Racer by Jump Shack

[HPC 7]

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I found the black dirt is coming from inside the metal housing. It is lubricant and who knows what, left over from the manufacturing process. By running a 17 cal. flexible (cable) gun cleaning "rod" with a swab on the end, it removes the black stuff. The flexible rod allows the cable housing to be cleaned after the rig is built. The yellow cables do not get black any more. Of course I clean as per manufacturer every month. ha ha It is my understanding that RI now cleans their housings before building rigs while the housings are straight on the bench. I have not confirmed that.

If this is indeed the primary reason the Lolon cables are turning black and need regular cleaning, has any rig manufacturer put anything on their website that recommends jumpers have the inside of their cutaway housings cleaned? Seems like a no-brainer to me. I'll ask about this the next time I talk to someone at RI, or maybe I'll message them via FB.

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BTW HPC you should be the head of PL research and development if Johnboy would give you full authority to push that rig up to speed. This is one of the few threads here that is going to help the sport. I hope.

Thanks. Actually, I'd love to see how the Racer is built and see if some of the ideas I have are viable. There's really no reason why PL can't make several changes to the rig that would put it more in line with all the other rigs without taking a step back in safety. For example, if they cleaned their cable housings and lined them with a flexible insert with a low friction coefficient then they could probably either eliminate the need to clean the cables monthly, or at least reduce the need to clean them to once every six months (so that they could be cleaned during the reserve repack cycle). This would allow them to return to Lolon cables instead of the Teflon cables that have had their own issues. I also have an idea for a single-pin design that would make the two-pin cutter optional for those willing to pay extra for cutter redundancy. It would also make the loop adjustment so that it could be sealed, meaning someone would have to break the seal to readjust the loop. And if it were up to me I would go back to offering a standard free bag as an option. I would also offer a MARD, either design their own or look at the various designs introduced by other rig manufacturers and license the one that is the one they believe to be the best and is also economical to license. There's really no reason why they can't make several changes that would eliminate every reason people have made for not buying their rig. Most of them would not require major changes. The only one that would require major changes is the one that would address its dated look. And let's face it, that's the least important criteria (or at least it should be) when deciding on what rig to buy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it PL that used to have ads going as far back as the 1980s saying something along the lines of "when you're going through a grand with nothing out, having pretty gear is your last concern?" The external RPC design itself has its merits and shouldn't be abandoned.

What's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right.

[gb1 2]

The rig manufacturers, except RI, are unaware as far as I know about the housing cleaning. I gave a demonstration at our DZ at safety day a few years ago and may have mentioned it on DZ.com but have not really called it to attention to the public. It is a simple procedure that seems to work on my rig and every other rig I have performed it on. Rig manufacturers can test it on their own and probably bury it in red tape or claim they discovered it. I really don't care. As long as the rigs of my friends and myself are good I have moved on to solving other problems.

HPC, Instead of focusing on a rig that needs help and has outdated management, take it to the next level and give some ideas to the cool rigs and really help a superior rig be even better. As I said, you seem to have the right attitude.

[sundevil777 93]

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The rig manufacturers, except RI, are unaware as far as I know about the housing cleaning.

I have a memory of an old thread here that was all about the gunk in the housings.

I remember the general conclusion from that thread was that the gunk is basically a lubricant, and cleaning it is probably counterproductive from a pull force standpoint. Of course the lubricant attracts dirt, but other lubricants do also.

I think it is quite likely that other rig mfgs are unaware of the need to clean the housings because there is no need to clean the housings.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[drdm 2]

The "properly" sealable one-pin pop-top problem has been solved by TSE (the Teardrop guys) for a long time now. (But, being relatively new to the sport and not a rigger, maybe there's some complexity or subtle detail in the discussion here I'm not fully grasping - feel free to educate me if that's the case; I'm always up to learn a bit more about the mechanics and history of the things I use to get me out of the air safely.)

[pchapman 261]

drdm

The "properly" sealable one-pin pop-top problem has been solved by TSE (the Teardrop guys) for a long time now.

It works.
But Jump Shack / John Sherman never liked that design though. It's a matter of different design priorities.

They don't like the heavy pilot chute cap, that affects how well the pilot chute launches, and making it top heavy, trying to invert the pilot chute at low speed.
(Teardrop uses aluminum I recall, and the Flightline Reflex used fibreglass - maybe lighter, I'm not sure off hand.)

I think Sherman also had a thing about ripcord forces, that when tightening down an external pilot chute a bunch (which is has to be, with no other flaps to cover it), it is easier to get too high a pull force with a single pin pop-pop than a two-pin. Or something like that; I don't recall his exact argument. That could also be debated, as any pop top tends to need to be tightened way up. Teardrops and Reflexes work.

Although from the few Racers and Reflexes and Teardrops I've seen around over the years, certainly some needed better tightening, and the one pin ones look worse if the pack settles or the rig flexes over time.

[freeflyfree 0]

https://youtu.be/lDQhg078QKI?t=4759

--
Blue Skies
NO FEARS, NO LIMITS, NO MONEY...
"A Subitánea et Improvísa Morte, Líbera nos, Domine."

[HPC 7]

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HPC, Instead of focusing on a rig that needs help and has outdated management, take it to the next level and give some ideas to the cool rigs and really help a superior rig be even better. As I said, you seem to have the right attitude.

I understand what you're saying and agree, but most of the ideas and suggestions I've mentioned in this thread really only apply to the Racer, since that rig deviates more from the rest of the rig manufacturers. However, if I come up with an idea that I don't see on any rigs then I would definitely approach the other manufacturers first, as I feel that my idea would at least be given some thought and examined to determine its viability by almost all other manufacturers - except PL. As has been mentioned in other threads regarding the management at PL, it seems that only those ideas that are generated internally are taken seriously. Just my impression, anyway.

What's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right.

[gb1 2]

Well then, black cables it is.