Is wrapping pool noodles around the corners of the bumpers a legal method of meeting R409 this year?
While the wording in this rule is identical to the rule last year, the figure used to demonstrate this rule has been updated.
Current Figure:
2023 Figure:
The new figure seems to show a measurement of the 2.5 inch pool noodle being measured at the planes given by the plywood corner. It also no longer explicitly shows a pool noodle wrapped around the corner.
I have some concern about this because the pool noodles in the corner of the bumper seems to get destroyed/compressed much faster without wrapping the noodles around the corner.
I’m not sure if I understand why that would make you not want to wrap around the corner. Unless I missed something specific in that thread, the vertical pool noodle, mitered corners, and overlapped corners have all seemed to fall apart much faster in the corners compared to wrapping around the corner. If your pool noodles are completely broken apart they aren’t providing much protection at all.
It looks like a mistake was made because the same image is used in the spot formerly showing the wrapped bumper and the bottom right spot. Probably they were adding color to the OK and NOT OK text and accidentally duplicated an image.
Wrapping pool noodles around a corner means you’re prematurely giving a compression in those corners, and it’ll take less impact to deform the noodles permanently.
I can’t recommend a miter joint as that’s probably the weakest of depicted. The corner with a pillar is strongest.
