Agreed, but not only is dynamat expensive, I'm not sure it addresses the fundamental problem of noise coming in through the vent holes, no matter how much insulation I have, since it's analogous to me driving with the windows rolled down :-)

 

Did you put the plastic back on when you took the door panel off? For some reason that cheep peice of plastic actually does pretty good at keeping the sound out. The dealer that installed my window regulator broke one of those main attachment clips by the door lock **** and it now sounds like I'm riding around with the window cracked cause it doesn't fit snuggley and the plastic is loose!! So I feel your pain!!!!

 

as for the cab vents i took em out and covered the hole with dynomat and it did kill some noise, but i wouldnt suggest that because it does pressurize the cab when you turn the air on. if im standing outside the truck and the air is on i can hear it coming out of the top of the windows and out the door jambs but inside the cab you cant hear it.

 

If you can afford it dynamat everything.

 

i also have the whole roof covered with rockford deadskin but when i dropped the headliner the other day to put my third brake light in i saw that it didnt stick too well. so dont use that crap.

 

Save the time and money on insulating everything, and go drive a Chevy or a Dodge for a few days. Then come back to your F150 and it will seem like driving a $100K Mercedes.

 

as suggested, Dynomat it out. every panel you can cover, do so

not much else you can do. how loud is loud to you? on the stock radio, I can drive at 70+ mph with it only set at "2 bars" of loudness.


btw, which trim level do you have? the higher trims have a bit more padding it seems

 

No kidding. I think my truck had a pretty tough life in the oilfield before I got it and it still seems super quiet to me. The only thing I don't like is the doors seem to rattle on the latches a bit when you hit a bump.

I'm more used to older less refined vehicles and this new quiet stuff makes me tend to speed a lot more

These trucks have the expanding foam in the pillars don't they? When I finally get my '70 crewcab restored I'm gonna pump some of that into all the pillars. Lots of Dynamat too. Then maybe I'll go back to driving something I can actually work on...

 

My truck seems pretty quiet for road noise but when you factor in the ash tray rattling around and my back window rattling I need to have the radio up to drown those sounds out. I also dynamatted my floors and that helped considerably with road noise.