Chute launchers

Had a bad deal at bowling green this weekend,chutes became tangled in wheelbars,gotta do something here. The bars are 8 feet long,look great however I wish I would have made them alot shorter.I would like to keep them if I could,they are made very nicly and look real good.
I dont have enough room for large spring assisted launchers (altered body) so I was looking at the co2 launchers. Are there any pros and cons with the co2 or is the spring loaded launcher the better way to go?
I bought 2 new chute metal chutes,sure hate to buy 2 more stouds @ 650.00 each to replace the chute metels but I witnessed a buddy get his lines caught under his bars at 200 mph,threw him on his lid in a heartbeat. Does anyone here have a better way of getting out the chutes then the above?
Thanks Johnny rotten

 

Launchers

Go With The Air.. Pretty Compact Except For The Length Of The Cylinders
They Will Throw Them Chutes Out There Quick!

 

How much co2 does it take,or better yet,how many launches on a 5 lb co2 bottle befor its empty. Also aprox how long is the cylinder beond the back of the pack and whet diam. is it?

 

Air

A 5 Lb Cylinder Will Last Many Many Passes, About The Same As A Air Shifter I Suppose,
Cylinder Is Approx 1.5 Diameter, About 14 Inches Sticking Forward Of The Mounting Plate, The Fitting Is In The End Of It
Best Price I Found Was Extreme Race Cars They Have Ads On Racing Junk

 

I agree with the co2. They work great & packing them is a whole lot easier than the spring deal. If you use a 5# bottle it should last a long time. It uses about 150# of pressure to launch the chutes. Maybe a net on the wheelie bars would help to. I used one from a motorcycle. Their called cargo nets and attach real easy about $15 too!

 

One big question would be how the chute packs are mounted now. Are they angled upwards or parallel to the ground. For them to just fall on the wheelie bars I would suspect an area of dead air behind the car. It may be worth building a new mounting plate to launch them up more than backwards. Just a thought that might save some money.

 

launchers

a 23t altered body has terrilbe air around the altered at speed,it is worse in the 1/8 mile as you are at lower mph,I have watched altereds here in texas on 1/8 mile tracks-pull the chutes at the finish line,bounce off the track twice then blossom.I built a 23t altered after seeing these chutes struggle to open consistently. I ordered two stroud air launchers,had them installed buy my chassis builder,they worked great.the only problem we had was we ran a cs2 lenco that requires 250 psi to operate ,the max air the launchers can handle is 175 psi,so we had to put a regulator between the cs2 preset 250 psi regulator and the launchers to cut the air down to about 150 psi.ran this altered in the 6.50 et range in the quarter,4.20 in the 1/8 mlie for 2 years-never had a chute not open !! but not only that -alot of these 1/8 tracks had short shut down areas,and with the launchers open instantly every time,so it really helps on short tracks or if you get them out a little late !!

 

John, I ran a blown '23T Altered from '88-'92. Et's were 7.90-8.10. I also had a Comp stlye wing attached off of the cage above the turtle deck. It had a Simpson chute that was mounted conventionally, angled up at 15 or 20 degrees on a standoff of about 8 inches. Shortly after finishing the car I was just getting used to running that fast I had the chute tangle in the wheelie bars twice. We put on a net that fully covered the bars. Twice more it tangled the chute, this time by literally sucking it under the side of the bars. The second time I went (1/8th mile) through the sand across a drainage ditch and took out 60 feet of chain link fence at the Pevely Drag Strip just south of St Louis. We actually had a video some guy was nice enough to give us from the finish line area that showed it being drawn down by air current and wrapping into the right side bars. They say hind sight is 20/20.... We found a small air cylinder from a carpet punch press 2" diameter and 12" long. Made a bracket behind the chute and tapped into the air shifter. Never had that problem again. Now if only I had of thought to tell someone about that great idea ....! I know air works on that Body style, and well ! my 2 cents.

 

johnny rotten.......
i am the guy with the altered at bowling green in the open fuel class. i think you talked to george or rusty some over the weekend, but i missed you. did you notice how our car was made? 2 chutes angled up, mounted to turtle deck. i was scared of the wheelie bar catching the chutes, so i just put a net on the bars. so far so good, no problems yet.there really isn't enough room for launchers on an altered body in my opinion.
darren
fast378@woh.rr.com
did you happen to get the name of the people taking the event photos? there were 2 trailers, i am interested in the one closer to the starting line. i bought a pic, someone stole it, need website info.

 

Johnny,

We have the STROUD launchers on our car. All of the above info is good. We have run them for the last 2-years without a problem and they are a ton easier to pack. Our car has the 23-T style body with the deck on the back. I made our deck removable from the rest of the body to access things under it easier.

The rams don't stick that far under the body and there is really nothing there in that area for them to be in the way of anyway. You have to remember after you mount the chutes a little off the deck, making sure they are angled up to get into the air, they don't stick under the car all that far in my opinion.

Good luck, I hope you get things fixed.

Rapid

 

Thank you for all the good info guys,I use 2 chutes angled and mounted upward,,at first I thought to much but not now. We had Jay Howell of the prock and howell fame in the pits this weekend and he was at the 1000 ft mark,he said just what others on this thread said,the pilot bounced off the bars directly behind the car as if there was no air flow at all. I also use a larger wing than most and I do not know what that does to the air behind the car,BUT I know it is not good. I have heard the air behind an altered is very poor,I belive that.
Daren,I met some of your guys befor you got there,sorry I did not get a chance to come back to meet you.Congrats on #1 qualifer,your car looked real good goin down thru there. Hopefully we can hook up another time.
Looks like we are going to install co2 launchers but I will use a 2nd bottle,scares me a little to mix it with the shifters.Dont want to merge the 2 ,seems to be the way to go. Thank you to all Johnny Rotten

 

Have co2 chutes comming,Do most racers use a seperate co2 bottle or use the the same bottle the shifter taps into. Just wouldnt want to mix both units,seems like the unsafe way to do it. All comments appreceited.

 

I use the same bottle for lenco shifters, fuel timers and chutes.