User 52121

For those of you who have a Recaro Speed or SRD with the sub-belt hole... how do you attach the lower (crotch) belt to the car?

Talking to the guy @ Northstar Motorsports (where I ordered one of my seats from), he said to drill a hole in the floor below the seat and mount an eyelet, which the belt will clip to. Makes sense... the previous owner had harnesses in the car (with the stock seats) and there are already eyelets in the floor behind the seat for part of the harness to clip to. Unfortunately the previous owner "rigged" the crotch belt part - he just drilled a hole in the seat frame and had the belt wrap around the front of the cushion.

The Speed is mounted on the Recaro slider, to the floor (I need the headroom.) To me it sure doesn't look like there is any kind of room between the seat cushion and the floor to get an eyelet mounted there (let alone room to then actually clip the harness to.) I bet once I actually park my fat butt into the seat I have even LESS clearance under there. Last thing I want is to be riding around feeling like someone is trying to shove something somewhere that something shouldn't be shoved!

How are you guys hooking up the sub belts? All I can think of is having my buddy (who is a chassis builder) fab up a bracket for me.

odb812

I have my sub belts mounted to the same points as my lap belt. Do you have 5- or 6- point harnesses?

User 52121

I have 5pt harnesses.

odb812

I'm not sure in that case, I wouldn't want to take the single sub belt to either side. I have 6-point, so mounting to the lap belt points works fine. My sub belts are long enough that I can mount them behind the seat. If you can't fit an eyelet under the seat, maybe you can put one behind it.

docwyte

You really shouldn't be mounting your sub belts to your lap belt mounts. The angle is all wrong and this is an important piece of safety equipment.

I have my drivers seat directly mounted to the floor. That meant having to mount the eyelets parallel to the floor, as I didn't have enough space to have them stick up vertically. I have a welded plate beneath the floor, that's drilled and the eyelets are attached to them.

I think I have some pictures of it on my home computer, I'll post them when I get home tonite.

DanR

appreciate pictures as I am looking to modify my set up and as I have my seat directly tied into the floor, space is also tight

User 52121

Ditto! Would very much appreciate pictures!

odb812

I read on this forum a few years ago that some listers prefer to mount their sub belts to the same points as their lap belts. BTW, I'm not talking about the factory mounting points. I haven't read the PCA safety requirements in a while, but I remember they did not go into too much detail on sub belts. Can we get some more info and opinions on this?

LS1Porch

I would do a google image search on what happens to "the boys" in a crash with a 5-point and then ask yourself if you still want to install them

JDS968

Ow ow ow ow ow.

Even with 6-points, the photos are not encouraging...I think I want to wear dick armor from now on...

Anyway, here are my anchor points (photo is from the passenger side), the sub belts go through the slot in the seat bottom and all the way back underneath the seats. They actually cross, so the left belt goes to the right anchor point. Come to think of it, I'm not actually sure why...

The one at the top of the photo is for the side belt.

Of course if you have 5-points, it would essentially be the same, just one anchor point in the middle with the belt going straight back instead of being angled a few degrees.

Hope this solves your problem.

mj951

I have a pair of Recaro SRD's with 5 point harnesses.
The sub belt goes through the slot and towards the rear, check Schroths' website for specifics on dimesions. The belts clip to an eye bolt, but I used a rectangular steel plate as a large washer on both sides of the chassis. I drilled the plates before installing them and had them cut to size. I used a bead of adhesive around the perimeter and two additional bolts. Probably overkill but that's fine, here's a pic from when i started my carpet kit project.

ritzblitz

This is not the best way to do things, but I have my sub belts bolted to the seat side mounts. I didn't want to drill through my floor.

User 52121

When it comes to belt mounting, IMO safety should be priority. Mounting the belts in the wrong spot could wind up getting you hurt when you're put in a situation where you will depend on the belts to keep you safe.

Thx for the photos guys. I don't know why I didn't think of mounting the eyelet further back. I think I was just assuming that I *had* to go straight on with the eyelet.

JDS968

No problem, and don't forget to post photos when you finish YOUR setup

odb812

According to the PCA rules, mounting the sub belts to the side belt mounts is incorrect. Thanks for pointing that out docwyte. Also, it seems that you do need to put the sub belt mount below the seat as per the last statement. If the sub belt were mounted behind the seat, it would allow the lap belt to slide up if the front of the seat cushion were crushed. Is this right? Item 14 in the Safety section reads:
14. Five, six or seven point SFI or FIA approved competition harnesses, are required and must be properly mounted in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications (see Appendix B). Strap material must be replaced every five years. Harnesses cannot be mounted to seat or seat rail. Mounting must be to the chassis backed by large diameter washers (if stock mounts are not used) or to the roll bar. No two harness straps can be attached to a single mounting bolt. No Y-type shoulder harnesses are allowed. The angle of the shoulder harness going back from the driver’s shoulders cannot be more than 30 degrees above nor more than 10 degrees below the horizontal plane of the shoulders. Harness webbing must be approximately 3” for lap and shoulder harnesses and 2’ for antisubmarine straps. Additionally, FIA or SFI approved competition harnesses with 2” lap belts may be used, and FIA or SFI approved shoulder belts with a 2” section designed to fit over the yoke of the device may be used. The anti-submarine straps must be mounted such that they will not allow upward vertical movement of the lap belt due to “crushing” of the front seat cushion in any situation.