The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → How to keep cool under firesuit???
I'm going to be racing in the Lemons Fall Race in South Carolina and its going to be really hot. How could you keep from getting overheated while driving the car in a full firesuit? Can you put cold packs or ice packs inside your suit or is this a bad idea?
A cool shirt will help. It's a T-Shirt with a maze of water tubes attached to it. The shirt has hoses which attach to a cooler and pump unit. Keep the cooler full of ice water and you have a nice, comfortable suit.
They use an almost identical system in the medical field for injuries. Rather than a cool shirt, the water is piped through a cuff that can be used in place of ice bags on knees, ankles, or other joints. The fittings are the same between the race and medical units.
All you have to do is throw your least favorite team member down a flight of stairs. The hospital will set him up with an ice system and his insurance will pay for it to boot! All you will need is the T-Shirts and you'll be good to go. Of course your buddy will likely be watching the action from the sidelines while in a cast, but at least you'll be comfy in the race car.
We have already built and tested a DIY cool suit cooler w/ pump. I'm working on a shirt for myself right now.
http://specthismiata.com/2008/08/03/hom … rt-system/
The cool suit is definitely the best bet. You don't want your suit wet with melted ice, even with water. Not only will this increase the general skank factor, but the water will boil and scald you in the event of a fire.
And that DIY one is AWESOME. I'm not so sure that it's easier than just going out and buying one....but hey, that's the Lemons spirit!
We have already built and tested a DIY cool suit cooler w/ pump. I'm working on a shirt for myself right now.
We built one very similar to this for the Lemons at CMP last fall. It made a huge difference! The cooler had to be refreshed with ice about every 2 - 3 hours. Well worth all of the effort.
These are the typical DIY cool suit quick disconnects. They DO NOT work with the new style Cool Shirt breakway fittings. I'm using a pair of the male ones ("inserts") for my shirt because I got them for free and its what we are using for our homebrew system.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/produc … t_id=33869
Manufacturer: Colder, PLC series, http://www.colder.com/Products/tabid/69 … roductId=9
Plastic hose clamps:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/produc … ct_id=8236
If I cannot convince the team to buy breakaway fittings, I'll probably make some adapter hoses with breakaway fittings so I don't have to unclip during a hasty exit.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/produc … t_id=33766
Manufacturer: http://www.colder.com/Products/Plastic/ … ductId=249
What kind of tubing are you using on your shirt? I've heard that there's a good kind of aquarium air line hose to use. It would seem that the idea hose would be thin-walled and flexible, which disqualifies a wide range of narrow-diameter vinyl hose.
I'm using clear PVC tubing.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/produc … t_id=31530
Here's a good link to another guy who fabbed up a similar system. It has some useful photos too:
http://www.gt40s.com/forum/how-racing-s … -earp.html
Thanks for the link. I think I'll try making a cool shirt myself.
A cheaper option are cool vests which use "phase changing" material. They're essentially high tech ice packs but they cool down to about 60 degrees (they won't burn/melt like ice), and the manufacturers claim they will stay cool for up to about 2.5 hours in 100 degree heat (fine for the stints we're planning), and then can be "re-frozen" in 20-30 mins in cold water (ie the beer water in your cooler). Actual freezing not needed.
http://www.coolsport.net/index2.html
The first company even offers a flame retardant version. I'm leaning towards this solution for simplicity and ease of swapping from driver to driver.
What kind of tubing are you using on your shirt? I've heard that there's a good kind of aquarium air line hose to use. It would seem that the idea hose would be thin-walled and flexible, which disqualifies a wide range of narrow-diameter vinyl hose.
We used clear like 1/4 inch tubing from Home Depot. We used about 120 feet to make 4 shirts.
Wow, I really want to try that DIY cool shirt idea above. Looks great! Problem is making one for all 6 drivers!
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → How to keep cool under firesuit???