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5-pt Sabelt Harnesses
Just catching on old email, Scott of PDQSHIP fame makes some good points,
just to reinforce
and add my $0.02 based on my experience with 2 cars equipped with TRW
Sabelts 5-pts:
- 5-pt harnesses are not DOT-approved for the street even though they are
safer, the main
reason being that you <ARE> locked in place, i.e. there is no automatic
tensioning mechanism.
Schroth makes a 4-pt 2" harness which is street-legal but not as good. TRW
are 3" lap/shoulder.
- the belts must be securely anchored to the body, through the floor is no
good, they will rip
through it like paper in an impact. The stock seatbelt mounting holes are a
good place <IF>
the bolts are long enough.
- the sub-belt is a necessity to prevent submarining under the lap-belts and
to prevent them
riding up onto your stomach. The lap-belts need to stay firmly on your
hips. You can get
away with mounting the sub through the floor <if> you use a very large
washer to spread the load. Contrary to what someone else said, you do not
have to cut holes in your seats for the sub-belt.
- your shoulders should not bear the load from the shoulder belts. This
will lead to spine
compression which is not pretty. The stock seats may not have a strong
enough frame to
absorb an impact w/o breaking. If you're taller than the seatbacks, this
is solved by mounting
to the roll-bar or roll-cage at an angle above the horizontal. For my
street legal track cars, I
use a 'harness guide bar' which mounts across the car behind the seats to
angle the belts up
and over to absorb the load. It also serves as a place to mount the in-car
video camera. They
cost about $90-$100 though a roll-bar in only a little more and makes the
car safer for the track.
- IMHO, you don't buy harnesses just to look cool - that's right up there
with the Oakley stickers,
low-rider look, tires sticking out the fenders and neon lights.
Regards,
Steve Jagernauth
3 5k street cars: need to sell 1
'74 911/3.0 : OMP seats/5-pt harnesses
and a couple of race-car projects