NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Looks good to me. I'll fire up the TIG welder.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I think I may have struck a nerve earlier this week by submitting a design and stating I had no interest of producing them.
I do not like the two current designs so I came up with my own and submitted it to Glendora and my Division Tech director.
Seems a little strange we get a new revised rule in the same week as my submission.
My neighbor has a Ornamental Iron works so he may want to start producing the tethers as they are cheap to build and looks like with current pricing of the approved ones there is a good amount of profit to be made.
I built mine in less than an hour for under $30.
Below are pictures of the tethers and part of what I sent to NHRA.
Just My 2 Cents
Rick Cates

The design is just a one piece 3/16" stainless steel rod with eyes forged on each end to length for my Davis C-5 Corvette roadster headers which the pictures are of.
The loops are large enough to fit over the 3/4" wide stainless steel T bolt clamps studs with enough room for expansion of the headers as they heat up. Shown in pictures.
The clamps have a stainless steel aircraft grade nut to hold them under high temperature and vibration. I had to order those so the pictures are of a nylox nut which will be replaced once the aircraft lock nuts come in.
The only attachment points for possible failure are those 1/4" fine thread T bolts and aircraft nuts on the clamps.
This design is much simpler with less connection points than what is currently approved and I would like to have approval for my design for my use.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Hmm, it appears that some believe we are not all smart enough to figure out how to secure our collectors without an "approved device" This device also took less than an hour to manufacture and is less than $20. This was our solution. This is not one made with those expensive swageless eye aircraft fittings, but this wire rope thimble and ferrule have been an industry standard for years. It should prevent a 2lb collector from flying into my opponents lane.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...pse9b6e9f1.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps5247464e.jpg

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

"The NHRA Technical Department will not accept Tethering System requests from individual racers, as this will inundate our resources and create an impossible situation to regulate in the field. Therefore, material sent from individual racers will not be reviewed for acceptance. Only legitimate manufacturers planning to market a tethering system should submit a request". This means if you do not kick in or contribute to the NHRA in any way , Don't bother!

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Maybe this question has been asked before since it's so incredibly obvious, but why don't they just print the requirements for what would be considered a legal tether and be done with it?

Not a requirement that you have to use one manufactured by a vendor, but something similar to any other general requirement, such as....what would be considered a legal roll bar/cage? You make the tether according to the requirements, or you don't pass tech. Simple as that.

An SFI approved tether? That's just insane.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I agree.
We can fabricate/build our own cages etc. but we are not skilled enough to build a header tether?
I have mine installed right now and plan on having the tech personnel look at them at the next two Division races and two National events before the end of the race season.
I do not really want to but I will add the 1/2 inch welds on each tube before I purchase a set of Approved tethers as set forth in the rules. I feel the 1/2 inch welds will crack with expansion and contraction during the heat/cool process but that is what NHRA wants I will do just that and leave my tethers in place.
From what I have heard and read from other racers this is a major issue with the way NHRA has handled it. I just do not understand why NHRA wants to run their racers off over such a silly new and my way or the highway rule.
Just My 2 Cents
Rick Cates

By the way my compete tether system was fabricated for less than $30 for both sides.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

All this Bull S**t over a non-problem, incredible!

JimR

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

exactly...............

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

just another way fo for the NHRA to extort money from manufacturers and racers,

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I hear this mandate came down from NHRA's legal department after an incident where someone was hit by a collector that came off in the water box. If that's the case, they would want legitimate companies making the tethers because liability would then fall back on the manufacturer in a lawsuit.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I heard that too. But don't know how they can try to sell that explanation with a straight face when they promote fuel cars that explode and send shrapnel everywhere, including whole funny car bodies, at least a few times every year. You see cars losing their hood or hood scoop, nitrous backfires, lost blower belts, broken rear ends. The list goes on and on. I've seen each of those examples more than once, but never a lost collector.

I like going into the fuel pits to see and hear the cars fire up before their run, but always stand about 20 feet back because I'm just waiting for one of those things to blow up with everyone around it. I can't believe that it hasn't happened yet.

Nevertheless, the collector rule, no matter how they try to spin it, just seems like a poorly thought out "solution" to an almost non-existent problem. It's a sign of an incompetent bureaucracy at its best or worst, I can't decide.

Hell, if they expect tech to look under every car for approved tethers, then surely they can require them to look underneath cars for a properly fabricated tether made by the average racer. It's not brain surgery to make a pair of these things.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Aristophanes ????

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

This is a real rip-off!,seeing that there now allowing a 1/2" stitch weld on ea. pri. tube. Why not allow a tab on every tube, this would allow the header to be R/R on cars where the tube goes over the frame, as of now the only option is the tether on those cars.In 40 years I have not seen or heard of an actual collector fall off, only the extension that some guys try to hammer/swedge on.I can see this as maybe being a concern on a NO2 or turbo car, where it might back fire and blow the header to sh#@.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

gsa612, I was at cordova points meet 2 or 3 years ago and a SS Monza lost a collector during burn out or leaving the starting line? went under tire and shot it out the back clear to fence behind the starting line next to the highway. It came so fast you couldn`t have moved out the way, it hit a tire on golf cart next to me. Tom

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

So is there going to be a muffler tether next? Muffler tether to the collector tether to the header tether to frame?

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I have been drag racing a looooong long time probably more years than many of you are old---I am trying hard to remember if I can remember one incident where a collector came loose from a race vehicle although I am sure it has happened at least once !!! Looking at the devices that NHRA has currently approved as well as the pictures that some have posted here on the site it seems to me that many could fabricate an acceptable device to meet the NHRA specifications at far less cost!!

$200 plus or minus is a totally riduculous amount to spend on a device that obviously costs a minimal amount to fabricate. Welding is not an acceptable solution either for many situations. What happens if you go to tear down and in some cases individual tubes wrap around steering and frame areas do you then cut the weld to remove that tube and reweld that tube together again so you can go back and race later??? Pretty soon you will run out of places to weld on !!!!

The collector location under any full body chassis is going to be an extremely difficult area for many tech inspectors to examine simply because sometimes the collector is almost up against the floor and behind the frame rail. Common sense needs to prevail here. What will be next an approved NHRA/SFI battery hold downs or a SFI approved overflow bottles or better yet SFI approved gas tanks straps to replace the OEM ones??? C'mon let the racer make up something that will do the job and get back to something else that needs immediate attention---FED387

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Let me say first off I am for anything that makes racing safer. That said, I also must say the way NHRA is going about this smells! It smells of kickback from "approved" manufacturers. In order to achieve said kickback the current two approved manufacturers are inflating the price phenomenally. CollectorTether.com is charging $199-$249 for $30 worth of materials. I'm thinking NHRA must be pocketing about $50 or more each. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble the said parts. With 5000 race cars that will be required to install these teathers or they can't race, that works out to a quarter million bucks! Quite a handsome profit for a few clamps and some steel cable. The Lokar pieces are unbelievably over thought and complicated. The HeaderTether.com piece is much more slick and better thought out. Neither one is worth more than $50 racer price. Also as of this date, neither are SFI approved but NHRA is allowing them. I am very doubtful they will ever be SFI approved. Just another way of keeping the individual racer from making their own tether!

If NHRA was genuinely interested in correcting a problem (more people have been killed by loose Top Fueler tires) they would set a standard, much like the roll bar rules, and allow racers to fabricate their own header tethers. I will NOT be paying $200-$250 for this newest obvious NHRA money making enterprise paid for on the backs of the racer. Nor will I be hacking up my $2600 SS headers by welding them all together, this was a disingenuous alternative by NHRA. I will make my own tethers. I am fully capable, as are 90% of the racers I compete with. If they are not acceptable, I will not race with the NHRA until they rethink this deal. Scooter Peaco must be smiling somewhere right about now. Jim


.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Very well said!!!

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

[QUOTE=Jim Wahl;400025]
If NHRA was genuinely interested in correcting a problem (more people have been killed by loose Top Fueler tires) they would set a standard, much like the roll bar rules, and allow racers to fabricate their own header tethers. I will NOT be paying $200-$250 for this newest obvious NHRA money making enterprise paid for on the backs of the racer. Nor will I be hacking up my $2600 SS headers by welding them all together, this was a disingenuous alternative by NHRA. I will make my own tethers. I am fully capable, as are 90% of the racers I compete with. If they are not acceptable, I will not race with the NHRA until they rethink this deal.
Jim

I had lunch with some racing friends this last week and two of them stated almost exactly the same thing. No more NHRA racing events until this new rule is changed to allow us to fabricate our own. It seems more principal of the way it was handed down than the cost to them. Probably the cost was part of it also.
I hope NHRA takes a look at comments like these and realizes that they are running off their loyal customers by doing silly things like this.
It will only take someone making a long tow to an event somewhere early next year and being turned down at TECH over the tether issue to really get things stirred up.
My 2 Cents
Rick Cates

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

In this incident how was the collector secured?, did it have mounting tabs, were the bolts and lock nuts there?.Were they stainless with the spring mounting deal?. I cannot see how the collector can come off, if you have 2 tabs welded on 2 pri. pipes and 2 on the collector secured with 1/4 bolts and steel lock nuts.Unless the pri. pipes or collector are so badly rusted and blow through.In that case the pri. pipe can blow before the pri. clamp on the tether rendering it useless.This deal is an insult to a racers intelligence by NHRA!.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Rust, loose bolts, no bolts it doesn't much matter. Fact is that exhaust pieces have fallen off during burnouts and down track.

In one case it was during the burnout and the piece came back and broke a leg.

One question I have is... Why SFI on collector tether, but no SFI requirement for ladder bar tether???

We should be able to piece together our own system.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

This problem seems to have a much simpler solution than spending $200 for a special NHRA approved tether when a proper inspection of the use of tabs and lock nuts would accomplish the same result.

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Isn't that why we sign that 1000 word waiver? Anything can come flying at you if you are standing on the starting line.
A couple of years ago I had a connecting rod cap shoot out from under a stocker and whack my in the leg-no broken bones, just a nasty bruise. This spring in Vegas an open rear wheel roadster came out of the burnout box ( I was in front of this car) and a rock shot overtop of the rear wheel towards the starting line and hit me square in the center of the forehead. That was an attention getter. You cannot tether everything on these cars. I believe if you are standing on the starting line you better pay attention-this is a high risk area. if you stand there with the deer in the headlights look, you may get injured.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Quote of the night from last night at the track. Right after a car threw something out during what looked to be a engine failure. Guy was standing next to me and with a straight face turns and says. "Oh F_ _ _! now they are going to want connecting rod and engine block tethers on too" LOL

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Just to clarify, it is not a SFI requirement or specification.
It is a NHRA rule change and the product must be approved by them.
Yes, there are various lawsuits against NHRA due to collector injuries.
Although racers and crew members sign a release, they can still hire an attorney and sue NHRA trying to seek compensation.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

That never ends. Anything and everything can and probably will fall off a car.
All they need to do is "create a spec" for the collector tether system". Like a roll bar... build it to this "spec" and you are good to go.

NHRA is always looking for a way out of a lawsuit, I have been through injury lawsuits with their insurance carrier (I was the track owner at the time). Each time it came down to a "summary judgment", they settled before the court date. The insurance carrier and the NHRA cannot afford to find out the Release and Waiver are worthless and set a precedent.

"NHRA-approved" helps them in negotiations but I would be inclined to believe the manufacturers of NHRA-approved items that involve safety are Corporations with limited assets using some legal corporate cover. If they wanted to truly protect the NHRA and tracks they would REQUIRE a multi-Million Dollar liability insurance policy to go along with the NHRA-approved sticker.

If it something else that comes off...think of the possibilities.. and there is NOT a tether...then what? Was NHRA negligent? I think NHRA has started to dig a very deep hole on this that will spiral downward in a hurry.

Just create a "reasonable spec" for the tethers and let the NHRA members and racers create accordingly. What if you have the approved tether and let the cables hang loose? What good was it, really?

C'mon NHRA, some of your guys read this site...fix this before you alienate even MORE sportsman racers!!

Jok

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

My partner got hit by a rock just below the temple at Bandimere, shot out from burnout while watching from fenced area by tower. Ya can't legislate all possible problems, there are dangerous areas, usually marked restricted.....life has risk

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I find it odd that exhaust collectors coming off is more of a concern to NHRA than the much more frequent issue of "quick release" steering wheels coming off in the drivers hands., or fiberglass hoods flying off the car or any other number of unfortunate occurances. I can`t recall ever seeing a collector fall off a race car, but have seen several of the others I mentioned. I have had slip on collectors for over 25 years, and with 2 tabs and bolts per collector, I have never had any issues with them falling off. Removal when I WANT them to come off normally requires a rubber mallet, a pry bar. and plenty of WD40 and cuss words!

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

I've got nearly $500 into my Burns stainless merge collectors and they are attached to a substantially more expensive set of custom stainless two-step headers. You can bet I would make sure they wont slip off and bounce around the underside of my car before being run over. Without being told by NHRA.

And I agree with Rory, have heard about way to many instances of drivers not properly attaching their removable steering wheels.

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This pretty much says it all.

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hi, I agree, with you rory. ours has 4 tabs holding collector to primaries, and 2 tabs holding collector extension on,. they don't come of easily!!

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I don't have a problem buying NHRA approved Tether System . if some thing happens and a lawsuit comes up I want to make sure the "approved " tether will be known as endorsed by NHRA .

This in My mind is one safe way to avoid some crazy situation where if you do your own and it falls off who is more liable you who build your own or the NHRA approved Tether builder approved by NHRA ?

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Again...instead of forcing everone to buy a product that a small minority THINKS solves a problem that 90% of the racers do not see as an issue. Why not instead spend the effort toward keeping people out of harms way? If you were to walk across a busy freeway without being conciuos of your surroundings and get hit...who's liable? Standing behind a car doing a burnout and expecting NOT to be hit by something, be it a rock, nut, bolt or collector is irresponsible.Didn't an entire funny car body get launched into the crowd at the Charlotte race? Anyone hurt? What's NHRA going to do with that? Face it racing is dangerous even as a spectator, nascar, NHRA, local tracks people have and will continue to get hurt both as particpants and those merely watching. Knee jerk reactions have never solved anything,only a way of saying they've addressed the "issue". Now that said if this winter the rule still stands I'll be looking for options to abide by the ruling.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

In our current environment, NHRA, the manufacturer and the racer would be sued by the injured party.

1. NHRA would be sued for lack of enforcement or approving a device that was not designed properly that did not provide 100% safety.

2. The manufacturer would be sued for workmanship, manufacturing defects and/or improper assembly instructions.

3. Since the racer/owner needs to assemble the tethering device, he would be sued for not assembling or installing the device correctly, and then the racer would blame the manufacturer and NHRA.


This is the world I live in as part of my job; it is called Product Liability and Torts.

I know of a case in which a private pilot, purchased a commercial/automotive GPS to use on his private airplane when he went hunting.
He lost his life when he crashed his airplane during bad weather and while using the GPS.
Although the manual for the GPS warned and stated that was not approved for aviation use, due to the fact the manual showed pictures of different types of vehicles such as cars, trucks, boats and an airplane, the manufacturer lost the lawsuit.
The court established through its decision that although there was language and warnings that the particular GPS was not approved or designed for airborne/aviation applications or use, just having the picture on the cover of the manual, inferred that it was for use on airplanes.

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I am all for safety !!!! However when it comes to mandates and a solution that is equivalent in all aspects that can be fabricated by a racer for a "nominal" cost versus a NHRA approved manufacturers system for "hundreds" of dollars more I think bears looking into. Their has to be a happy ground here. Look at the engine diapers mandate. If you can fabricate a diaper that meets NHRA guidelines you do not need to purchase a "store bought" diaper--- this should be the same way too--- MY OPINION!!!!! FED 387

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oic

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I was at a track where someone standing behind the burnout area was hit by a pebble thrown out by the slicks doing the burn out.

So how are we going to tie down all the rocks and pebbles at the strip?

JimR

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

Jim,
I think the tires do the best job of tracking them up:-) At Joliet they used to have the restricted area standing on both sides of the tunnel directly in front of the tower, it is now way off to the left and right side. Not sure what size pebbles, but there have been a few good size holes thru the first pane of lower level glass in line with the burnout area. I've also picked up a few screws and bolts that fell off of cars near the water box.

Does this rule apply to bolted on collectors also? And what about "grudge" night at the local tracks? I've seen cars there I have refused to run beside.

Re: NHRA Tether Rule Update
 

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