Helmets When Driving

aleigh said:

Years of riding a motorcycle tell me you're wrong...

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Yeah, that's why I don't ride.

just me said:

I was always 'concerned' that AMC had Braille on the controls on the drivers side of the Concord. And the Braille menus at a drive thru ATM or McDonalds....

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You had to be blind to buy an AMC. Ugliest cars ever built. As for the ATM's and Drive thru's, that's just PC gone amuck. When they remodeled the local high school, at the top of a ladder, next to the door to the theater cat walk to the stage lights, there was a braille sign...

rhurey said:

That RCW leaves the com headsets as fine, as long as they're not hooked to a radio.

And they enforce the mudflap law on jeeps more than trucks. People at work complain about the ticket all the time just after lifting their jeep.

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I've got a non compliant Jeep as do a lot of my friends, and we've never popped for it. I didn't even have any fenders at all for a year. Had cops point it out a couple of times but nobody seemed to care. Maybe we're just lucky or it's a lot of where you are.

You're right about the comms thing, but I hook mine up to a radio. You'd think there's be a ham radio exemption for that considering we're allowed to fiddle with our radios when driving, there's an exemption in the cell phone driving law.

I live in a hot climate, where wearing a helmet is very uncomfortable. But so is not wearing a helmet, and thus I'm frequently breaking the skin on my bald head.

Has anyone tried to use or fashion a "Parker Pumper" helmet for road use? The Parker Pumper is an off road helmet system that pumps fresh, filtered air into and around the helmet. These helmets are a closed system, so I'd guess they would not be legal. But how about modifying a helmet with open ear holes?

Rick

Interesting discussion. When Walkman players were all the rage, I remember telling one soldier in my troop not to drive with the headphones on. Afterwards I had to laugh at myself. The rest of the crews were all wearing comms headsets, and we would often give the driver another headset or earpiece to monitor other networks.

One of the fellows in the local HMV community has a WWII MB which he invariably drives windshield down. His only roll over protection (as if the windshield frame is much protection!) is a machine gun pintle post. As a rule, he always wears RAF Spitfire pilot-style goggles and a slim motor cycle helmet. He scares me. Years ago as a young soldier I saw various M38A1 Jeeps roll into ditches where the windshield frame did yeoman service as a rollbar.

My M151A2 has the ROPS attached. I wonder if it isn't also an exoskeleton. So I'm less worried about roll over than bugs or birds or crud flying into me and being momentarily disabled. As a rule, I always wear goggles or over-the glasses sunglasses as a second layer.

Jump ahead to the V100 which I am becoming more familiar with. We have headsets for crew coordination. But like all good military vehicles, it doesn't have much ergonomic or impact cushioning. I've been tempted to put on some type of helmet, steel, kevlar or bicycle. Again so a sudden jostle or ditching won't be made worse by me clanging my melon off something harder than my hairdo.

John S-B said:

But it's okay if you're playing music so loud that the spot welds on your fenders are cracking....

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I'm in late here to the thread, and for whatever it's worth I recall reading a newspaper item like 10-15 years ago that has always stuck with me:

- It was a tiny little news piece.

- Some guy locally had tripped and fallen; just walking along the sidewalk, or standing on a curb or something.

- He fell directly on his head.

- It killed him outright; then-and-there (!).

I don't know if there were special circumstances or anything (like a medical condition, or he just happened to snap his neck a certain way, or something). But that story always stuck with me. Falls can be a problem. The End.

Maple Leaf Eh said:

Jump ahead to the V100 which I am becoming more familiar with. We have headsets for crew coordination. But like all good military vehicles, it doesn't have much ergonomic or impact cushioning. I've been tempted to put on some type of helmet, steel, kevlar or bicycle. Again so a sudden jostle or ditching won't be made worse by me clanging my melon off something harder than my hairdo.

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I use CVC's (DH-132) in mine anytime it's moving, all personnel in the vehicle have to wear one, according to my safety rules. They provide excellent impact protection, they have headsets/mikes included and connect directly into the vehicle's intercom, so everyone can talk to each other.
They are essentially pieces of dense foam in a mesh liner, and a hard shell snaps onto the outside. You can get kevlar shells easily, they are thicker and heavier.
The goggles are all military ones with ballistic lenses.
In cooler weather, neoprene face masks are nice, but you don't have to get ones with teeth!

Yes, the helmet is a bit warm in Texas in the summer, but once you are moving, you get good airflow through them and it's not bad. I'm willing to sacrifice a modicum of comfort for the head protection they provide.

In Vietnam, a lot of the crews used helicopter helmets (SPH-4). They might be a bit more comfortable due to the webbing inside (older ones, newer ones with the TPL liner are HOT in the summer!) but you would have to either use a different intercom, or modify the helmet for CVC type comms.

Cheers

I have CVCs to loan to passengers. So far no complaints about comfort. Seem to really like the noise reduction & the intercom.

I switched my comtacs to the ACH mounts instead of the headband recently and mounted to the opscore, way more comfortable, and much easier to take on/off.

John S-B said:

You had to be blind to buy an AMC. Ugliest cars ever built. As for the ATM's and Drive thru's, that's just PC gone amuck. When they remodeled the local high school, at the top of a ladder, next to the door to the theater cat walk to the stage lights, there was a braille sign...

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Wonder what it said?

I'm thinking:

- "If you can read this, then you came too far..."

Today was a driver training run in the V100 with the collection manager, myself, my teenager and two experienced civilian HMV drivers around. While riding in back, one of the drivers commented on some odd bolt stub ends sticking out of the armour. We speculated they were for P-clips and some absent wiring. I looked at the 1" piece of 1/4 20 threaded rod and thought about one punching someone's cranium. Gulp!

We have wireless 9v headsets for most of the vehicles. CVC helmets were discussed as the next purchase for the V100 so everyone can look to part of Vietnam crewmembers. Getting enough clean examples across the border and paying for them with depressed Canadian dollars sucks.

How about just using a good quality bicycle helmet?

It's not too pricey, and will likely do the job. What do you think?