Front Bulkhead - SV

[Balders]

Morning,

I'm really really chuffed with the car it went together faultlessly and was excellent right out the box at my club on Friday night, after adding weight. Not had so much fun indoors with 2wd since I ran a B3 many years ago.

I took it outdoors for a run round yesterday at one of the local tracks and managed to kill a front bulkhead... Landed the car on its roof, it wasn't a high speed off by any means.

I'll let the pictures do the talking..




Has anyone else had this and thought the bulkhead could be a little stronger?

Cheers

Mike

[mikeyscott]

Put the question to Schumacher?

[DCM]

The damage there actually looks like the shock tower mounting holes were a little tight, which has caused a stress point, so when you landed upside down, the stress points gave way.

[Alfonzo]

I did wonder about this particular area when I was building mine. The uber strong carbon shock tower passes all the stresses down to the bulkhead. But there's always going to be a weak point somewhere I guess.

[chatts#725]

I had the same problem before leaving the house with mine, since then i machined 2 alloy blocks and used the original housing to get the angle right, then ground down the original bulkhead top and fixed them by screwing through from the underside of the bulkhead with m5 tx 20 screws, i also braced the underside with some 3mm carbon fibre, by doing this you can also beef up the alloy mountings to strengthen them, its been perfect ever since. I also thouught this looked like a weak spot when building the kit but no one else seemed to agree. suppose the only benefit is that paying 5.99 bulkhead is better than 15 for a shock tower

[Alfonzo]

Wow, that's a serious fix! I'm impressed. I'm going to run mine as standard and see how I get on, I guess if it turns out to be a real weakness Schumacher will release an upgrdade of some sort.

[bigred5765]

Originally Posted by chatts#725

I had the same problem before leaving the house with mine, since then i machined 2 alloy blocks and used the original housing to get the angle right, then ground down the original bulkhead top and fixed them by screwing through from the underside of the bulkhead with m5 tx 20 screws, i also braced the underside with some 3mm carbon fibre, by doing this you can also beef up the alloy mountings to strengthen them, its been perfect ever since. I also thouught this looked like a weak spot when building the kit but no one else seemed to agree. suppose the only benefit is that paying 5.99 bulkhead is better than 15 for a shock tower

is this the one were you ran it inside your house and smashed the front end of??hardly a weak point ??

[chatts#725]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

is this the one were you ran it inside your house and smashed the front end of??hardly a weak point ??

Yes carl fair point, my own stupidness broke mine, on the other hand it didnt break the one on the top of this thread. If we all had the time, ability and backing to be top level elite drivers that never crashed then things would be all smiles and laughter, however unfortunately we dont. So weakpoint for your average man or not ??? only time will tell.

[bigred5765]

this is only the second i have seen broke in all fairness while racing, but a upside down landing on the front tower is going to break something, and as you said better a 4-5 quid part than £15 tower

PS just been looking closely at the pics above, the top of the right hand side mount looks to be lipped over at the top as though the screws come loose, and allowed the tower to rock back causing the snap page???

[Balders]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

this is only the second i have seen broke in all fairness while racing, but a upside down landing on the front tower is going to break something, and as you said better a 4-5 quid part than £15 tower

PS just been looking closely at the pics above, the top of the right hand side mount looks to be lipped over at the top as though the screws come loose, and allowed the tower to rock back causing the snap page???

I think that is a bit of paint from the shell where its rubbed off on top of the rounded edge of the bulkhead when squeezing it on and off as the screw is still tight in there if you can see that from the pic.

Don't get me wrong I think the car is pretty strong all over and I am very happy with it, it handles really well and I can't find anything else at the moment that makes me think that it needs beefing up.

I'm by no means the best driver out there, quite the opposite really so when I get a car I always look at what parts I am likely to break and try to carry a spare (which at the moment is difficult ), I'd already spotted the bulkhead as a possible contender to be 'balderized' so had the part spare thankfully so this altercation was not the end of the world.

As these cars become more widespread (I wonder how many have Schumacher shipped so far?), I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of this....

Chatts, I'd be interested in see a pic of your repair?

Cheers for your comments anyway lads.

Mike

[P_B]

Saw a Cougar driver suffer this at RHR on Sat, tower dug into the astro during a roll - when it was pieced back together he'd fabbed a mini lexan skid plate over the top of the front shock tower to stop it digging in again.

I have a pic somewhere, will post later - might be useful until parts availability gets better?

[bigred5765]

sounds likea good idea pete

[Alfonzo]

Carbon shock towers digging in following from a high speed incident are going to stress the poor old car to the max, there's no give in them and the car comes to a halt very quickly. This is why shock towers and related breakages are so common on all buggys.

Liking the idea of a skid plate!

[P_B]

Pic quality is shocking as I've blown it up *quite a bit*, you can see the repaired bulkhead (no purple washers left!) and lexan plate attached.



Just looking for another angle... [edit: got it!]



Not a bad idea and might save a few bulkheads.