Jason Clark
EF0
Hey guys, thought I would put up a small bit on my 90% complete chase vehicle for the 2012 season. I'm fairly new to chasing and don't have much confidence in being able to avoid hail this year, I'm learning but at some point you have to skin your knees. My goal was to keep my car as my daily driver, be able to get out of significant hail (baseball or smaller with the understanding that the glass will most likely still break but that I won't have a baseball size chunk of ice in my lap) and be able to get out of the car fast in case I get rolled or pinned against something. I also want to be able to fix anything that breaks with minimal tools and supplies I can get from any home depot, so no specialty material and minimal welding. I also don't have any real machine tools, so this is all done by hand. I have a hack saw, a hand drill, a crappy drill press, a rubber mallet (I lost my hammer somewhere, so that's what we've got), a bench vise, some pliers and a pair of tin snips. My. hands. ache.
The car is a 2006 Ford Freestyle AWD that I bought at 50k and have done all of the scheduled maintenance on (those CVT services are expensive!). The first thing I did was Line-X premium on all of the horizontal surfaces, mostly for looks to be perfectly honest.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510427104648098
That was pretty much the only easy part. Next came a LOT of engineering and prototyping (Prototype until you're poor!) to get to where it's at today. I already had a yakima rack installed and I reenforced the factory roof mounts while the Line-X was being done, so I knew I wanted to use that as my base. It also worked out well because, at least in theory, come winter I should be able to remove the entire system and hang it on a wall until spring or if 2012 is any sign, later that winter. I picked up some 1.25 4130 to act as my main bars and some .5 4130 to act as my cage frames. I used DJ brackets for my cage hinges which worked out very well. They are designed to hold lights and speakers onto DJ Truss systems and can put up with a lot of abuse. They are toolless and have quick-ish connects to make install and removal easy. The main bars act like hinge pins for the clamps and the cage bars screw right into the bottom of the clamp with large M10 bolts. The bottom of the cage is 1 inch aluminum square bar and the top is 1/4 inch aluminum flat bar.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5711778063825932018
The clamps are held to the frame with 4 machine screws and the tension provided by the 4130 cage bars.
The main bars are split into 3 pieces; the permanent main bars, the windshield frame and the rear window frame. Everything is held together with 1/2 inch pins in 4 different places.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510334908602178
The screen material I choose is some 14 gauge garden wire from Lowes that has a .5 inch by 1 inch opening leaving about an 87% viewable area. It's very easy to see through once you get the galvanized shine off
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510515267489522
The screens are anchored at the bottom with a shock absorbing mounting bracket that I made out of more 1/4 inch aluminum flat bar, some traxxas RC car hydraulic shocks, some rubber stops and some strong magnets. I put a pair of shocks on each frame and they absorb the first 12lbs of impact before the screen has to dissipate the remaining force. I know that depending on where the hail hits those numbers won't hold true, but I get to use best case scenario math since I'm the author, my droogs.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400113598473474
All of the cage material is covered in spray on bed liner from home depot, the clamps came in black, the 4130 and aluminum frame work has all been powder coated and the shaft couplers that I use to adjust the cage positions are plasti-dip. The screws are all M10 socket head screws, some of which I pressed yellow T-Handles onto to make them toolless. So here is an underexposed shot with all of the cages down, I'm missing the material to go over the windshield (ran out)
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400036936336210
Here are the cages folded up into the roof for long travels. Notice that the shocks fold flat into the cage when they are stored and then drop down to 90 degrees when they are deployed.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400104396343794
And here is a shot from the back giving you an idea of how the caps look.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400087299517874
I've tested the cages with baseballs thrown like a girl, golf balls, large rock lobbed gently in the cars general direction and a baseball bat (my neighbors thing I'm totally nuts at this point) and they have survived with some dents and chipped paint. The cages themselves are actually just pressure fit onto the bars with some very small zip ties in various places to keep them quiet. They stay in place when being impacted, but I can push them out of the frame in case I get rolled and need to get out RTFN. The moon roof and windshield aren't in the pictures yet because I ran out of stuff, but they are covered too.
Cost was around $950, total weight is around 110lbs spread across the car and I lost about 2mpg when I drive with the cages down. With the cages up I don't notice a difference, but that large spoiler on the very first bar redirects the air over everything when the cages are stored. Noise isn't bad at all unless I have the windows down, then the cages whistle. I have no rattles to speak of thanks to the powder coat tightening everything up. I have some more construction pictures on my google + page, give me a shout if you see me this spring!
The car is a 2006 Ford Freestyle AWD that I bought at 50k and have done all of the scheduled maintenance on (those CVT services are expensive!). The first thing I did was Line-X premium on all of the horizontal surfaces, mostly for looks to be perfectly honest.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510427104648098
That was pretty much the only easy part. Next came a LOT of engineering and prototyping (Prototype until you're poor!) to get to where it's at today. I already had a yakima rack installed and I reenforced the factory roof mounts while the Line-X was being done, so I knew I wanted to use that as my base. It also worked out well because, at least in theory, come winter I should be able to remove the entire system and hang it on a wall until spring or if 2012 is any sign, later that winter. I picked up some 1.25 4130 to act as my main bars and some .5 4130 to act as my cage frames. I used DJ brackets for my cage hinges which worked out very well. They are designed to hold lights and speakers onto DJ Truss systems and can put up with a lot of abuse. They are toolless and have quick-ish connects to make install and removal easy. The main bars act like hinge pins for the clamps and the cage bars screw right into the bottom of the clamp with large M10 bolts. The bottom of the cage is 1 inch aluminum square bar and the top is 1/4 inch aluminum flat bar.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5711778063825932018
The clamps are held to the frame with 4 machine screws and the tension provided by the 4130 cage bars.
The main bars are split into 3 pieces; the permanent main bars, the windshield frame and the rear window frame. Everything is held together with 1/2 inch pins in 4 different places.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510334908602178
The screen material I choose is some 14 gauge garden wire from Lowes that has a .5 inch by 1 inch opening leaving about an 87% viewable area. It's very easy to see through once you get the galvanized shine off
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5712510515267489522
The screens are anchored at the bottom with a shock absorbing mounting bracket that I made out of more 1/4 inch aluminum flat bar, some traxxas RC car hydraulic shocks, some rubber stops and some strong magnets. I put a pair of shocks on each frame and they absorb the first 12lbs of impact before the screen has to dissipate the remaining force. I know that depending on where the hail hits those numbers won't hold true, but I get to use best case scenario math since I'm the author, my droogs.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400113598473474
All of the cage material is covered in spray on bed liner from home depot, the clamps came in black, the 4130 and aluminum frame work has all been powder coated and the shaft couplers that I use to adjust the cage positions are plasti-dip. The screws are all M10 socket head screws, some of which I pressed yellow T-Handles onto to make them toolless. So here is an underexposed shot with all of the cages down, I'm missing the material to go over the windshield (ran out)
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400036936336210
Here are the cages folded up into the roof for long travels. Notice that the shocks fold flat into the cage when they are stored and then drop down to 90 degrees when they are deployed.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400104396343794
And here is a shot from the back giving you an idea of how the caps look.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108388884267707175692/albums/5711780700189456689/5721400087299517874
I've tested the cages with baseballs thrown like a girl, golf balls, large rock lobbed gently in the cars general direction and a baseball bat (my neighbors thing I'm totally nuts at this point) and they have survived with some dents and chipped paint. The cages themselves are actually just pressure fit onto the bars with some very small zip ties in various places to keep them quiet. They stay in place when being impacted, but I can push them out of the frame in case I get rolled and need to get out RTFN. The moon roof and windshield aren't in the pictures yet because I ran out of stuff, but they are covered too.
Cost was around $950, total weight is around 110lbs spread across the car and I lost about 2mpg when I drive with the cages down. With the cages up I don't notice a difference, but that large spoiler on the very first bar redirects the air over everything when the cages are stored. Noise isn't bad at all unless I have the windows down, then the cages whistle. I have no rattles to speak of thanks to the powder coat tightening everything up. I have some more construction pictures on my google + page, give me a shout if you see me this spring!
