kurt M

Check the fluid temps at the in and out tubes to the shirt. Increasing the flow through the shirt will help if there is a high temp delta. If the temp delta is not high a larger pump might not increase driver cooling and in fact might reduce total BTU absorption capacity. The pump saps cooling capacity as the immersion pump motor is also cooled by the driver cooling fluid. In addition but to a much smaller extent in this aspect fluid flow itself makes heat.

mglobe

The one I put in is 800gph. It seems to help.

Jerseybean

I like the idea of developing a cool seat system, during the summer I often stick an ice pack on the seat, nothing better than having a cool bottom while driving. Many of the new trucks have cool seat options now. it's great.

Also discovered the stand 21 site with it's heat stress stuff.
http://www.stand21.fr/heatstress/heatstressc2c.htm

Gary R.

At the WGI Enduro, after my fuel/pit stop, I flipped the Cool Shirt switch on to start pumping exiting the pits. Apparently one of the lines was plugged in enough to allow the water to flow but not enough to have it flow through the lines. The connection was at my crotch, the effect was very refreshing!

Veloce Raptor

Folks in San Francisco pay exttra for that...

bobt993

Damn Gary, good thing it did not spill in the pit area or you would have been DQ'd for discharging Hazmats.

fatbillybob

Along the lines of cool shirts what about cool helmets? I think Bell has a new system that uses a new Quick release vs the hose that I think just barb fits on? I have never seen how the generic vented helmet's hosing works. I also have not seen how the hose routes to the coolsuit tanks that have some kind of radiator sitting in the ice water, hot air goes in and cool comes out.

bgiere

I got a live well bait timer and wired it up to my FAST system from Bass Pro Shops...conserves ice and allows you to adjust the temp. a bit....

APKhaos

^ +1

$35 solution that really works. No practical difference to the $200 controllers the cool shirt vendors sell.

Jerseybean

I have a potential TM for that device - Coolballs, could rival coolshirt

winders

Can you use a potentiometer to vary the voltage to slow or speed up the pump instead of a timer to start and stop it?

Scott

kurt M

No it tends to just burn the pumps up.

dp35

Great topic, one that I've spent a lot of time trying to improve in my race cars. I'm not fat or out of shape, but I believe that driver cooling can be a significant advantage, and that in 95% of races the driver could benefit from more cooling. If it's too much, there's always a switch to turn it off.

I've built 2 home made cool suit setups, the latest with a 19 Qt. cooler. They help, but unless its a cold day, I'd like more cooling. Although our sessions aren't long (20-30 minutes), running several in a day adds up.

Vented seats work! I always use a seat insert that I make out of expanding foam & fiberglass (could be another 5 page topic). Recently I made one with four grooves down the center (running top to bottom) and glued on nomex covering. Even without any forced air, this made a big difference. I got this idea from an ALMS Corvette that I saw on the grid at Laguna Seca, where a crew member explained that the car had A/C, but it was only in the seat.

This year we built a new race car, and I went to great lengths to keep the OEM heater fan, switch, & most of the ducting in place. Now I have air blowing on my feet, a functional defroster, and soon will have forced air through the seat. All of this is controlled with the stock heat/AC dash switches. Should work great on the grid. I'm also thinking about putting dry ice inside the seat duct.

924RACR

Very good... yeah, I was thinking of doing the 800gph; for one, the 1200 is different plumbing etc...

I'm happy to see my new car doesn't seem to have such cooling concerns... though it's still running a touch hotter than I'd like... ah, well, teething pains of a new car...

Gary R.

Would the defroster hose, blowing into a small box with dry ice in it, cause an issue if it was connected to a air flow helmet? Brain freeze?