Subject: [Fot] NecksGen Safety Alert (head and neck restraint device)

From: Duncan Charlton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:28:39 -0500

A safety warning for anyone using a NecksGen head and neck restraint device!

Check your hardware to be sure all twelve bolts, washers, and nuts are there
and if it didn't come with thread locker on all of the bolts, remove all
twelve bolts and use some blue Loc-Tite on the threads before reassembling.

At my last race I sat on the grid warming up when I realized there was
something seriously wrong with my NecksGen head and neck restraint. The tab
that goes into the helmet was lying on the passenger seat so I raced without
it.  I later found that several pieces of hardware had simply come apart,
including in the angle adjustment area, which I had tightened myself.
However, there also appeared to be two missing bolts that attach the helmet
straps to the main body of the device, but I could not find these pieces
anywhere.  I found a few bits of missing hardware on the floor in the Morgan.
I asked a few others using the device to look at theirs and the one reply I
got indicated that his looked just like mine -- but it turned out he simply
hadn't pulled hard enough on the straps yet to have them pull out as mine did
-- he was missing the same two critical bolts that connect the two halves of
the unit together and clamp the helmet strap anchor in place.

NecksGen has told at least one other customer that they will send out
replacement hardware for free, and Farin Brady told me they would refund my
purchase of a hardware replacement set (I had bought a full set of replacement
hardware since I really didn't yet know what I was missing nor that there was
essentially a defect in the product, ie: it was not my fault).  The diagram
that came with the device wasn't of any help in determining where the various
pieces of hardware go, nor was a similar diagram on their website.  I spoke to
Jeff to get the layout correct.  The replacement bolts have a dab of thread
locking compound already on them.  Jeff explained that their testing did not
uncover this problem and they were unaware of it until the first hundred or so
devices were out the door and they started getting feedback from customers.
They didn't anticipate the degree of vibration encountered by users of the
device.  No mention of why I hadn't been contacted as soon as they knew of the
problem, but since I purchased this through a group buy, they may not have had
my name and contact information on file.

The design requires spring washers to be put under the heads of the bolts
rather than under the nuts, which are countersunk stepped round barrel nuts,
and that the main large pieces of the device which the bolts pass through are
made of a composite material, which may have some "give" to it, allowing the
stainless hardware to loosen under vibration.

If the bolts that pass through both pieces of the device and the helmet anchor
strap fitting are missing as mine were, replacement ones should be pushed in
from the outboard side with a spring washer under the head, through a "side
bushing" that fits inside the large hole in the anchor tab of the helmet
strap, with the stepped barrel nut on the inboard side.  The side bushing is
also stepped and the narrower part points outboard (OK, wait, I'm not
absolutely sure about that any more -- but it may only go one way).

Duncan Charlton
Texas
1953 Morgan Plus 4
#6 red
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