bigpace85 Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Hi I need some advice my friend bought a dirt modified car and found out when he sits in the cock pit he is a little tall for the car. Because when he puts his helmet on his head is aginst the roof. We were wondering can we safely cut the bars and weld in like 3 inches to allow for more head room? What do you guys think. Any advice would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truck99 Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Hi I need some advice my friend bought a dirt modified car and found out when he sits in the cock pit he is a little tall for the car. Because when he puts his helmet on his head is aginst the roof. We were wondering can we safely cut the bars and weld in like 3 inches to allow for more head room? What do you guys think. Any advice would be great. I would try to lower the seat before trying to raise the halo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC57 Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 ...and maybe lay it back some. Laying the seat back is usually more comfortable and handles the G-pressures better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpace85 Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 ...and maybe lay it back some. Laying the seat back is usually more comfortable and handles the G-pressures better Well those are good thoughts but I already thought of that and the seat is already as low as it can go and layer back as far as possible. So that is why I was thinking of raising the halo. Can we raise the halo safely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truck99 Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Is your driver really tall? Most chassis builders have all this worked out. If you've already thought of the other options, it sounds like you already have your answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby Fan Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Had the same problem. I did this a couple of years ago. It didn't have a plate so when I installed one I lifted it to give me room. The right side of the plate down the middle of the roof had a solid piece from front to back as a bracket holding it up. It was welded to the roll cage loop that went from front to rear in the middle. And a solid piece along the back. The left side had just that one piece. I'm sure there are better engineered options but it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpace85 Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Is your driver really tall? Most chassis builders have all this worked out. If you've already thought of the other options, it sounds like you already have your answer. Yes he is pretty tall I wanna say about 6' 4" I think but yeah I figured we were gonna have to cut the halo and weld in a 3 inch piece, I was just wanting your opinion on the safety end of it but thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpace85 Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Had the same problem. I did this a couple of years ago. It didn't have a plate so when I installed one I lifted it to give me room. The right side of the plate down the middle of the roof had a solid piece from front to back as a bracket holding it up. It was welded to the roll cage loop that went from front to rear in the middle. And a solid piece along the back. The left side had just that one piece. I'm sure there are better engineered options but it worked. Wow that is crazy looking is it solid I case you flip the car. Worst case senario. And how did you put a roof back on there. Looks cool though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby Fan Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 It is kind of goofy looking. I'm 6'2" and the top of my helmet was about two inches above the loop at most. It was pretty solid and even if there was a roll over and if it collapsed I still had enough "scrunch" room. The roof definitley had more of an angle to it. I fabricated longer rear roof posts to make up the difference. Just thought it might give you some ideas. Depending on how much more room you need maybe you can take some roll tubing and add another layer of tubing all the way around on top of the existing halo. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmbishop Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Depends on how the halo is done! Rule one - NO BUTT WELDS. So no - do not just cut and weld in three inch extensions. If you raise the halo your kickers will not be at the right angle but this is easily fixed with new kickers. I have seen second halos (much like hobby did with plate) added with no major concern. try reclining the seat more (fwd at bottom and down). It's far easy to replace the dash spreader to make knee room if needed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpace85 Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Depends on how the halo is done! Rule one - NO BUTT WELDS. So no - do not just cut and weld in three inch extensions. If you raise the halo your kickers will not be at the right angle but this is easily fixed with new kickers. I have seen second halos (much like hobby did with plate) added with no major concern. try reclining the seat more (fwd at bottom and down). It's far easy to replace the dash spreader to make knee room if needed! I don't mean to ask a dumb question but what are the kickers? I am assuming you mean the bars that connect to the halo itself. But we have already reclined the seat and my friend was saying in the rules it says you must have a minimum 12 inch window and maximum 15 inch window he was wanting to raise it to 15 inches because of head room and the fact if he was in a bad wreck it would be alot easier to get out I guess 3 inches helps alot. But thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KISS_Racing Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Just curious. I have not looked super hard at them. Is there a bar behind the seat? I know in the trucks they had made an allowance to put a bend on either end of "the seat bar" your upright stays in the same position. This should keep window sizes the same. Somewhere I have a drawing of what I am talking about. Where are you located? I would call Chris Swenson @ Swenson Racing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmbishop Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 By kickers I am referring to the bar that runs from the back of the roll bar\halo to the rear clip end. ya'll may call em something else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JUMPSTER93 Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 If you are going to cut the cage and add to it, I would install a smaller pipe on the inside of the current cage about 6" into the center of the pipe, and 6" sticking out. Then add your 3" extensions and slide the original roll cage over the smaller piece of pipe and weld it to your extensions. This will make it a lot strong than butting the two pieces of pipe together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmbishop Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 If you are going to cut the cage and add to it, I would install a smaller pipe on the inside of the current cage about 6" into the center of the pipe, and 6" sticking out. Then add your 3" extensions and slide the original roll cage over the smaller piece of pipe and weld it to your extensions. This will make it a lot strong than butting the two pieces of pipe together. it would make it stronger at that point - even stronger than the original length. BUT then in hard roll over instead of spreading the load and absorbing the distortion equally along the entire pipe - it would place all the load in the weaker area which could be catastrophic. That is why NO BUTT WELDS - even if sleeved. How does the tech inspector know there is a sleeve inside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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