Fire Extinguishers

[Excaliber]

Carry mine in the trunk.

Really more for looks than practical use.

Yup, yup, that pretty well nails my car.

[jwd]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

I'm curious about the statement regarding plumbed systems. While I agree a plumbed system cannot be aimed, they are used on a lot of race cars and seem to function there. And specifically on the NHRA Funny Cars with their systems.

Am I'm missing something Jim?

Hi John,

Fixed systems in race cars are designed only to protect the driver. They really don't protect the car. Total discharge time on those sytems is typically only a few seconds (and that's with a large bottle and very few nozzles). That knocks the fire down long enough to get the car stopped and to get out. The only funny cars I've seen that didn't burn to the ground were blower explosions which typically blow themselves out. Any kind of an oil leak/fire, kiss the car goodbye.
On a street driven car, there are several instances where a fixed system would be useless. The above mentioned oil leak fire, a gas fed fire, a brake fire, an electrical fire and any fire where there isn't a nozzle. All the systems I've seen are a "deluge system" where once activated, all nozzles discharge. That means your bottle will empty immediately, since nozzles away from the fire discharge as well.
If you want the "race car" look, install one of those systems (and have good insurance) but if you really want to protect your car, get a Halon type AND a dry chemical extinguisher and know how to use them.

Jim

[Argess]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

I'm curious about the statement regarding plumbed systems. While I agree a plumbed system cannot be aimed, they are used on a lot of race cars and seem to function there. And specifically on the NHRA Funny Cars with their systems.

Am I'm missing something Jim?

I would imagine "shear volume". Big enough bottle and it will extinguish everything. Don't want a great big bottle in my car.

Also, in an accident, it goes off, possibly saving the driver's life. Most of what we've been are talking about here is related to saving the car in the event of a malfuntion such as a fuel leak. It wasn't meant to address saving the driver in the event of an accident, although it would be a nice "plus" for a plumbed system.

EDIT: Shoot, JWD got his post out whiel i was typing, so I covered old territory

[Silverback51]

Originally Posted by Argess

I would imagine "shear volume". Big enough bottle and it will extinguish everything. Don't want a great big bottle in my car.

Also, in an accident, it goes off, possibly saving the driver's life. Most of what we've been are talking about here is related to saving the car in the event of a malfuntion such as a fuel leak. It wasn't meant to address saving the driver in the event of an accident, although it would be a nice "plus" for a plumbed system.

EDIT: Shoot, JWD got his post out whiel i was typing, so I covered old territory

And thank you to both you and Jim for your replies.

Maybe I will scratch the plumbed system off my list of Winter projects.

[Excaliber]

I had an engine fire on my Jaguar V-12. Being as it was an older car and I KNEW it was prone to engine fires I kept TWO extinguishers with me. I even practiced getting them out of the trunk, opening the hood, etc.

Sure enough, the day came! By golly it DID take two. One "almost" did the job, had to bust out #2 to finish it off. Dry chemical, what a mess that was to clean up. Not much damage to the engine/car though.

[Rwillia4]

I have an extingisher mounted on the left side of the driver seat on the floor. Two reasons: first I don't think even a crome fire extingisher is that sexy, second I want anyone to be able to access it without having to reach deep into a car that is on fire. And finally it sits discreetly out of the way from my 3 years olds finger that have left prints everywhere else in my car!!

[COBRANIP]

For me the value of the Halon (fixed) system is, if you are in an accident and injured, you may not be able to exit the car as fast as uninjured and it will buy you a little time (and easy to activate even if injured). If uninjured (and you have time) you have the option to just use a dry chemical bottle. Yeah. Belt and suspenders!

[Ron61]

I don't know about all of the track rules in other places but here you are required to have the plumbed system with nozzles aimed at the carb, inside aimed at the drivers lower foot well and covering his legs, and now at the fuel cell. You can also carry the bottles like I had but without the plumbed system, they won't get past inspection at the track. Also in a wreck on the track the driver is kept away from the car so the safety crews which do have big hand held ones can get to it.

From a street stand point the plumed ones don't really justify the expense in my opinion.

Ron

[dcdoug]

Here are a couple of other options for fire extinguisher mounting. I didn't want it in the way of my elbow or anything else I might want to temporarily put on the center console. Its not like there are many places to put things in the cockpit.....

The extinguisher is the 1.xlbs (forget the exact size, but is the small one) halon.

Doug

[BigRed427]

I used to carry a replacement cost insurance card in my Cobra.
It had to be re-charged every 6 months, but never had to worry about getting burned if there was ever a fire.