harnesses.......

[xzakx9]

ive got a mk2 golf 5 door with racing bucket seats in the front, would i be able to run harnesses without taking the rear seats out, and making it not look to silly on a 5 door?
cheers
zak

[Horney]

Yes and No.

The problem with harnesses is that they need to be fitted correctly and that means the straps that go over your shoulders should not be at more or less than a 45deg angle to their mounting point. THis is to stop them compressing your spin in an accident.

If not fitted correctly they can be more dangerous than no seatbelts.

Nick

[xzakx9]

so how would u mount them in a 5 door? what point would i need?
zak

[mk2mark]

Harnesses are nothing but hassle in a normal car. The upper mounting points NEED to be as level with your shoulders as possible - if they're higher they won't prevent you from submarining in your seat (5+ point will help), if they're lower then they can crush your spine. I'm not scaremongering, I've built a kit car and your SVA is very specific on the matter, also you can find that the FIA states that the only acceptable angles are between level and 10 degrees below that here: http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/895276808__8855_1999_Competition_seat.pdf - they do have harness specific documents but they're all in french.

[gavL]

Harnesses are nothing but hassle in a normal car. The upper mounting points NEED to be as level with your shoulders as possible - if they're higher they won't prevent you from submarining in your seat (5+ point will help), if they're lower then they can crush your spine. I'm not scaremongering, I've built a kit car and your SVA is very specific on the matter, also you can find that the FIA states that the only acceptable angles are between level and 10 degrees below that here: http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/895276808__8855_1999_Competition_seat.pdf - they do have harness specific documents but they're all in french.

I've seen a fair few people have to go and re-mount harnesses when their car was getting checked over for track days. The amount of time I've said to idiots that have mounted onto the chasis directly behind their seat that they will come out crippled in a crash if they dont remount to at least the rear seat belt mounts!

[xzakx9]

thats where i was going to mount them....do u think it would look silly ina  5 door would they get in the way?
zak

[T_J_G]

Of course they'd get in the ayof any rear passengers!

[gavL]

thats where i was going to mount them....do u think it would look silly ina  5 door would they get in the way?
zak

You will be unable to use the rear seats if you use them on both front seats. If they are mounted on only the driver side then you would get away with using only the rear passenger side seat, but personally I wouldnt bother unless you get a roll cage put in.

A little info about harnesses if you roll the car you cant pull you body or head down, without a roll cage they can cause more problems having them in due to your head getting crushed in the roof. I've seen pictures and heard of incidents of this when I used to hang around with a lot of the Pug 106 Rallye group.