Ageing of Safety Equipment.

[rustybin]

I regularly see adverts for harnesses, seats etc. that are advertised as 'out of date' for competition but try as I might I cannot find anything in the blue book as regards the life expectancy of equipment. I'm sure I am being dumb but where should I be looking?

[Altrezia]

Isn't it written on the harnesses? They'll have an 'end' date

[eccles]

I thought for national racing the date wasn't important, and that it was only FIA stuff where the date was critical.

[anonymous-user]

Some equipment has the end date (harness) labelled on the item, some kit has a manufactured date label (seat, bag tank), some items have the standard they are homologated to (helmet, overalls) as the main criteria.

The expiry date of equipment without an end date can vary depending on the level of competition, such as FIA or MSA sanctioned. You can often use a lower standard of homologation in MSA events compared to FIA events for example, you could buy a new set of overalls and find it out of spec the next year if the FIA change the minimum standard for example.

So it's not a simple question to answer, you have to read your relevent regs for items with a manufacture date and homologation number with no end date.

[rustybin]

Thanks for the responses. It's my first year of competition and ploughing through the regs is providing so much of a challenge that I have completely forgotten about the actual competition.

[apguy]

Expiry date items for MSA national events is currently limited to:
- Helmet (Snell has a 10 year expiry, BS certification doesn't)
- Overalls (Not actually a dated item but the minimum spec has changed)
- Seatbelts (which must now be FIA approved and therefore have an expiry date)

MSA future discussions suggest they may be about to go FIA spec with the seats as well (which are also lifed).