Hearing protection

[Legends16]

     Hey guys,

     I am looking for some hearing protection. I have sme slight hearing damage from my younger years attending loud concerts and clubs. I have what they call tinitus, ringing in my ears. Ive had this for a while now and its possibly gotten worse this year from racing legend cars. I have been wearing custom molded ear buds with my raceciever all year but I feel likeI need even better protection than what I have.

    Reading around online several experts recomend that motorcycle riders wear ear plugs along with ear muffs under there helmets. That sounds like a great Idea but Ive yet to find an ear muff that is desighned to wear under a helmet. Ive had thoughts of constructing somthing myself with a pair or ear seals from an old pair of racer scanner headphones I have. I have found some ear cups/seals on a few aviation sites that would appear to mont on the inside of an aviation helmet that may work. It could be a challenge t mount them.

    Has anyone ever done somthing like this?  Im also considering trying some other earpices. What are you racers wearing? Im looking for some good solid protection here that wont kill me in the wallet. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric

[VMS Motorsports]

What are you wearing now?
Ultimate Earbuds are noise reducing custom earbuds, about 25Db per my wife (she is a speech therapist and brought home her audiometer).
I havent found anything better, including $250.00 earbuds (she's kind of particular about me being able to hear her, soI've tried alot of different things    )

[Legends57x]

Eric,

One thing you might want to take a close look at is your muffler first.  I was experiencing ringing in my ears for almost 2 days sometimes when driving our dirt car and not my asphalt car.  Removed muffler from dirt car and found all internals were burnt out with only stainless steel muffer body still remaining.  Installed muffler with proper internals from asphalt car and ringing in my ears was totally gone.  Just something to check before you spend big money on some sort of extra hearing protection you may not need.

Good luck! 

[Legends16]

Thanks guys,

     Hi Jim, I am wearing a set of Ultimate Earbuds  that I purchased of you early in the year. They do fit well and I can hear race control. I have been pleased with them however I still feel as though I need more protection. Maybe I have sensative ears from the abuse I have put them through.  Ive been curious to see what the db rating is on them, thanks for the info, I havent see int posted. Not trying other brands I wasnt sure how they would compare to other units, now I know. I would like to procede with a few Ideas I have and continue to use the earbuds.

      Thanks Legends57x, I never thought of actualy taking a look at anything on the car. Ill check out the muffler and the baffles inside. Never driven another car besides my own (and being a rookie), I dont know how loud they should be, maybe the muffler is an issue. Is this common?

     Checking out the padding in my helmet there is a bit of a gap between my ears  and the helmet padding. The padding takes a little dip there. The aviation industy sells ear muffs for under the helmets, Im thinking about giving somthing like this a try, I have all offseason to work on this. The other thought is to add some padding, however it would have to be SA rated which may be difficult to find or fit them to the helmet.

     Im still open to other suggestions, thanks for the help everyone so far.

      

[Earnst85]

Do a search for 180's ear muffs. You might be able to use the framing for some build idea.

[knoxracing]

Food for thought  Back in the day I drove a legend with a collector and nothing in my ears, after afew years my ears would ring for two day after a race. The change to a muffler and the fact of having a simple head set stopped that, I wish I ahd been smarter I am certain my hearing was damaged. Do yourself a favor and protect your  ears or more importantly your kids ears.