Harness Bar on C-pillar

[Guest Anonymous]

right behind the seat over the should?

Personally i would not recoment driving with a 5 point harness until the cage is in. The harness becomes a death trap by not allowing you to move at all when the car rolles over thus killing you. Wait a bit, and then mount the harnes that attaches to the roll cage.

steve k.

[Guest Anonymous]

I want to put a 5-point harness in my 2002, but I'm not getting a roll bar/cage until much later. I want to put a harness mounting bar across the C-pillars, just above the back seat. The mounting points would be near the window latch mounts. Is this area suffiently reinforced to allow secure mounting of the bar? Any advice is appreciated.

-steve '71 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

there was a thread in the roadfly e30 forum a while ago. if you're strapped in and the car rolls... consider your spine in pieces. i would personally hold off until you get the bar.

just my opinion

matt

[Guest Anonymous]

but I wonder if it's really any more dangerous that regular seatbelts in that situation. In that kind of accident, wouldn't the tensioners lock, holding you upright?

-steve '71 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

I think I'd hit my head on the harness bar if it were on the B-pillar.

Basically, I want to get rid of my annoying first-generation seat belts right now. I decided to skip ahead to the 5-point, since I know I'll want one eventually, and don't want to waste money buying other belts first.

If someone wants my first-generation belts, I'll trade! They're the kind that clip to a center hoop, don't have tensioners, and are hard to adjust.

-steve '71 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

i just did my pet peeve... replying, but not answering the actual question. so i take back that post... and i don't know the answer to your question

matt

[Guest Anonymous]

of the body towards the center. In a roll over the driver will br pushed to the side. If you are tightly strapped in with a 5 point harness you have no place to go.

As for the future 5 or 4 point harness, the ones that attach to the roll bar would be a better choice, so it would be better to hold off till the cage is in.

One question for you: is this for a street or track car? A race 4/5 point 3" harness is not leagal on the street. Your other chouce would be a 2" 4 or 5 point harness. i believe there are a couple companies Schroth and Seabelt (sp?) that offer a 3 point (immitating a 4 point) street legal harness. Look into that. it can be attached in the back to the place of the rear seatbelts can be attached.

also, i cannot remember for sure, but there are a total of 4 locations where a seat belt can be attached for the rear seat. Use those mounting points.

steve k.

p.s. i went through this too. and decided to stcik with the seatbelt that i have right now.

[Guest Anonymous]

[Guest Anonymous]

Get a cage first. I have a Kirk Racing roll bar in my car and it has a nice harness bar for the harness to mount too. I drive like a shithead everywhere I go, so the bar and harnesses are nice.

Trent

[Guest Anonymous]

I think the reason the Schroth & Sabelt harnesses are legal is due to the DOT-approved buckle design, which is like a normal seatbelt. I don't know what the DOT has against the camlock racing-type buckle.

I think those DOT-approved harnesses would be equally good/bad in an accident. The rear seatbelt mounts are sturdy, but too low. A harness bar is still needed to keep the belts from squashing you down under heavy tension. That will compress the spine, also.

Maybe with a racing seat, the guide holes for the belts will keep them in the right place.

The car will be used for street, autocross, and track schools. Real racing to come later, after I learn to drive!

-steve '71 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

under the rear package shelf are locations for rear shoulder belts (on my '71 1602 anyway) I was thinking of getting a long Y-belt, Simpson has one in their catalog, and bolting it to the rear package tray. Then when you get the rollbar in, buy just the shoulder belts, and use the lap belt you already bought. The only issue is how to put the stupid cardboard/vinyl trim piece back in w/ out it looking too cheesy. Also, you won't have a seat brace, so in a wreck, the seat could buckle and twist you pretty good, if the car rolled, it'd be worse, obviously...don't crash.

[Guest Anonymous]

only attatch the lap belt and tuck the rest of the harnss behind the seat till you have a rollbar.

[Guest Anonymous]

...from reading lots of articles and info on mounting of harnessbelts, etc. (and I definitely am NOT an expert on this) is that without the use of a roll bar or at least a horizontal harness bar, when the upper straps run through the seat loops and down to the floor(as many people do, and I hear some of the manufacturer's suggest) is that in the case of a crash, the loads exerted on the body are pulled downward (by the belts running straight down from the seat) and can put the spine at risk. At the very least, some kind of harness bar should be used that is the height of the harness loops in the seat, that the harnesses pass over before heading to the floor, etc. This makes the harnesses take a horizontal path after passing through the seat. Supposedly, this makes the loads created during a crash pull straight back on the belts and not downward on the spine.

I dunno, but it makes sense to me and i'd rather not test it myself. I'll take someone else's word for it. I don't want to find myself a quadraplegic(sp?) from ill-mounted harnesses, if ya know what I mean. Well, just thought i'd post what i've heard,,,hope this is of use to someone...=)

Alvin Caragay

BMWCCA# 156055

'72 BMW 2002

'97 Toyota Tacoma

'90 Yamaha FZR400

[Guest Anonymous]

I've seen a 5-point installation that works well without a roll cage. The hat shelf is quite sturdy, and is easily reinforced from within the trunk. It's quite acceptable to bolt the shoulder harness ends to the hatshelf with big seat belt washers, one on each side. There's no way you're going to rip out that sheetmetal in a wreck, and even if you did, the forces of such a wreck would have killed you if the hatshelf had held together. If you want to be extra careful about it, cut a piece of steel bar and bolt it onto the underside of the hatshelf, using the seat belt bolts themselves to secure it. In other words, use a big steel strap in place of the big seat belt washers.

Typical belts like Simpson have more than enough length to reach all the way back to the shelf.

The only drawback to this is that back seat passengers have to live with a forest of straps.

Mike