Discussion
I am considering fitting a Harness for the drivers side on my car. I use a 4 point in my mini. I was wondering how well a 3 point attatched to the seat belt mountings would work?
Anybody had any experience of these?
Also I am considering putting some after market seats such as Cobra Daytonas in, has anybody had any experience in mounting these types of seats?
>>> Edited by WildfireS3 on Wednesday 15th September 15:08
Anybody had any experience of these?
Also I am considering putting some after market seats such as Cobra Daytonas in, has anybody had any experience in mounting these types of seats?
>>> Edited by WildfireS3 on Wednesday 15th September 15:08
Fitting a full harness is not a good idea unless you have rollover protection.
The seat belt top mount is not ligned up wih the seat center line so if you use this for the rear strap of your harness you will probably break your neck in a crash. This mount is also not particularly strong (yes I know the standard seat belt is mounted there).
If you have a rollover bar, the rar stay of the roll bar also gives you a convenient mounting point for the rear strap of the harness. The rear stay is constrained to line up with the chassis which puts it some way off the seat center line, but if you fit the bobbins into the *side* of the stay rather than the front you can get it lined up pretty well.
I have a Cobra Monarco in the V8S, fitting was easy, no problems with width etc.
Consider fitting seat brace bars while you're at it.
Do not bother with the cheap push-button type harnesses because they are a pain to use, go for a proper rotary release.
The rotary style harnesses also have provision for a crutch strap. It is worth getting a seat with a hole for the crutch strap (and get the corrresponding strap to go with your harness).
The front mounts for the harness go onto the existing front seatbelt mounts. To fit them you need to replace the existing plain bolts with eye bolts that the harness can clip on to. The harness will come with 3/4" eye bolts for this purpose but they're too short to engage into the chassis properly; you need to order some 1.5" eye bolts with your harness.
Depending how you mount the rear strap, you may find it difficult to get the Y piece of a 3 point harness far enough back from the seat. There is a trick to feeding the belt far enough through the clip to shorten the rear strap to almost zero length which I can explain if you get that far.
The seat belt top mount is not ligned up wih the seat center line so if you use this for the rear strap of your harness you will probably break your neck in a crash. This mount is also not particularly strong (yes I know the standard seat belt is mounted there).
If you have a rollover bar, the rar stay of the roll bar also gives you a convenient mounting point for the rear strap of the harness. The rear stay is constrained to line up with the chassis which puts it some way off the seat center line, but if you fit the bobbins into the *side* of the stay rather than the front you can get it lined up pretty well.
I have a Cobra Monarco in the V8S, fitting was easy, no problems with width etc.
Consider fitting seat brace bars while you're at it.
Do not bother with the cheap push-button type harnesses because they are a pain to use, go for a proper rotary release.
The rotary style harnesses also have provision for a crutch strap. It is worth getting a seat with a hole for the crutch strap (and get the corrresponding strap to go with your harness).
The front mounts for the harness go onto the existing front seatbelt mounts. To fit them you need to replace the existing plain bolts with eye bolts that the harness can clip on to. The harness will come with 3/4" eye bolts for this purpose but they're too short to engage into the chassis properly; you need to order some 1.5" eye bolts with your harness.
Depending how you mount the rear strap, you may find it difficult to get the Y piece of a 3 point harness far enough back from the seat. There is a trick to feeding the belt far enough through the clip to shorten the rear strap to almost zero length which I can explain if you get that far.
Cheers Pete. Seems quite involved. The insurance won't let me put a rollover bar on the car so that may have scuppered the harness plans.
I still fancy a Cobra Sidewinder seat though, how did you mount the seat?
Did you modify the existing subframe? Or have acustom one made up. The Custon fitted ones in my mini were around £60 each, I'm not too keen on paying more than this as it will push the cost up to around the price of a pair of modified heads.
I still fancy a Cobra Sidewinder seat though, how did you mount the seat?
Did you modify the existing subframe? Or have acustom one made up. The Custon fitted ones in my mini were around £60 each, I'm not too keen on paying more than this as it will push the cost up to around the price of a pair of modified heads.
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