A battery powered impact wrench! Anyone know if there is some kind of NASCAR law that says "ALL impact wrenches used on pit road must be air powered."? If not, does this sound like a stupid idea? I already know the air powered ones they use are highly modified and aren't something you can go buy off the shelf somewhere. But, does anyone know if any of the teams have tried it already and confirmed that these things can't cut the mustard? It sure seems like it would be worth the effort to implement these things on pit road. It would mean your driver no longer has to worry about running over a hose. And I think you could easily cut a second off your times by not having the crew members jumping over and dragging the hoses all over the place. And I see potential there for DeWalt to take a crack at becoming the "official impact wrench of NASCAR." Thus getting the edge over Husky and whatever those fancy Loews tools are.
Why is it I think you are affiliated wih DEWALT tools???
Hell this is the best idea I have heard in a long time.. Yep a 36 volter would do the trick easily.I would also imagine DEWALT or other manufacturers would build a heavy duty job if the teams needed it for just a sticker on the car. Might want to write some of the teams in N.C. with the suggestion. However I would imagine NASCAR has to approve it.
I do think some of the smaller and local track teams might use the cordless impact wrenches.
Last edited by photogr on September 6th at 2:04 PM.
or wouldn't it neat if they went to the old tire irons , you know the X style ones they used on the dukes of hazard. just for one race, they could have a "retro" race. might be fun. can you think of any other retro ideas?
Last edited by williamwilman on September 6th at 5:50 PM.
Looks like a good idea if they can improve the strength. But meanwhile its as is. My point is, can they get better jacks? Seems though they fail a lot too?
The specs on the wrenches is a thought. That is why I suggested modifying the electric wrenches.
It is feasable to install a higher torque higher RPM motor in the wrench which will cover the needs for the pit crew.
Additionally, most lugnuts only require 80 to 100 lbs of torque to keep them fastened on the studs. I think the NASCAR boys require about 150 lbs of torque to hold the lugnuts on the stud. Been a while so don't hold me to that. I would think 300 to 400 ft lbs of tourque would be sufficient.
As far as the current jacks for NASCAR. They are the only sanction that still uses the old hand #### jack. Most other sanctions have went to the onboard air jacks which are more efficient and less cumberson. Don't know what their backwards thinking is about that.
You can never say it won't work. Just no one has went to the trouble to do the research to get it to work.Quite feasable and quite workable.
Last edited by photogr on September 6th at 7:08 PM.
The first time a tire changer didnt get them all tight cause of his mistake, and the driver loses a tire, They would blame the batter gun. They would want to switch back. Your talking less then a second when they hit each lugnut.
I say for safty lets get one less guy running to the far side to change tires and get the system in place that jacks the hole car up at same time.
Photo - NASCAR a few or more years was tinkering with the cars being lifted like the F1s and etc. Where the jacks pop out from under the car to lift all 4 tires same time. I would think the teams might not like that cause it would make the car heavyer ?
I think William is on to something with using the X crow bar. I wonder what the pit stop time was at that time ? Shoot Richard Petty had time to run to the old outhouse for a quick releff.
Bushboys: Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I was hoping someone could find for me. Too bad. I had a feeling there's a reason we haven't seen anything like this in use already. Oh well.
Now on the subject of the x shaped tire wrenches: I remember reading about a race at Darlington, (I think) where one guy ran the race about 10 mph slower than the leaders and won it, because he never had to change tires. But the leaders did, and when they came in and had to put on new ones, because they used the tire irons to change 'em, he passed 'em all back on the track while they were busy on pit road. Anyone know who that was?
Joe Akulis was raised and still lives in New York's Southern Tier region. As a kid, he spent many weekends in the stands at the local quarter mile track scarfing down fried dough covered with dirt and sugar, and squinting through the dust cloud to cheer on his uncle. Later in high school, he discovered that he too shared a certain knack for 1/4 mile distances as he set a high school record running the 400 meter hurdles. At 35 years of age, he now enjoys the family life, can still run a pretty quick 400 meter dash, and catches most of the Cup races on tv each weekend. He can often be spotted walking into the office wearing his five year old Jeff Gordon hat which is proudly littered with a little bit of dirt from more northeast tracks than you can shake a stick at.
