hi guys

ive just discovered that if you buy a giant car sponge from a car boot sale for 50p or walmart or wherever you americans get your home supplies from, cut it in half, then partly hollow out the middle you can fit your reciever in it with enough foam left over to wrap your battery and maybe your fuel tank and other bits and pieces. hence protecting the said areas in the event of a crash, and best of all its cheap!

50p to protect £30 worth of reciever... and about £5-£10 battery

think about it...

.....

The problem with that is the sponge may be OK for impact protection but it fails in the more importaint vibration protection. That is why the specialty foam rubber is better.

the sponge seems alright for vibration, what makes you say otherwise? :S

its better than having the RX stuck against the bulkhead with some double sided tape (that was the setup prior to the sponge)

I would guess the amount of vibration protection would depend on the type of sponge you use, wouldn't it? If the sponge is soft when it's dry, it should be OK, but if it's not (well I'll leave that one up to you)...

Normally man made sponge rubber does not dampen vibration. Yes it will help is crush mode. The natural rubber does both very well. I will not use anything but natural to protect my $150.00 PCM recievers, and the life blood of our connection the battery. Just my two cents worth.
Gary

i use foam out of old couches,futon matress, anything is better then nothing

i use foam out of old couches,futon matress, anything is better then nothing

im using a giant car sponge (one of the ones you wash your car with) and its very soft and springy when dry,

G'day Foamy,
To check if the foam you are using is any good, place it between you thumb & forefinger & squeeze, if you can flatten it so you two fingers close together, it is NO Good.
The RX or battery that you have wrapped in that foam, in a sudden stop will compress the foam, the same as your fingers did, so find a rubber type foam that has a bit more guts & protect your RX & battery.

i use pipe insulation,you can get a very long length for very little money,never had a problem.

To check for vibration - place the rx (or battery) on/in foam and place on a table saw (that should vibrate a lot) and touch the rx. can you feel the vibration? If so, don't use that foam.

Really we need two types of foam protection - one for vibration and the other for crash (impact) protection.... I like to wrap my rx in bubble wrap (great for vibration), and 1/4" foam from Du-Bro for crash protection - provided you have the room!

I prefer to use Du Bro 1/4 " foam for both RX and Battery. However have also often used the foam padding that they use for underlayment beneath rugs and have never had any problems using it for vibration or crash protection.It's odd that we spend so much on on planes radios etc. but seem to always try to save a buck on the essentials that provide safety for our expenitures.

Ditto the carpet foam underlaymentg.. double wrapped works greats. Takes CA too.. you can make "boxes" out of it., etc. Being under carpet.. it's made to not compress to easily, somewhat dense, etc... but still soft. look behind a carpet store and you will find years worth !
Mike

My wife picks me up can coolers at garage sales. has about the same density as Du-bro foam , at a fraction of the cost.

I found a foam at a local foam and fabric supply house that is the same density and thickness of the Dubro stuff and its $8.00 a 4 ft X 8 ft sheet when I took a sample with me.

I disagree. ever do the old egg drop test? the more soft foam the better. However I prefer soft CLOSED cell foam that electronics come shipped in as this type of foam won't absorb fuel. So if you do use the sponge put your RX or battery in a baggie![8D]

RULE # 1: Use what you have!