Topic: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Noob team here getting ready to race in a few weeks and had the car/team out for lapping/shakedown the other day.
One of the things we were trying out was our hans device which is the Zamp Z-Tech 6A. The consensus was that we kind of hated it. It seemed uncomfortable across the board and for me personally, it was so restrictive in head movement that I wasn't able to see my right side mirror.
We're all close to the same height and weight so we're planning to share 1 device between us, and we're now looking at other options. What have you got? Do you like it?

Thanks!

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Order the Stand21 from Demontweeks out of the UK if you have at least 4 weeks to your race.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/us/stand21 … ce-349958/

Also order enough post sets for the whole team plus one extra.  This is a huge money saver over buying from the US.

This is alassuming no one has an old collar bone injury that will be agravated by the common HANS style.

We run the earlier ZAMP and it is less than ideal.  The newer one looks much better but there is a significant advantage to running a HANS set of posts if someone decides to do an arrive and drive with another team.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

And to be clear, had we known of the UK connection when we bought out ZAMP...we would not have bought our ZAMP.  We bought the Second one because now were were invested in the "ecosystem" (like once you buy one battery drill...everything uses that battery moving forward) with 7 guys having gotten the ZAMP posts.

4 (edited by Team Infinniti 2022-05-15 08:07 AM)

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Like my NexGen but haven't tried others so no clue if its best.

Comments: Like anything else, it takes a little getting used to but can say with 100% certainty it has saved me from injury in a bad crash (short track run what you brung enduro, me in focus vs a caddy)

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Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Another vote for NexGen. I picked it after renting a Hans and seeing what a pain whatever version of the Zamp was to set up.

I didn't hate the Hans, but my nebulous aspirations have me driving something very low to the ground at some point in the future and the Hans has/had different designs for different seat laybacks.

That guy

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Jimmydoorlocks wrote:

(snip) One of the things we were trying out was our hans device which is the Zamp Z-Tech 6A. The consensus was that we kind of hated it. It seemed uncomfortable across the board and for me personally, it was so restrictive in head movement that I wasn't able to see my right side mirror. (snip)

I have that device also, and experienced the same issue seeing the right side mirror during my one experience at Lemons, which was practice on Friday, and on my first two stints which were on Saturday.

I loosened the strap. Just a little. Much better on Sunday, though still restrictive.

The SFI 38.1 standard test is a straight-on impact. It doesn't test off-angle impacts, and so has no data in that area. At least one manufacturer says they test that, but I didn't see a standard or test requirement. So I'm going to say these are only tested to a frontal impact requirement.

And that any other claims are "marketing".

If you're thinking about these restraining lateral movement - perhaps they do; perhaps not. I think they do - to some degree.

After my Saturday experience, I looked around at how other drivers were set up. I may have asked my teammates, maybe not. Regardless, I looked around quietly. One might say, surreptitiously.

Some drivers' restraints had the straps _very_ loose. I don't know if it was the unit, or an adjustment by someone; I don't know if they were shared units, or not.

Regardless, some drivers had just about full range-of-motion when getting into their cars, usually associated with those very loose straps.

I can easily make the argument that being able to see around you while driving, not even racing, can help avoid collisions. And that _that_ capability is critical for safety for all around.

A corollary premise is that severely restricted head movement might increase the chance of collision, and therefore injury.

Straps that are too loose may not protect the driver wearing the unit, but they would presumably give a greater range-of-motion for that driver to avoid a collision.

So: perhaps the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.

I kept mine fairly restrictive. And kept to the right as much as possible. And really didn't pass anyone.

I'm going to take a long, close, hard look at my H&NR before the next time I'm in track. It wasn't the best right out of the box. But it is adjustable to a very large degree. It just takes time.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

OnkelUdo wrote:

Order the Stand21 from Demontweeks out of the UK if you have at least 4 weeks to your race.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/us/stand21 … ce-349958/

Also order enough post sets for the whole team plus one extra.  This is a huge money saver over buying from the US.

This is alassuming no one has an old collar bone injury that will be agravated by the common HANS style.

We run the earlier ZAMP and it is less than ideal.  The newer one looks much better but there is a significant advantage to running a HANS set of posts if someone decides to do an arrive and drive with another team.


The Stand21 looks good and I like the way it doesn't seem to restrict side to side (head turning) movement. Bummer is that we race in 3 weeks and I'm not sure a delivery from the UK will get here in time. That being said, we bought our seats from Murray Motorsports in Dublin and they were a great price and pretty quick on the delivery.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

DirtyDuc wrote:

Another vote for NexGen. I picked it after renting a Hans and seeing what a pain whatever version of the Zamp was to set up.

I didn't hate the Hans, but my nebulous aspirations have me driving something very low to the ground at some point in the future and the Hans has/had different designs for different seat laybacks.

I really like the low profile look of the Necksgen and without hard plastic on the collarbones, it's got to be pretty comfortable. How is the side to side (head turning) range of motion? That's one of my biggest gripes with the Zamp.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Lemon_Newton-Metre wrote:
Jimmydoorlocks wrote:

(snip) One of the things we were trying out was our hans device which is the Zamp Z-Tech 6A. The consensus was that we kind of hated it. It seemed uncomfortable across the board and for me personally, it was so restrictive in head movement that I wasn't able to see my right side mirror. (snip)

I have that device also, and experienced the same issue seeing the right side mirror during my one experience at Lemons, which was practice on Friday, and on my first two stints which were on Saturday.

I loosened the strap. Just a little. Much better on Sunday, though still restrictive.

The SFI 38.1 standard test is a straight-on impact. It doesn't test off-angle impacts, and so has no data in that area. At least one manufacturer says they test that, but I didn't see a standard or test requirement. So I'm going to say these are only tested to a frontal impact requirement.

And that any other claims are "marketing".

If you're thinking about these restraining lateral movement - perhaps they do; perhaps not. I think they do - to some degree.

After my Saturday experience, I looked around at how other drivers were set up. I may have asked my teammates, maybe not. Regardless, I looked around quietly. One might say, surreptitiously.

Some drivers' restraints had the straps _very_ loose. I don't know if it was the unit, or an adjustment by someone; I don't know if they were shared units, or not.

Regardless, some drivers had just about full range-of-motion when getting into their cars, usually associated with those very loose straps.

I can easily make the argument that being able to see around you while driving, not even racing, can help avoid collisions. And that _that_ capability is critical for safety for all around.

A corollary premise is that severely restricted head movement might increase the chance of collision, and therefore injury.

Straps that are too loose may not protect the driver wearing the unit, but they would presumably give a greater range-of-motion for that driver to avoid a collision.

So: perhaps the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.

I kept mine fairly restrictive. And kept to the right as much as possible. And really didn't pass anyone.

I'm going to take a long, close, hard look at my H&NR before the next time I'm in track. It wasn't the best right out of the box. But it is adjustable to a very large degree. It just takes time.

I think we have the strap about as loose as it can go, and I still have to strain to see past the right A-pillar. Safety is, of course first, but being comfortable and having good visibility go a long way towards being safe. Also, after about 45 minutes behind the wheel at our track day last week, I started getting motion sickness, which is pretty unusual for me. Thinking about it later it occurred to me that the restricted head movement/vision could be a contributing factor and now I'm on the hunt for something more comfortable with better visibility.
It's so hard to know what the right thing to do is...

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Jimmydoorlocks wrote:
DirtyDuc wrote:

Another vote for NexGen. I picked it after renting a Hans and seeing what a pain whatever version of the Zamp was to set up.

I didn't hate the Hans, but my nebulous aspirations have me driving something very low to the ground at some point in the future and the Hans has/had different designs for different seat laybacks.

I really like the low profile look of the Necksgen and without hard plastic on the collarbones, it's got to be pretty comfortable. How is the side to side (head turning) range of motion? That's one of my biggest gripes with the Zamp.

While driving I don't notice any restriction, but it's not like you can shoulder check while you are strapped in. I haven't really sat in a containment seat, but I would expect them to be more restrictive than the NecksGen (NexGen, nexgen, whatever).

That guy

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

OnkelUdo wrote:

Order the Stand21 from Demontweeks out of the UK if you have at least 4 weeks to your race.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/us/stand21 … ce-349958/

Also order enough post sets for the whole team plus one extra.  This is a huge money saver over buying from the US.

This is alassuming no one has an old collar bone injury that will be agravated by the common HANS style.

We run the earlier ZAMP and it is less than ideal.  The newer one looks much better but there is a significant advantage to running a HANS set of posts if someone decides to do an arrive and drive with another team.

I bought a Simpson HANS from the UK about 6 years ago with FIA cert.  Much cheaper.  When it needed a re-cert five years later I sent to Simpson in Los Angeles and it came back with a shiny new SFI sticker and new tethers.

Who re-certifies the Stand21 in the US?

I chose the HANS brand because it was the most prevalent in the paddock.  We have shared one between the team for years.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

DirtyDuc wrote:

While driving I don't notice any restriction, but it's not like you can shoulder check while you are strapped in. I haven't really sat in a containment seat, but I would expect them to be more restrictive than the NecksGen (NexGen, nexgen, whatever).

This is also my experience with my NecksGen REV, which I've now had long enough that I had to have it recertified a few months ago (a process which went quickly and smoothly at a reasonable price, by the way). I have no experience with containment seats, either, although I share DirtyDuc's suspicion that this would be more restrictive than the NecksGen itself.

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13

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

We use HANS brand HANS (gen III). 

When in the car I really don't notice it at all.  We have a halo seat though and have limited room for head movement already so perhaps I'd feel differently in a different seat.  We already have to look with our eyes and not so much with our heads.  wink 

My wife has a medium size and I have a large.  I was hoping we could share one but she found the large size uncomfortable and I felt like the blood flow to my head was being restricted with the medium.  We lend them out as needed to other teammates.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Jimmydoorlocks wrote:

Noob team here getting ready to race in a few weeks and had the car/team out for lapping/shakedown the other day.
One of the things we were trying out was our hans device which is the Zamp Z-Tech 6A. The consensus was that we kind of hated it. It seemed uncomfortable across the board and for me personally, it was so restrictive in head movement that I wasn't able to see my right side mirror.
We're all close to the same height and weight so we're planning to share 1 device between us, and we're now looking at other options. What have you got? Do you like it?

Thanks!

I've tried a couple different Simpsons, the necksgen lineup, and a couple Zamps. Zamp was the heaviest and least comfortable by a mile... so you aren't wrong. They are the cheapest though by about half, so I don't want to say they suck since you really get what you pay for.

I liked both the simpson and necksgen offerings; the simpson seems like a safer design while the necksgen seems more universal, simple, and likely a better option if being shared between drivers of different body shapes. I've tried both the necksgen rev and rev 2 lite and the rev 2 adjustable tether would catch my helmet when turning my head basically locking my head in place... drove me absolutely nuts. I reached out to necksgen (amazing customer service) and they wrote me a check for my purchase price even though I was outside of the retailers return period and I didn't purchase it from them. A great deal came up used for a rev (non adjustable tether) and it doesn't have this same issue and it works great for me.

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Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

rb92673 wrote:
OnkelUdo wrote:

Order the Stand21 from Demontweeks out of the UK if you have at least 4 weeks to your race.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/us/stand21 … ce-349958/

Also order enough post sets for the whole team plus one extra.  This is a huge money saver over buying from the US.

This is alassuming no one has an old collar bone injury that will be agravated by the common HANS style.

We run the earlier ZAMP and it is less than ideal.  The newer one looks much better but there is a significant advantage to running a HANS set of posts if someone decides to do an arrive and drive with another team.

I bought a Simpson HANS from the UK about 6 years ago with FIA cert.  Much cheaper.  When it needed a re-cert five years later I sent to Simpson in Los Angeles and it came back with a shiny new SFI sticker and new tethers.

Who re-certifies the Stand21 in the US?

I chose the HANS brand because it was the most prevalent in the paddock.  We have shared one between the team for years.

Stand 21 sells in the US as well so would have to contact them to be sure.  The same unit in the US without anchors as well is $399.

16 (edited by VKZ24 2022-05-17 06:14 AM)

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

When the use of a H&N device was first mandated in Lemons, IIRC, the three main options were the HANS, ZAMP, and, NEXGEN.  I resisted buying the HANS for the simple reason I thought the manufacturer was gouging the end user.  Even though the price has come down a good bit over the last few years, I still think they are gouging us.  Back when I got mine in 2015, IIRC the MSRP for the cheapest model was over $600.00.  I mean it's basically a piece of plastic with a short section of belt material attached to it.   The build cost must be like $50 per unit.

I've heard both the soapbox answers like "HANS had to pay for all that R&D" or  "The price point is based on the market", but I don't agree.  First, F1 paid for all that R&D long before Lemons ever thought about a H&N rule.  Second, the price point (at that time) was based on "we have no competition" mainly because (what I heard) that they (HANS) wrote the SFI testing rules.  When they say "You can't put a price on safety", well maybe *you* [the end user] can't, but *they* [the manufacturer] sure as hell can, and they do.

With all the above in mind, I tried both the NEXGEN and ZAMP, and really didn't like either, mostly due to the limited of side-to-side head movement.  I ended up borrowing a HANS [with their sliding tether system] from a friend for the first race.  Once in the car with it cinched down over my shoulder blades, I'd have to say it was not comfortable at all.  As I was doing the parade laps to start the race I was thinking "How in the hell am I going to wear this thing for TWO HOURS!"  About 30 mins into the race we had a FCY, and I noticed that I had completely forgot I was wearing the damn thing, so I guess it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I thought.  I ended up buying that HANS from my friend since we was getting out of Lemons.

OK, rant over...LOL.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
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Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! All great info and useful opinions.
Here's a quick update on where we are with this decision today: One of my teammates has been doing some research and thinks that we simply don't have the Zamp adjusted correctly, so we're going to look into that this weekend. In addition, I went ahead and bought the Stand 21 Club Series 3 and posts for the team domestically and it'll be here tomorrow. If we had the luxury of time, I would have probably sourced it from the UK, but we're racing in a couple weeks and I didn't want to risk not getting it in time. Also, if we decided that we don't like it, or just want to stick with the Zamp, it's probably easier to return something purchased in the states. I went with the Stand 21 for 2 reasons: 1) I read on another forum that it is manufactured under a licensing agreement with HANS and is identical to the HANS III other than the brand label, and where it's made, and it's almost $100 less. (Don't quote me on that. I read it on a forum and it's possible that the person who wrote it didn't have all the facts) 2) I like the free floating strap that allows for side to side head turning movement. We have a full containment halo seat so I'm not trying to shoulder check or anything, just want to be able to see my mirrors without straining.
Once I receive the Stand 21 and have a chance to do a good side by side with the Zamp this weekend, I'll post a follow up and let you all know what we think as a team.
If you have more opinions, keep responding. I know we can't be the only team who's struggling with things like this.

Re: What are you guys using for HANS, and do you like it?

Adding a vote for Necksgen.

Kevin the company founder/owner races Lemons, on my team at times, and is developing additional products that are endurance racing friendly. There is almost always a trade in offer for a non Necksgen device, reach out to the company to confirm.

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