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Rally tripmeters

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mbrooks

mbrooks

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I am about to set up my BN2 for classic rallying and am looking to acquire a tripmeter. I am having difficulty justifying the price of a Halda Twinmaster and am thinking about the twin register version of the Retrotrip. Does anyone have any opinions on the various devices out there? I am also interested on any comments on the need for the three register version of the Retrotrip. Has anyone been penalised or rejected from a rally because of the Retrotrip? Any advise on how to fit to an early type dash without destroying the dash? Any difficulties hooking up to the speedo cable?

Any input appreciated.

Mike
'56 BN2
 
Mike, since I'm into this theme as well and am looking for a tripmeter, I've read a lot about them. Main disadvantages of the retrotrips are they are electromechanical (not pure mechanical) and they have no possibility of reversing the counters.

You need to reverse the counters in case you have taken a wrong way. You reverse them on your route back to the point where you left the rally route.

The electromechanical disadvantage means you'll not be empowered to participate in certain rallys where only mechanical navigation-aids are permitted. In Europe some rally organizers don't admit them, but most do.

I know of at least one rally (normally only permitted to cars with mechanical navigation-aids), which admits the retrotrip. The organizers say, the disadvantage of having no reverse counters compensates for the 'advantage' of being electromechanical!

If memory serves right the 3rd register on the retrotrip is for calculating or holding an average speed, and the adjustment for that register has to be calculated by a special formula for every speed.

Can't give you any advice on hooking up to the speedo cable but have you considered connecting the retrotrip via the wheel probe sensor. I think that's the way I'll go.

You might want the additional Retrotrip power booster they are selling, especially in case your BN2 has still a dynamo fitted. It adds to the accuracy and reliability of the retrotrip.

I'll install mine with a special plug kit, which enables me to remove the system for security purposes.

Regards
 
Mike,

I looked these over a while back I found that some mounted these on an aluminium backing attached under the passenger dash handle. This precluded any dash cutting. It looked to be a simple piece of aluminium with two holes drilled corresponding to the dash handle. The Halda twinmaster /trip meter what have you was then mounted to the aluminium backing along with a map light (above the handle) and sometimes a clipboard.

I can't find the Healey dash photo but here is a similar set up using a backing plate. Imagine your mounting point to be the dash handle holes and the plate gets sandwiched between the dash and handle. You would loose the dash handle knuckle depression unless you cut out an oval in the backing plate. I saw this method used in a photo of Pat Moss's car or some works rally car.
tripmeter
 
Hi Eric and thanks for the input. I had not realised that Retrotrips were not reversible. I noticed your idea of hooking up from a wheel sensor - I came across the regulations for the 16th Winter Challenge the other day and they insist on tripmeters being driven from the speedo cable. Whether this is typical of other rallys I'm not sure.

Rgds

Mike
 
Thanks Tracy - under the grab handle - what a great idea. That's what I'll do. BTW I already have the map reading light - a beautiful chrome NOS flexible job that I got from Autochron in England. I must admit to having mounted that already with two tiny holes in the dash, but it is mounted at the far right side so shouldn't get in the way of the tripmeter mounting.

Rgds

Mike
 
This is an interesting question. I haven;t done any serious Rallys but I'd quite like to. I notice that some of the classic european rallys e.g Liege-Rome-Liege ban the use of Haldas and other similar stuff.

So my question is... were they originally legal, ...or did they become legal after a certain year?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gifcheers
 
Hi Derek,

No - cannot answer that one. I thought the Haldas were universally accepted, since they were "period" in the 50's and 60's.

Mike
 
Thanks Scott,

I've registered an email reminder on this as it still has 5 days to go.

Mike
'56 BN2
Scotland
 
Mike,

I've had a Twinmaster in my BJ8 for about 4 years and have competed in a number of one-day and multiple-day rallys. As stated before, the advantage of the Halda over the Retro is the reversibility. The advantage of the Twinmaster over the Tripmaster is if you forget to zero at an instruction you still have the total distance from the start.

On a related note, remember that the courses are Time, Speed and Distance. The Twin/Tripmaster will take care of the distance, but you will need to have your speedometer calibrated. This can be done by removing the speedo cable and measuring the number of revolutions of the inner cable that it takes to move 52.8 feet (1/100 of a mile). This should be done with the tires you plan to use inflated to the proper pressure and driven to warm them up. (inflation pressure will affect the circumference of the tire, especially in bias-ply tires) Then send this number and the speedo to a shop for calibration (there is one in NY and one in Ca- I used the one in NY).

You should probably by a new speedo cable (and possibly a second in case the 1st breaks) to be sure there is no binding during operation.

Both the Halda and the Retro are succeptable to moisture, so it is important to be sure that the one you buy has not been wet. (hard in a British car) That is the potential issue with buying on e-bay etc. I bought mine from Martin Jubb- Haldaman.com. He has been excellent to work with, and during the process of calibrating my Halda, would exchange gears with no problem.

Best of luck, see you at the check point!!
 
Dave,

Thanks for the info on the speedo calibration. This is certainly worth doing, but as I am sure you know, the classic way to keep average speed is using the trip meter, a watch with a seconds hand and speed tables. Doing it this way allows the driver to keep an average speed whilst not necessarily holding a steady speed.


Rgds

Mike
 
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