4 point harnesses

Srt2Stang725 · 11-05-2007, 10:28 PM

Has anyone installed 4 point harnesses in a Mustang without a cage or harness bar...I have a set that I bought wheni was about to cage my srt-4 and neverdid andsince thenive been dying to install them in something.....I was looking at the Mustang today and there are anchors for baby seats in the back. Has anyone done this...would it be safe and/or possible? Thanks in advance

frodaddi · 11-06-2007, 08:38 AM

Don't do it - not safe. When installing any kind of harness it's important that the shoulder straps must anchor at a point above your shoulders. Otherwise in an impact the straps will actually pull down on your shoulders and cause spinal compression, not good.

Also, it's a bad idea to install race harnesses on any car without rollover protection. Reason why is because the harnesses will not allow your body to fall sideways in a rollover the way regular 3 point belts will. Such being the case, if the roof intrudes on the passenger compartment it will conk you right on the head and again cause spinal compression.

Finally, most racers consider 4 point harnesses less safe than 3 point belts in general because they have no anti-sub strap. So in an impact you can submarine under the lap belt.

I looked into adding track safety gear to my car for open track days, and the conclusion I came to was that you either need rollbar + seats + 5 or 6 point harnesses, or else better tostay with the 3 point belts. Unfortunately it's difficult to make a car that's safe for both the track and the street.

Kevin.

Srt2Stang725 · 11-06-2007, 09:10 AM

thanks for the reply man....very informative. After not looking at theharnesses for ayear and now just opening the box i realized 2 things. 1 they are actually 6 point harnesses and 2 the shoulder belts look like this....

so that also complicates things even more without a rollbar and such

frodaddi · 11-06-2007, 09:42 AM

6 point is definitely better than a 4 point, but really you still need a rollbar to avoid the spinal compression risk. There is some disagreement as to whether you can safely use a 6 point harness in a seat without a sub strap hole - you can find discussions of this stuff on road racing forums like nasaforums.com or corner-carvers.com.

Kevin.

Red06 · 11-06-2007, 10:42 AM

You may want to try one (or two) of these CG-Locks: http://www.soloracer.com/cglock.html

I installed them this year on both seats and they help keep your butt glued to the terrible mustang seats when on the track. It doesn't help with the upper body support but they are a great addition for only $39.

Hoops_5_1 · 11-06-2007, 04:39 PM

Here's a couple of pics of my harness install.

[IMG]local://upfiles/30893/F4F99AB0B852472BB0A970EE3702969D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/30893/B2DD7B0F44004A10BAD8E114163FFF0F.jpg[/IMG]