Dave

Roy, The largest posible is best. There's no such thing as too big since you never know what you'll need it for. I have a 10 lb automatic Halon system, a 2.5 lb halon, and two 1A 10BC on my boat, but in case of fire, I'm swimmin' . Also, in case anyone ever needs to put out a VW bug, knock off the lisence plate light and you'll find a hole about an inch in diameter (perfect for the nozzle). More bugs are lost to fire than to accidents.

jim968

From foggy memory... can anybody confirm or deny what I think I read somewhere, that the dry powder stuff can become electrically conductive after use???

I'm just thinking of what a mess that'd be in the fuse box or around the ECU brain, or the CC brain...

Jim, I've gotta be recalling this wrong...

marksportcts

Does anyone know if those small APC fire extingushers are any good? I have one of those mounted to a BK seat mount on the passenger's front. As for yanking the + terminal, not for me. See if you can pull a 1/0 gauge and two 4 gauge as well as about eight 10gauges from my battery in time.

Matt O.

Someone said something about a group purchase...? Let's do it!

It's Christmas, and all I have to do is show my dad Perry's 951 and he'll probably let me have my choice.

-Matt

Robby

I'm going to have to look around I guess. I just don't want to add a big mounting bracket that has to be unhooked or anything. I also don't want to add any unnecessary weight.

I may still try to find a way to make some velcro work. It wouldn't be too heavy of an extinguisher (maybe 5lbs), and, if it were on the rear floorboard, I could velcro it from the bottom, and from the side to the seat bottom wall. Otherwise, I'd like to find a way to strap it to something, and have the strap have a quick release, but, it would have to have be strapped from both directions (end to end, and around it) to hold it in place well, I would assume(?), unless the extinguisher were long enough to stretch across the flooboard (b/t one side, and the middle hump). I woudn't want it to be loose either, and bump around every time I turned the car.

I was just hoping I could find some pictures of some that people have made to work, and, especially, some that were convenient, easy to use, and didn't add more than a few pounds. I guess the most imprtanrt thing to find first, is the shape and size, which would help determine where it would need to be placed. I'd like to find a place that sold them locally, where I could hold afew diferent ones in hand, and get an idea- maybe I'll check w/the fire department...

Thanks guys,
Robby

Hans

I have a 10 lbs powder extinguisher jammed under the seat of the daily driver (hav'nt got to making a bracket yet).
It is the biggest container I could get with the nozzle direct mounted to the valve (no hose, so no chance on it getting hooked while pulling the cylinder out).
I have the thing tested every 2 years by the local fire brigade in my vilage, free service, done in the same run as their equipment.

Also carry a 13 mm spanner in the center console of the car to undo the GROUND terminal of the battery.

Halon is very unfrendly to the earth's ozon shield and consequently it is banned in Europe. The alternative is powder.
I have been told that the powder is verry corrosive and reacts agressively with copper so the circuit boards and most of the relays will be affected.

Robby, forget about the velcro, wont work.
The injuries you will get from the cylinder as it starts a life of its own can be realy bad.
Example: Some constructors in this area put their hard hats on the shelf just befor the rear wind screan while driving.
Once in the past, not to long ago, one got hit trapped in a collision: car stopped, hard hat kept moving, hit the front screen and knocked it out completely.
Driver was lucky, the hat missed him.

craig001

I picked up a nice 2.5 pound Halon extinguisher off of eBay for $45 plus $8 S&H. It's mounted on a Brey-Kraus mount in front of the passenger seat. I may move it to the back of the seat after getting the extension ($10). My wife complains about having to worry about catching her nylons on it. Oh well. There is also a guy in Canada selling extinguishers on eBay. Do a search under Halon. Just my two cents.

craig001

Forgot this. Either 928 International or 928GT has a real nice red unit with bracket for $135. The downside was they never responded to my emails about it.

Tabor

My understanding is that it is illegal to manufacture in the US. That the stuff on the market was manufactured before the cut-off.

What about CO2, you should be able to get that in Europe.

bs

damn hippies

i used to work at 3M and remember being told that some chemical they manufacture had been deemed "environmentally unfriendly" and thus they would have to stop producing the fire-fighting foam that is used at all airports in the US even though there is no viable alternative with similar properties.

now i hear that halon is banned??! as far as i know there is no other gas that shares its effectiveness while also being highly harmless to electronics.

well i'm sure i will be comforted by the fact that the ozone layer is .0000001% more safe as i'm watching my engine burn... or that some fish somewhere isn't sick as i die trapped in a burning airplane.

yes, dry chem fire extenguishers wreak havoc on all electronics. very corrosive. i'm not sure about becoming conductive, though. i once had the oppurtunity to put out a battery pack fire (try passing 500A through an imporperly-torqued battery terminal and see how fast it heats up). i was using a co2 extinguisher because i didn't want to destroy the batteries. someone else kept telling me to use dry chem, but then the firemen showed up and confirmed my fear that any and all wiring would be done even if the fire never touched it.

i beleive halon is also pretty toxic, right? hmmm.... possible combination fire-supression and anti-carjacking security system?

Tabor

I am all for protecting the Ozone layer. Australian children can barely play outside today.

txhedg

For a good write-up on Halon, see the I/O Port website and look at the Fire Ext Faq linkI/O Port

seems there is at least a 10 yr supply stockpiled

Robby

Yeah Ben, you must think like I do- a guy's got a knife, you shoot him w/the gun you have hidden under your seat, if he's got a gun, you use your fire extinguisher on him- that stuff must taste terrible

Seriously though, I HAD thought about an extinguisher's self defense effectiveness- you could also smack someone w/one of those puppies- even a 2.5lb one would be as good as a "tire thumper" and wouldn't be a concealed weapon either- it would have to be legal (to keep one in your car I mean).

I guess the velcro idea may not be a good one- I was thinking that if velcroed in well enough, a really small one might work, but, I may have to find some other way. I just want to be able to get to it fast- I could see my car burning up, and the fire dept showing up and asking- "you had that extinguisher, why didn't you use it", and me having to say- "uh, I couldn't get it out of it's bracket..."

Thanks everyone,

Mark944na86

What about putting the extinguisher(s) in the back under the carpet near the toolkit, etc? There's some good space down each side in the pockets behind the wheels.

BTW: damn rednecks. (Had to get that off my chest.)

-Mark 86 944 NA

David Floyd

Halotron is the Clean replacement for Halon. I just bought a 2.5 lb and a 1.4 lb not sure which one to mount in the car.
www.amerex-fire.com