Can I drill a hole in my middle brace behind the seat to mount a 5 point harness and still be legal?

 

i had a seat belt tab welded onto my cage for the harness to bolt to that

 

While I cant say for certain it's leagl/illegal every one I've ever seen has a tab welded to the cross bar to bolt the harness to. Typically guys use a Y harness and there simply would'nt be enough space to take up the slack from where the belt splits from the Y so the mounting point often needs to be moved back a bit. Plus it looks cleaner this way too IMO.

I've seen guys use 2"x3/16" flat that they bend one end to wrap around the cross bar and weld into place then drill a hole in the flat part of the flat bar.

I used a piece of 1x2 tubing 2" long or so (cant remember), cut it off at a angle at the back side to access nut that holds harness to my mount with a wrench and it provided a good fish mouth cut to weld against my cross bar.

Just try to design it so it's gussetted for strength, would suck to get shiney side down and have your bracket bend on ya...make for a sore neck the next day or a permenant nap in extreme case.

 

Since Y-types are no longer legal, when I put mine in i just wrapped around my roll bar. A lot simpler and you don't have to worry about the tabs breaking. Just my .02

 

To my knowledge, just drilling a hole through the tubing won't pass. If a hole was drilled big enough for a small tube to be welded in, then a mounting bolt goes through that tube, it may pass.

I have a mounting tab welded off the back side of the cross bar that the harness attaches too. There isn't enough room on the front side of the tube for the tab.

Since I mounted that tab, I can only get harnesses that wrap around the bar so I don't use the tab mount any more.

Unless you have a racing seat that has a hole through the back for the harness to go through, the wrap around style harness needs to be secured to keep it from sliding around on the cross bar. A shoulder harness won't hold you in if the mounting point slides away allowing the harness to fall off your shoulder. At least that's NHRA logic. If I have my harness pulled tight, there's no way it's going to slide away. Typical securing is something as simple as a hose clamp on either side of the harness. The hose clamp is enough to keep the harness from sliding along the tube.

 

I've got a seat with a hole in it, so it sounds like I should be ok with a wrap around style.

What type do you guys reccomend for that?

 

Since they're only good for 2 years if you're running quick enough (11.99 and quicker) where you need a date coded belt, buy a cheap set. RCI etc are just as good as a high dollar belt. You can get them rewebbed but only the original manufacturer will reweb their own belts and not all of them will even do that. Even Simpson is starting to refuse to reweb their own belts.

Every 2 years I sell off my expired belts. New belts for me are about $80 Canadian and I sell off the old ones for about $50 to mud bog racers, stock car racers or 12.00 and slower street cars who want a 5 point harness. I've never had a problem selling my expired belts.

Now if you run 12.00 or slower, the date code means nothing. They can be 10 years out of date and they're still legal to use providing they're still in good condition.

 

or find tracks who are IHRA rules and then you dont need them until 11.49 or find tracks who are more loose on the rules as well. i still think 3 year old RCI harnesses are better than 25 year old factory ones.

 

last i checked, nhra and ihra are on the same page ET wise for saftey equipment. both want you in at least a 5pt roll bar and 5pt harness at 11.499.

 

I need to upgrade to a 5pt harness, I've just been lucky tech has never said anything to me. Are the Camlock style harnesses easier to use? I was thinking about going with a RCI-9411CD(summit part#) I'm looking for the harness thats easiest to install and use if anyone can recomment which type is best? And how does the lap belt mount, can you use the factory bolts or do you have to drill new holes?

 

I'm hoping to use the factory threaded holes there.

 

using the factory holes for the lap belt is just fine, and a hole drilled through the bottom of the car with washers on either side is appropriate for the crotch strap.

i've heard nothing but AWESOME reviews about the camlocks, but simply out of my price range, so i guess they're pretty good.

 

Camlocks are much easier to get hooked up and to get out of, however, if you are running quick enough to need new belts every 2 yrs.... then its just a matter of opinion which to run... then again if you are running slower just pick the style that you like best even if it costs a little more, that way you only have to do it once.

 

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

This isn't the illegal Y type belt is it?

 

That belt is okay the y-type they are talking about is the style where both shoulder harnesses come to one common point.

 

Ok, thanks. I have one final question:

Will this belthttp://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku bolt to the floor and sides, but wrap around for the shoulder straps? I looks like it has mounting tabs on the shoulder harness, or can I still wrap it around?

 

That one is fine, when the belts are shipped to you the tabs are not installed on the belt, at least not on my RJS belt. Just don't put them on your shoulder straps and do the wrap around.