Racing Harness (Seatbelts)

[g260]

George,

If you come to the club meeting this Wednesday night I will show you how I have mounted mine. I have had a rear strut bar made that incorporates the harness mounts and have bought longer eye bolts that screw into the standard seat belt mount holes on the floor so that I can retain my lap/sash belt and clip in the harness when I need to.

Geoff

[texasz]

Kmack,

If you come across another deal like that PLEASE grab it!! I just live up the road from you and would like a 4 or 5 point. Did you fab the bar that they attach to behind the seat? Is this an easy thing to do?

[kmack]

texasz,

As for the belts, just keep an eye out on ebay. At the time I bought mine I was watching 15 different sets at the same time. I had a certain price in mind that I wanted, and when they went over that price, I just looked at another set.

As for the bar, I can make you one if you want. Send me a PM about it and we'll set something up. It'll take about 2 weeks.

[hmsports]

There's a great article in the latest SCCA Sports Car Magazine about the useful life of belts.

Sun has the foremost effect on belts. It seems that belts can lose more than 50% of their elasticity in just 6 months with direct sunlight -- especially when it is focused through glass. I know that I'm going to carry a towel in my car to cover my belts.

If you want new belts, the guaranteed lowest price can be had from Racer Wholesale. They have 5 point harnesses starting at $59.00.

[ZCCOR#109]

Idividuals interested in the engineering design for safe installation of seat belts should be directed to the SCCA Sports Car Club of America GCR General Competition Regulations.

Of particular note is the angle from horizontal that a harness is to be mounted. As a previous writer stated, you don't want a compression force on your spine. you want to be held back, not down by that belt. Also, the lap belt is to be mounted at a 45deg to the floor, and the bolts are to be with forces in sheer, not a tension force. ie trying to break the bolt off, not pull it out.

This is not relevant to use for Solo II, where you are looking for something to hold you in place. But, for safety issues all this stuff is relevant.

As a matter of fact, the SCCA magazine, SportsCar, latest issue July, addresses belts. They have found significant degredation of belts from UV, with upwards of 50% decrease in effectiveness in ONE year. There is now going to be age of belt system rules in the future.

Go to SCCA.org and click on what ever gets you the GCR.

[texasz]

hmsports,

Thanx for the URL, I was thinking that I would end up paying nearly $200 for one from MSA or VB. I will just get one from Racer Warehouse!

kmack,

Lowell Marx brought up a good point. Does the bar you have your belts attached to meet the SCCA guidelines?

[kmack]

I do not know what SCCA's guidelines are. I don't have one of their rule books. I just went by what looks to be a factory moutning place for such an item as my harness bar. I can't see anything else being attached in that location for any other purpose.

[2ManyZs]

What you want to end up with is the shoulder belts going over your shoulder and staying as close to horizontal as possible to the rear mounting point. You could also use a bar to hold the belt up at the proper shoulder level and then down to a mounting point on the floor, that should be good enough for most auto-X or track days but would not meet SCCA road racing regulations.

Just sit in the seat and put a mark at the top of you shoulder and shoot a level line back to see if you can mount the belt at the right height. If you use a racing seat with slots that the shoulde belts run through, all this is moot unless you plan on SCCA sanctioned road races, as they would OK it for aut0-X if you just mounted the belt to the floor, and then ran it through the slots in the seat back to put it at the proper level for your shoulders.

The first year or two I road raced I used a stock seat that I cut slots in the backrest to put the shoulder harness at the right height. It was still legal back then to run a stock seat, but the rules have changed considerably since then....:cross-eye

[kmack]

I'll try to get someone to level out the belts while I'm sitting there and see how it ends up. Won't be for another 2 weeks, though (maybe).

[hmsports]

Here's a very good PDF file with complete instructions from G-Force on the correct way to install harnesses:

Harness Installation Instructions

[Brett240]

thanks george, are those belts ADR approved? ive only found one set that are , SPARCO belts but they are worth around 600 bucks just for one side.

[zed240au]

george you want to check the date on the harness as with cams new rules they only have specified life some 2 years some 3 years and others 5 years so you need to make sure there as new as possible if you plan on competing at any time this date crap is a real pain in the butt at the moment

Know guys who had harness used fro targa once a year and had to upgrade them because they where 3 years old.

good idea to check the cams manual for mounting points though the bottom should be ok just using old seat belt mount.

its the back ones that are thre problem

Mick