Tornado Intercept Bus

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Robert Palmore and I'm a creative person with an idea looking for someone to get inspired. I started watching the Tornado Intercept Vehicle(TIV) on The Discovery Channel with Sean Casey behind his IMAX camera. Sean is anincredible cameraman and was quite creative to design and build the TIV. Yes, here it comes, but he just didn't have the fabrication skills to execute the TIV to it's maximum potential. He did a much better job with TIV II but he still had some troubles with it. I have taken a great deal of inspiration from the TIV and came up with my flavor of insanity with the Tornado Intercept Bus(TIB). My primary skill is welding and fabrication. My thoughts for the TIB is make the skin out of AR500 steel which is what they make shooting targets out of. The windows would be thick polycarbonate with glass to keep the polycarbonate from getting scratched. Another large departure from teh TIV the TIB would be rear engine driven allowing the driver and passenger compartment could be set lower and still allow good forward visiblilty. Maybe a rear engine bus like Grayhound uses for the doner vehicle. For suspending all this bullet proof compartment weight I want to use air bag suspension. This would allow the TIB to squat both for loading and unloading as well for an intercept. With a body that is already lower than running position the skirt that would lower into position can be smaller. There would also be anchor spikes. This one thing that Sean got just right. With the TIB being larger the spikes would have to be larger as well. Things like storage compartments for a chainsaw and other rescue tools so one might be able to help in the after math of a storm as well as being able to clear the road so you can continue. Electric or hydraulic winche(s) Plenty of fuel storage for a long day of chasing without having to stop and refuel so you dont' "miss the big one". Any kind of radio equipment as well as a cell phone repeater that allows you to stay in touch with distant towers from inside of the bus. The bus can be made to any size you like.

Though we hope to never drive the TIB on ice there are many muddy road in it's future. The idea of getting out and putting on chains while chasing or worse being chased by a tornado is not a good idea so something like Insta-Chain's automatic deploying traction chains would be the perfect way to improve traction on the go on muddy road conditions. Air operated. With a flick of a switch, you are safer than without the traction control system.

Because the TIB is so heavy and should anything happen it should have a winch front and back. Even if it's safe being hit directly by a tornado it should stay mobile at all times. Waiting for a tow truck to pull you out is not a practical thing. Even with traction control it's always possible to slide off the road in muddy conditions. Also with a winch you can move trees and other debris out of the way so you can continue. Also the ability to recover other storm chasers allowing them to get out of the way in time is a very valuable resource. 12 volt winches are not very expensive for a 8,000 lb winch but because the TIB is so heavy it shold have hydraulic winches front and back. Somethign like the Warn 30,000 lb winch with air clutch would be an outsanding choice.

Fiber rope made of UHMWPE or Spectra fiber is safer to handle without with bar hands and is lighter per tinsel strength capacity and easier to handle overall. Warn has a comparison Synthetic Rope Vs. Steel Rope wich is an excellent article to understand the advantages of fiber over steel winch rope.

A good size hydraulic pump is needed not just to drive the hydraulic winches but to drive accessories like skirt deployment and any other devices we want to mount to the TIB. A pump with an electric clutch that is drive directly off the engine via a belt is far easier to engage. It can even be engaged with driving. Most all PTO drives require the vehicle to come to a complete stop to sefely engage. With a pump from North Tools it can be engaged at a flip of a switch with minimal limitations. Gotta keep moving sometimes.

For the body of the TIB I'm torn between using AR500 steel panes and a lighter less expensive balistic fiberglass panels. Most all of the vehicles that were destroyed by tornado while on the road dammage seemed to be mostly from being blown around by the forsce of the wind and impact dammage was secondary to the roll over dammage. Keeping the passenger compartment intact is a little more important than the impact resistance. That being said I wouldn't set out in a standard body vehicle. Even a school bus which is probably the best built vehicle isn't strong enought. Balistic fiber panels or alloy steel is needed.

Balistic windows are also needed. Polycarbonate with glass laminated inside and out is a standard production item. We could just order the sizes we need. Both window glass polyurethane glue as well as steel bezel bolted on to keep the glass with the TIB.

It is possible to run a doppler radar on the TIB without the TIB becoming another Doppler On Wheels (DOW) An X band radar has a smaller radar dome but it does have a shorter range. One manufacturer is Furuno who is well known for marine radar. The unit I'm thinking of only requires 650 watts at 120 volt. Very little poer power and can be driven from an inverter. This will not be good for a weather forcaster but will be perfect for allowing the TIB to accurately avoid or even skirt the edges of a tornado with some degree of safety.

There are similar products but not exactly what I'm hoping to put in the TIB. On smart phones you can put apps on it to track your friends and family but manytimes TIB will be away from civilization plus the possiblility that the storm will take out cell towers breaking this link. What I would like is for a mall radio/GPS device that will data link the location of the user via a simple radio connection. This data could then be displayed on the doppler radar monitor. Bringing the Google maps, doppler radar and any other vehicles in the group on display would add a great deal of safety. This will have to be engineered and all the bugs worked out before hand.

Now, why would anyone want satellite TV while driving down the road. For sure not for the the driver. Two reasons. When there are no tornados and you are driving day after day for thousands of miles chasing storms the passengers will like to have something to watch. When chasing storms knowing what the local meteorologist are saying can help. One option is the Winegard RoadTrip T4 receiver system.

Should you entertain the idea of a TIB for your business please feel free to contact us at PirateWelding@gmail.com to us at Pirate Welding