Harness Mounting

[xxxii]

I went from a wrap around style harness to an H-type bolt in style,

what if any, is the best way to mount the shoulder harness to the roll bar?

[ddewhurst]

***what if any, is the best way to mount the shoulder harness to the roll bar?***

Seat belts & shoulder harness should be mounted per the manufactures instructions............................

If by shoulder harness you mean two seperate straps the two shoulder strap style by Simpson that I have Simpson recomended using the rectangular metal piece with two slots the width of the strap that was included & the strap is placed around the main hoop cross tube & secured with the metal piece with the slots. BEWARE, there is a minimun & maximumm horizontal angle from the top of your shoulder that the straps should follow for maximum protection.

[xxxii]

Originally posted by ddewhurst@Oct 8 2005, 10:57 AM
***what if any, is the best way to mount the shoulder harness to the roll bar?***

Seat belts & shoulder harness should be mounted per the manufactures instructions............................

If by shoulder harness you mean two seperate straps the two shoulder strap style by Simpson that I have Simpson recomended using the rectangular metal piece with two slots the width of the strap that was included & the strap is placed around the main hoop cross tube & secured with the metal piece with the sulots. BEWARE, there is a minimun & maximumm horizontal angle from the top of your shoulder that the straps should follow for maximum protection.

[snapback]62101[/snapback]

ok. thanx, the belts I ordered are supposed to bolt to the roll bar, like the lap
belts bolt to the floor. Basicly, Im wondering if drilling through the roll bar to put
bolts in is going to cause a problem. The instructions should work,but JEGS just
sent the wrong belts that are a V-type bolt in and there was no word on the correct
way to mount, just, like you said, "a minimum & maximum horizontal angle" message. Hopefully, with no thanx to *J E G S* the next company will have everything in order by 10/13.

[lateapex911]

NO, do NOT drill through the roll bar! You may drill trough a plate welded to the roll bar, but the actual tube itself should have no holes.

Most roll bars have a seperate horizontal bar placed to wrap the belts around.

Get belts from a legitimate supplier like Pegasus Racing, or Simpson or Impact, and you will get the proper support and instructions you need. GENERALLY speaking, the perfered angle of the straps is ABOUT 90 degrees fron your spine at your shoulders, but it is a very imprtant item to get right. There are some SCCA generic drawings in the GCR. A good idea is to find an SCCA guy local to you and get a look at the GCR if you can't get effective instructions from your suppplier.

[pgipson]

Like Jake says -- don't drill into the roll bar.

The premise is to keep the length of the harness (between the attach point and the buckle) as short as possible. While it is possible to mount eye bolts to the floor level and attach the shoulder harness there, what you then have to do is run the harness up and over a bar to get the right angle to your body. This makes the effective length of the harness much longer.

Most installations I have ever seen will keep the length of the harness short by wrapping around a horizontal bar on the cage right behind the drivers seat. Use the included mounting hardware (G-Force, Simpson, etc) to secure the harness and keep that length short to minimize stretching on impact.

[lateapex911]

yea, the length and geometry are key. Earnhart was killed by improperly (and everyone, including the NASCAR tech officials knew it) mounted belts.

[John Herman]

As I understand an "H" style harness, they use a piece of webbing stiched between the shoulder harness straps to keep them together. The issue I have found with that arrangement is the H-strap contacts the back of the seat as the straps are tightened up, but the strap from the back of the seat to the harness mounting point is still loose. The problem is, you are not being held back firmly by the structure of the roll cage, rather, you are only held in by the strength of the seat back. I used an H-harness in autocross, figuring it would help keep the straps on my shoulders. When I change to road racing, I used the individual shoulder strap arrangement with a Bulter seat. NEVER did I have a strap come off my shoulder, even after testing it into a cement wall, twice. I now use a seat with holes for the harness, which makes it unnecessary to even worry about the straps coming off my shoulders. If you want to use a bolt-in style, have a plate welded to the roll cage at the appropriate point, and drill/bolt through it.