Derby Talk

So our race day is on a Saturday and the weigh-in is the preceding Monday. That means that we'll be impounding 50-60 cars for the better part of a week. Even better, due to some circumstances, our Pack will be holding the weigh-in in one location and the race in another. This means we need to find a safe way to transport all of the impounded cars from the weigh-in site to a secure location and then from said secure location to the race location.

Does anybody have any ideas for some kind of storage container that could be built to inexpensively and securely hold a number of cars? I was thinking perhaps cardboard boxes with some kind of foam 'rail' the cars could sit on. and then foam pieces inserted to hold them snug?

Does anybody have experience doing this kind of thing? Kind of a bummer to have to shift all these cars around, but there's really no help for it at this point.

We have a similar issue, but not nearly as severe. Our impound is only 1 night and we don't have to transport the cars out of the building.

One of the projects on my "to do" list is to build something that could store and/or display 60 cars safely.

Since I have not yet done that, I encourage all the kids to bring their cars in a storage box of some type. I'd say about 5 - 10% of the Scouts actually do that. For the rest, we simply use large plastic bins and fluffy towels to protect each layer. Not the best solution, but for the 12 hours they are impounded, it seems to work OK.

birddog

You may want to read through this thread that has some good suggestions. The thread contains some debate about whether cars should even be stored, which likely doesn't apply to your current situation.

I said it in the other thread, and I'll sat it again here: I don't see the point in what you're trying to do. Is it easier to come up with a solution to store and transport 50-60 cars for a week, or just have check-in immediately before the race? What happens if they can't meet requirements during check-in?

Our Pack, at it's peak, was over 60 boys, and we did setup and check-in the day of the race, and that includes siblings and parents racing too. It can be done, and I would wager requires far less effort to do that than store and transport that many cars safely. That is, unless you only have 3 people to do it.

While I'm not dismissing this point, the arrangement pre-dates my involvement and has already been decided on, in terms of policy and what's been announced, and what spaces have been rented.

As far as check-in goes, I will be on-site with my power tools, epoxy, spare wheels, axles, blocks, sandpaper, etc. Just try and throw something at me that I can't fix.

But again, this is what our situation is, and while I'm not chuffed to pieces about storing and transporting so many cars, I am trying to find a sane way to do it.

TXDerbyDad wrote:I said it in the other thread, and I'll sat it again here: I don't see the point in what you're trying to do. Is it easier to come up with a solution to store and transport 50-60 cars for a week, or just have check-in immediately before the race? What happens if they can't meet requirements during check-in?

Our Pack, at it's peak, was over 60 boys, and we did setup and check-in the day of the race, and that includes siblings and parents racing too. It can be done, and I would wager requires far less effort to do that than store and transport that many cars safely. That is, unless you only have 3 people to do it.

Vitamin K wrote:While I'm not dismissing this point, the arrangement pre-dates my involvement and has already been decided on, in terms of policy and what's been announced, and what spaces have been rented.

But again, this is what our situation is, and while I'm not chuffed to pieces about storing and transporting so many cars, I am trying to find a sane way to do it.

Believe me, I understand. But doing things because "that's the way we do them" isn't necessarily a good model if it's more work and effort than doing it a more sane way. Finding a better way to do things and doing it that way is what process/quality improvement models are based on, and why the Japanese became a manufacturing and engineering powerhouse post-WWII decimation, thanks to Demming. Unless there's a compelling reason to do it that way going forward, I'd suggest to the powers that be that it would be safer (for the cars) and less work (for you and everyone else) if impound wasn't a week for next time. Distributing the risk of keeping the cars safe and in good condition, especially while transporting, would fall to the Scouts and not you and the race staff.

VK, I started collecting the plastic Coca-Cola cases that the 12 oz bottles come in. You can outfit them with strips of wood to rest the cars on inside. The benefits to doing this are that they have handles (which require TWO hands - a good thing) to carry them and, as long as the cars aren't too tall, are STACKABLE which allowed us to store and transport pretty easily.

Oh hey, this is an old thread.

I actually came up with a solution involving the stackable boxes they use for fruits and vegetables at Costco. I put a cardboard insert inside with 1.5" strips of foam insulation bonded to it that the cars rest on. Beneath each car, I push a section of bamboo skewer through the foam strip, and I can loop a rubber band over and around the car to hold it snug for transporting.

The soda cases are a good idea too!

Yeah, sorry to resurrect. Had been years since I've been to this board, and was coming across many topics of interest while browsing for things I'm researching.

Expect to see more resurrections - gonna look like the Thriller video around here

Glad you found a solution - similar to mine it sounds