Friday 7th February 2003
Splat!
Nodding dog becomes splodded dog
Discussion
In a decent front end accident you could be looking at putting a load equivalent to about 20 times the weight of the dog on the roof stay! I feel it would be unlikely to survive (the roof stay at least!) It might be better to get something put through the floor and into one of the back body mounting bolts or round the top rear chassis member!
Avocet said: In a decent front end accident you could be looking at putting a load equivalent to about 20 times the weight of the dog on the roof stay! I feel it would be unlikely to survive (the roof stay at least!) It might be better to get something put through the floor and into one of the back body mounting bolts or round the top rear chassis member!
Very true.. this was the setup in the S.. the Chim is a bit different with strong webbing straps running between the roof stays and the harness to that.. I'm going to reinforce the area that the stays bolt through to at some point to prevent them potentially pulling out, either that or get a roll bar fitted.
I reckon if the roofs on, the stays would probably be fine as the whole lot is sprung against the roof.. roof off you're probably right that the stays would pull out, however in that situation the loads are a bit different due to the position of the roof stays in folded form.. best thing is not to have an accident
Matt
But in the photo, the dog is tied to the centre (nearly) of the strut. As it got tugged forwards it would release the tension on the stay and the roof panel would tend to pop out (although the other stay might be enough to hold it).
Not sure what you mean about the loads on the stays. When the roof is up, there's a downward and backward load on the rear bulkhead. When the roof is down, there's no load on it -well not until you crash and the dog pulls on it anyway!
Not sure what you mean about the loads on the stays. When the roof is up, there's a downward and backward load on the rear bulkhead. When the roof is down, there's no load on it -well not until you crash and the dog pulls on it anyway!
Avocet said: But in the photo, the dog is tied to the centre (nearly) of the strut. As it got tugged forwards it would release the tension on the stay and the roof panel would tend to pop out (although the other stay might be enough to hold it).
Not sure what you mean about the loads on the stays. When the roof is up, there's a downward and backward load on the rear bulkhead. When the roof is down, there's no load on it -well not until you crash and the dog pulls on it anyway!
Indeed you are right.. I hadn't set up the photo to be an example of how to harness the dog in, she'd been fidgeting about a bit and moved the hastily tied harness up the stay a bit, it didnt mater as I was parked
. Regarding the loads on the stays, in the Chimaera (as Carzee now has the car in the photo) there is some webbing running across between the bottom of the stays, nowhere near the mid point where they hinge, therefore the load I refer to, is that with the roof on, the tension of the roof is pushing the bottom of the stays towards the back of the car, and therefore would help in ofsetting the load of the dog moving forwards.
As you say, theres no load on the strut with the roof down, however there is then the fabric, screen and roll hoop of the roof between the anchor points and the doggy so the forward momentum would be partly absorbed by this as, in fact the anchorage strap for the dog has to go downwards underneath all this then up again to the rear mounting webbing. If the stays pulled out, they would initially lock against their own hinges and the roof.. the roof itself would then have to move upwards to allow the bottom of the struts to prescribe a forwards motion to the front of the car, all of which I am hoping would help absorb the energy of the dog travelling forwards...
...if the accident was that bad we'd all be f***ed..!
Matt
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