Stormchasing Car - Storm shield prototype v1.0

[Joshua Nall]

What size is that wire screen are what ever you call it? It does look big but I'm betting a 2" hailstone would have a hard time getting through there. Also is that a snorkel on the passenger side? OT, but if you really have your engine sealed its crazy what folks do with snorkels. Saw a guy on video drive a samurai unto a lake until he was breathing with his mouth held up by the roof. Did a uturn and drove right out.

I ended up using expanded metal... mainly because it was cheap and strong enough that I could walk around on it. I used golf netting for the part that sticks out over the window, to cut down on weight. The netting is supposed to have a 160lb breaking strength, each individual string, but it looks a little weak. We will see...
If I get into some large hail flying sideways then the side windows will just have to take their chances, as I didn't get fancy with trying to cover them

 

[rogeressig]

When the "rails" are down, how do you get in or out of your car?

The subaru comes with Pillarless doors!

 

[rogeressig]

Interesting design [as I am currently working on building my own.] I too am wondering how you enter and exit the vehicle when they are deployed and also is there anything to secure the bottom edges down to the doors or do they just sort of rest there?

When the windows are down, the doors open fully as there are no window frames on the doors. At the moment the hinges stop the frames from touching the doors, i will add rubber stoppers. Not sure of the exact way i will utilize the shields, My primary goal is to be able to film out of an open window with no rain coming in. The cage will need a way to stay up to stop rain. I will be adding high impact perspex to the grid sections.

 

[rogeressig]

cage is actually off a bedframe, it is really lightweight metal, very thin and any decent sized hail will surely deform it. I will add perspex to it and test it out. This is just a basic prototype for now, and it sure is fun playing around and experimenting. windscreen protection may be in the works, will be based on the same fold-up principle. One of the main goals is to make this into an external sunshade also, because I've had internal equipment failure due to sun damage! Also this is probvably highly illegal so I'm making it so it can simply fold away into the roofrack. Aussie laws are very stringent!

 

[rogeressig]

With guards of that size, could you just have them lock in a horizontal position, like awnings? Of course you might run into clearance issues then.

I definately want to have them be able to lock in a horizonal position also. Not while driving, but for timelapse footage of storm events while parked.

 

[rogeressig]

I'm currently working on our design as well. It is a challenge for sure. Tons of variables to think about. Functionality, deployment measures, safety, structural integrity with driving, hail, and high winds, line of site for viewing storms and video, etc... We have the base rack completed and are working on front and side electronic deployment racks that use actuators to drive them out. The only manual thing we will have to do out of the vehicle will be to lock in the front support for the windshield rack once it's deployed. The whole design has changed twice so I'm sure we'll run into more engineering issues as we get further into it but we'll see.

sounds excellent! it's a fun process and quite challenging to do responsibly. I want all doors to be openable with the shields deployed. (doors have no window frames!) Rear door shields will need to be trimmed back, or i could investigate a way to make rear windows go down fully.

 

[rogeressig]

What size is that wire screen are what ever you call it? It does look big but I'm betting a 2" hailstone would have a hard time getting through there. Also is that a snorkel on the passenger side? OT, but if you really have your engine sealed its crazy what folks do with snorkels. Saw a guy on video drive a samurai unto a lake until he was breathing with his mouth held up by the roof. Did a uturn and drove right out.

I ended up using expanded metal... mainly because it was cheap and strong enough that I could walk around on it. I used golf netting for the part that sticks out over the window, to cut down on weight. The netting is supposed to have a 160lb breaking strength, each individual string, but it looks a little weak. We will see...
If I get into some large hail flying sideways then the side windows will just have to take their chances, as I didn't get fancy with trying to cover them

yep its a fully connected snorkel, although my car has issues with deep water because of distributor area. rubber gloves work well i've heard! I will be adding more to the mesh, I have high impact perspex that i will try. Golf netting sounds good! My main goal is to stop rain from entering the car with the windows down, and to shield against the sun while camping, etc.

 

[Jarrod Barnett]

You can put the rails down then climb through the back hatch. Problem solved.... other than the holes are too big on the "shields".

 

[Scott MacArthur]

We experimented with the concept of having the windows covered like your model but ended up going with an extended horizontal design. Safer, faster deployment, and easier overall functionality. We'll see what happens when field tested though

 

[Dan Robinson]

Seems like the horizontal 'awning' extension is the way to go with these. You just have to calculate what the maximum probable angle a wind-blown baseball will be coming in from - has anyone made that calculation?

 

[Tyler Allison]

90degrees...no seriously

 

[Scott MacArthur]

Seems like the horizontal 'awning' extension is the way to go with these. You just have to calculate what the maximum probable angle a wind-blown baseball will be coming in from - has anyone made that calculation?

That's the stage we are experimenting with right now, can we support the rack enough in our design to get the horizontal extension we need to protect the side windows. That is the question

 

[Dan Robinson]

90degrees...no seriously

Maximum probable, rather than maximum possible IE, what is the best balance between side clearance and the acceptable probability that you'll be in baseballs in winds over a certain value. If I was the chaser I was 5 years ago (actually motivated enough about Plains chasing to install a hail guard), that would be my main question. The option of covering the windows with a guard seemed out for me, due to the inability to take pictures through it. An ideal guard in my mind wouldn't even need deploying, just a full-time horizontal awning that would protect against 90% of possible large hail falling under a certain wind speed.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If you really wanted to get sophisticated, have the horizontal awning extend out 12 inches or so to protect from any golf balls falling in winds of 30mph or less. Then, have an additional 'flap' hinged on each awning that could be deployed remotely (I'm thinking cables/pulleys), increasing the horizontal extension by another 12-16 inches (if the wind speed/hail size resulted in stones coming in from a lower angle).

 

[Scott MacArthur]

If you really wanted to get sophisticated, have the horizontal awning extend out 12 inches or so to protect from any golf balls falling in winds of 30mph or less. Then, have an additional 'flap' hinged on each awning that could be deployed remotely (I'm thinking cables/pulleys), increasing the horizontal extension by another 12-16 inches (if the wind speed/hail size resulted in stones coming in from a lower angle).

That's just about what we have in production right now. There's a base rack (undeployed) that hangs over just a bit to still allow video and photography then linear actuators push out extensions another 2-3 feet for total protection. Can deploy it from a button inside. The windshield is the tough part as the deployed part will be about 4ft from the supports on the roof. There may need to be some manually deployed supports added up front to add some structural integrity to that section.