Bulk car transport

[Noskills]

What's a good safe way to carry 40-50 cars from a weigh in day to a leaders garage and then to the PWD site? Using a few plastic tubs and they are making me nervous.
Seth

[Darin McGrew]

We never carry the impounded cars more than a hundred feet or so, but we use the same display racks we built to display them before the races, and to park them in between races. Each board is sized to fit on a standard folding table, with legs in the back to angle the board. The cars rest against stop rails.

[TXDerbyDad]

Save yourself some grief and have the weigh in immediately before the race. I'd hate to be responsible for the are and transport of 40-60 cars.

[Scoremaker]

Have your check-in on the night when you set up your track. Then there is no reason to move the car's they stay put. Also you have everybody check-in and your race schedule ready. Also if you let the Scouts pick the best of show you have a small posted note to hand out to each scout or your Pinewood derby chair people at lease 3 to 5 people to vote have them be there early so that the race can start on time.

[BallBoy]

I am inferring from the question that the check-in procedure has already been decided and that the inspection process involves impounding the car. Shifting the inspections from beforehand to the night of the derby may not be an option.

I am not trying to hijack this thread, but want to add a different opinion than those shared already. I am a proponent of having inspections prior to the day of racing. Doing so cuts reduces drama the night of the race. Drilling a half a dozen holes in the bottom of the car and ruining the paint job to remove that extra .15 oz that the kitchen scale said wasn't there frustrates a dad. That frustration bleeds over into the race and can cause ugly situations later. Have that drama a day or two or three before so that racing can be fun.

Now to provide some input to NoSkill's question. I suggest a bunch of shallow boxes that (1) keeps cars off their wheels and (2) keeps cars from touching. I have a box emblazoned with Amazon's logo on the side that came from who knows where that I use to transport a bunch of my cars from time to time. The box is 4" tall and roughly 16" x 24" and carries 12 cars. I created cardboard dividers so that each car is in its own mini-garage and have a piece of 1" foam in each section that allows the cars to rest on their bellies. If the box were to be tipped on its side or take a tumble then that would be bad news for the cars. If you plan to transport 40-50 cars, I suggest not putting them in one container, but rather several containers that can be easily and carefully carried. Make 5 trips carrying 10 cars each rather than one trip carrying all 50 cars.

[BallBoy]

Another option is to not impound the cars. Let the car owner handle the transportation of his/her car. Another, brief inspection (perhaps consisting only of re-weighing the cars) could be done on raceday if there are concerns of improper adjustments being made between inspection and racing.

[TXDerbyDad]

I am inferring from the question that the check-in procedure has already been decided and that the inspection process involves impounding the car. Shifting the inspections from beforehand to the night of the derby may not be an option.

With 60 cars, unless you're completely tearing them down, it's absolutely possible to inspect 60 cars. We can do roughly a car a minute per inspector. If we have 3 inspectors, we can do 3 cars a minute. With 2 inspectors with 2 checkboxes and 2 scales and our inspection checklist, as well as 2 additional pre-check-in scales and check boxes at the pit tables to make sure they are good to go before hitting the official check-in table, we can do 30 scouts in 15 minutes flat, though we always go the full 30 minutes we set aside for check-in in case people need to do any work to their cars. We have NEVER had a car fail to make the race check-in in the 7 years' we've raced in the Pack.

I am not trying to hijack this thread, but want to add a different opinion than those shared already. I am a proponent of having inspections prior to the day of racing. Doing so cuts reduces drama the night of the race. Drilling a half a dozen holes in the bottom of the car and ruining the paint job to remove that extra .15 oz that the kitchen scale said wasn't there frustrates a dad. That frustration bleeds over into the race and can cause ugly situations later. Have that drama a day or two or three before so that racing can be fun.

We have a weight check the night before as we setup the track, but final and thorough inspection happens immediately before the race. Even having a pre-race inspection isn't perfect, because having rain in the 24 hours before the race an and has increased the weight of cars in the past.

Now to provide some input to NoSkill's question. I suggest a bunch of shallow boxes that (1) keeps cars off their wheels and (2) keeps cars from touching. I have a box emblazoned with Amazon's logo on the side that came from who knows where that I use to transport a bunch of my cars from time to time. The box is 4" tall and roughly 16" x 24" and carries 12 cars. I created cardboard dividers so that each car is in its own mini-garage and have a piece of 1" foam in each section that allows the cars to rest on their bellies. If the box were to be tipped on its side or take a tumble then that would be bad news for the cars. If you plan to transport 40-50 cars, I suggest not putting them in one container, but rather several containers that can be easily and carefully carried. Make 5 trips carrying 10 cars each rather than one trip carrying all 50 cars.

My point of view is that I personally don't want to be responsible for anyone's car and it's condition for longer than I have to, and certainly not transporting it any appreciable distance. if you think trying to make weight before the race is stressful (and I've been that dad drilling the holes minutes before check-in closed so I understand), imagine a car being damaged by the person responsible for taking care of it before or during the race and trying to get it fixed. I saw a car broken in half at last year's district race by a careless Boy Scout who wasn't watching what he was doing after the first heat and dropping it. Thankfully it broke in such a way that it could be glued back together, and since i'm one of those dads who brings their toolbox to the race, the kid was able to glue it back together and see comparable speeds from the first heats for the rest of the races. Now imagine doing that with 60 cars by dropping them. As someone who works in Risk Management, that's far more risk than I'm comfortable with, buy obviously other people's mileage may vary.

[Stan Pope]

With 60 cars, unless you're completely tearing them down, it's absolutely possible to inspect 60 cars. We can do roughly a car a minute per inspector. If we have 3 inspectors, we can do 3 cars a minute. With 2 inspectors with 2 checkboxes and 2 scales and our inspection checklist, as well as 2 additional pre-check-in scales and check boxes at the pit tables to make sure they are good to go before hitting the official check-in table, we can do 30 scouts in 15 minutes flat, though we always go the full 30 minutes we set aside for check-in in case people need to do any work to their cars.

I'd recommend against separate inspection lines. The risk is that two inspectors checking on the same car criteria will not judge exactly the same. To speed up inspection, layout the inspection steps to be completed and divide the steps into sequential inspection stations.

For instance,
Station 1: Weight and Size
Station 2: Wheel and Axle Validity and Treatments
Station 3: Axle location
...
Station (last): Record pass/fail, Apply # sticker, Award Driver's License.

If your goal is 3 inspections per minute, then each station should be assigned work that takes 20 seconds or less per car! This might require, for instance, that Weight and Size checks (Station 1 above) be divided into 2 stations. If you find that a station is not performing quickly enough, cut its list of tasks in two, add a station adjacent, and give it 1/2 the list!

Inspection tasks for each station should be very specific, and the "official rule" associated with each task should be included as well.

I don't think that it hurts if the full list of inspection tasks is available to all entrants ahead of time. It assures "no surprises" resulting from misinterpretations.

[Darin McGrew]

Just a few quick comments...

Save yourself some grief and have the weigh in immediately before the race.

FWIW, we've found that it saves a lot of grief to have the final check-in a few days before the race. That removes the time pressure to get everyone through the check-in process so the race can start, and gives the independent design judges time to meet without pressure to finish quickly so the race can start. Plus, there's time for the cars to be photographed, so their pictures can be displayed when the results are projected on the screen.

Have your check-in on the night when you set up your track.

Not everyone has advance access to the room where the race is going to be held.

With 60 cars, unless you're completely tearing them down, it's absolutely possible to inspect 60 cars.

The inspection itself has never been the problem. The problem has always been the adjustments and re-inspections for cars that have problems.

[birddog]

Seth-

I'm glad you posted this question. I have the same issue for our Pack race. We do our inspections the night before the race. We find this takes the pressure off race day and has worked very well for us.

I'd love to simply leave the cars on the table, on their mats, the night before the race, but I'm worried that something might happen to the cars. Our building is in a church and no doors are locked.

So, I recommend the kids use transport boxes, but most kids don't do that. I use plastic bins and towels and try to keep everything as gentle as possible, but I'm interested in a better way to do this as well. When I take the cars home over night to keep them under my protection, I risk something happening, but I think that risk is small and even smaller than when they are not in my control (if left at the church unattended).

I would also be interested in hearing what others do to keep their cars safe during impound. I'm not interested in changing our inspection schedule as that works well for us.

thanks,

Birddog

[Darin McGrew]

I would also be interested in hearing what others do to keep their cars safe during impound.

We keep them in a locked room, resting on our display racks.

Aren't there any locked rooms at the church where you could store the impounded cars overnight? An office? A storage room? An unused classroom? Anywhere?

[xanthrum]

If you have a Best Track - use the Stop Sections -- they work very well at keeping cars very safe and secure in transporting.

[birddog]

I think I will look harder for a room at the church that can be locked so I don't have to transport them to/from my house over night. I think that could prove to be fruitful.

Even so, I need something to haul them to/from the room where we race and the locked room.

The stop sections of our best track are already setup and in place on the track by then, so that isn't an option.

I'm still stuck using plastic bins.

Birddog

[Noskills]

Thanks all. I am thinking of getting 2 under the bed storage bins. Then buying some 1x3 and epoxying it to the bottom (inside). This will rest the cars on their bellies. It won't help then banging against each other. Yet if I am the one carrying the box I can be pretty gentle. Most of our pack cars are pretty crude with only a few good paint jobs or cars that have been tuned.

As most surmised we weight in the night before and don't have access to the room not can I leave the cars in place.

I think the bin with1x3 idea is better than the crude Tupperware we are using now.

Seth

[Speedster]

Perhaps cut pieces off a 2x6 and put a screw eye on each side. Hold the car in place with a rubber band. Run 2 screws through the bottom of the storage bin into each piece. Cover the screw heads with duct tape so nothing gets scratched. The under the bed storage bins I have came with a cover that snaps into place. Wrap a tarp strap over the cover so the cover cannot come off. If the unthinkable should happen and the bin is dropped the cars should sustain no damage, not even a scratch.