Life Hammer - Where to Fit?
- Thread starter 944 man
- Start date
944 man
Active member
On the roll cage around the B pillar might be best Dave, but its currently on my garage floor... [
]
I think that in the cassette box is a good location for a standard car, but Ive decided not to go silly with the weight saving and the radio and speakers are staying, along with the cassette box mounted iPod.
Id thought about the transmission tunnel, but I was hoping that someone else had fitted one along with competition seats. Im concerned that the passengers wont clear the hammer unless it is fitted too far away to reach when trapped.
My original cassette box lid isnt brilliant, so I might fix the LH to the exterior - easy to reach and itll cover up the split vinyl.
] I think that in the cassette box is a good location for a standard car, but Ive decided not to go silly with the weight saving and the radio and speakers are staying, along with the cassette box mounted iPod.
Id thought about the transmission tunnel, but I was hoping that someone else had fitted one along with competition seats. Im concerned that the passengers wont clear the hammer unless it is fitted too far away to reach when trapped.
My original cassette box lid isnt brilliant, so I might fix the LH to the exterior - easy to reach and itll cover up the split vinyl.
Copperman05
New member
All our job cars have these fitted, not thought of putting one in the 944, till now.
Edd
944 man
Active member
I havent had one for quite a while, but the accident which was in the national news this Winter where a father was killed when he and his wife both crashed into the same river brought home this omission to me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-21192969
It is easy to understand how people become trapped when their car is anything other than upright and I suspect that this cheap tool would have made a difference.
Im quite a big fellow and it took all of my strength to get a big bird out of a crahsed Transit on the M1 - hoding her on my shoulders like Atlas whilst struggling with the belt release. It was full of Calor gas which steeled my will, but I also wanted to get the screaming fat bitch off my shoulders too (I know how Atlas felt btw)!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-21192969
It is easy to understand how people become trapped when their car is anything other than upright and I suspect that this cheap tool would have made a difference.
Im quite a big fellow and it took all of my strength to get a big bird out of a crahsed Transit on the M1 - hoding her on my shoulders like Atlas whilst struggling with the belt release. It was full of Calor gas which steeled my will, but I also wanted to get the screaming fat bitch off my shoulders too (I know how Atlas felt btw)!
andy watson
Moderator
Edd, where do they fitted in your work cars?
Simon, as a suggestion how about in the middle of the roof panel for a trackday car? in a standard car how about underneath the door pull above the pocket? maybe one each side in case either front occupant (if there were 2) was immobile after a shunt?
Just a thought
Ex Skyline
New member
What do they do exactly?
andy watson
Moderator
Pete,
Smash glass & cut seatbelts in an accident when you are trapped in vehicle
Smash glass & cut seatbelts in an accident when you are trapped in vehicle
Copperman05
New member
Usually in side of the foot well within reach.
Edd
Copperman05
New member
Handy for helping others trapped too.
Edd
Edd
Hilux
New member
Think about where you can reach if upside down!
Stick it to the back of your sun visor or if the sunvisor has a pocket stick it in there or secure it in the door pocket.
Regardless, ensure it is fixed secure as covers and gloveboxes can fly open and loose objects move when you are shunted (or flipped)
Copperman05
New member
Not me who chooses where to fit the hammer, I take your point but I assume ours are fitted mainly for the reason so we can help others in need, rather than ourselves. Although they are an added bonus should they be required, not needed one yet mind.
Edd
944 man
Active member
The seat leading edge isnt practical, although it is a good location. I will already have a large extinguisher there. Im not sure that I will be able to retain the sun visors when the roll cage is fitted, which also rules out the cross trim.
Ive checked the cassette box lid and it wont remain intact with the weight of the hammer on it, so I have provisionally decided to mount it though the carpet on the transmission tunnel, aft of the centre comsole. This is one of the few places that I will be able to reach with tight belts.
In case anyone else is looking at fitted a similar tool, Id suggest tie wrapping (using slender easily snapped ties) the hammer to the cradle, because it isnt held in anything like as securely as it needs to be. Ive also stuck a single scraping razor in too, just in case the cutter cant cope with a thicker belt.
Ive checked the cassette box lid and it wont remain intact with the weight of the hammer on it, so I have provisionally decided to mount it though the carpet on the transmission tunnel, aft of the centre comsole. This is one of the few places that I will be able to reach with tight belts.
In case anyone else is looking at fitted a similar tool, Id suggest tie wrapping (using slender easily snapped ties) the hammer to the cradle, because it isnt held in anything like as securely as it needs to be. Ive also stuck a single scraping razor in too, just in case the cutter cant cope with a thicker belt.
944 man
Active member
Theres a funny side to it and I always make light of it, but there was a darker side to it too.
After I had released the belt, she was released and she stopped screaming, but she just stayed there on my shoulders. Possibly in shock, but I felt like this fellow:
But substitute the globe for this lass:
I pulled the battery off before I went inside because there was gas leaking everywhere, but even so, I was keen to get out.
The part that keeps it all so fresh in my mind is that the van was a DIY camper conversion, with a self fitted GRP high top. To fit this theyd cut away the original steel roof and bonded the GRP roof on, which was braced with thin steel tube.
This was completely crushed as the van rolled down the carriageway. The woman told me later that their children were at her mothers, but that they would usually travel laying in the beds fitted within the high top. Fortunately the one in a million blow out occured on the first ever time that their children hadnt accompanied them on a weekend away...
This is why I have always had welding gauntlets (I got a lot of small glass cuts opening the windscreen), a bar and extinguishers in cars now and why Im so keen on life hammers too. If shed had one, or if thered been one in the van then one of them could have released her. Had things been different shed have been burnt to death for the sake of something so simple.
Simon
After I had released the belt, she was released and she stopped screaming, but she just stayed there on my shoulders. Possibly in shock, but I felt like this fellow:
But substitute the globe for this lass:
I pulled the battery off before I went inside because there was gas leaking everywhere, but even so, I was keen to get out.
The part that keeps it all so fresh in my mind is that the van was a DIY camper conversion, with a self fitted GRP high top. To fit this theyd cut away the original steel roof and bonded the GRP roof on, which was braced with thin steel tube.
This was completely crushed as the van rolled down the carriageway. The woman told me later that their children were at her mothers, but that they would usually travel laying in the beds fitted within the high top. Fortunately the one in a million blow out occured on the first ever time that their children hadnt accompanied them on a weekend away...
This is why I have always had welding gauntlets (I got a lot of small glass cuts opening the windscreen), a bar and extinguishers in cars now and why Im so keen on life hammers too. If shed had one, or if thered been one in the van then one of them could have released her. Had things been different shed have been burnt to death for the sake of something so simple.
Simon
Having been upside down after an accident which knocked me out briefly (over 20 years ago now), until I removed my seatbelt the orientation of everything was normal - I applied the handbrake(!) , switched off the ignition and then released my seat belt. It was only once I was sitting on the roof I struggled a bit - finding the door handle took longer than I would have liked - it was dark in the car as I ended across a ditch - the bootlid taking most of the force of the landing.
Tony
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