I have the split ring collars and have used them for years. No chaffing at all. My collars do not squeeze the harness, but just ensures it says in the positions I mounted it in if something really goes wrong. There is very little motion there normally.

 

Did the schroth/fia/hans recommendations for belt distance and "spread" change in the last year or two. When I had all of my equipment installed two years ago I used the schroth hand out for my setup and the information was not quit as detailed as it is now. I've since gone back and measured the distance of the hans opening, the distance from shoulder back to shoulder harness bar, and then used the new equations to figure out the spread.

I also have the 3-bar slide adjuster pushed all the way back against my harness bar. Since that little metal adjuster is about 1/8" fatter than the belts, this is what hits the split ring collars that I have on my harness bar. The belts don't touch the collar at all. Your 3-bar slide should not be halfway between your body and the harness bar from my understanding. It should be as tight as possible against the harness bar, which should prevent the belt from rubbing on your split collars, if that is what you use. This is covered on page 26 of the schroth competition belt installation manual. The equations for belt length and spread are on page 18.

http://www.hmsmotorsport.com/docs/Co...structions.pdf

 

I just used a set of universal roll bar brackets http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/big....asp?RecID=270

 

that's correct, the 3 bar slider is all the way back at the bar, and yes at rest it is metal on metal contact

 

aluminum, 1.75", split ring shaft collars are the same price at McMaster-Carr

 

Opinions on this set up for Hans?


the belts are further apart than Schroth recommends but that's where they seem to want to be. Further together they start running into the sides of the seat holes.

 

I don't like left one. Having harness attached to the angled part of bar seems like it would want to slide forward when pulled in crash. Seems like bad idea. Better to have it straight part.

I am not even talking about the ends yet.

 

This is a good point, but...

...There is a caveat. If you set it up this way, you need to make sure the loop is tight enough that it will not rotate when the belts are slack. If the loop can rotate, it will rotate downward from the 3-bar slider being horizontal and facing the seat toward it being vertical and hanging down. When you pull on the belt again, it is very likely to wedge itself in that position, which will give you a false tightening on the strap. Suddenly, if enough force is applied, that loop will slip to where the the 3-bar is back at 3 o/clock again.

 

I'm with Joe here;

I don't really like it either. My main exception is that it is too far apart. This brings up a lot of other issues. Putting permanent belt locating devices on belt bars like these wire loops is dumb because everyone's setup varies too much for them to be effective very often. The seat holes in many seats do not allow a proper belt setup, and this is the main problem here. Larry is correct when stating that the belts are not likely to suffer too much from abrasion before they date out anyway.

Bill, I'd prefer to see them quite a bit closer together, and you'll likely be doing something like what I assume Dan Jacobs did on Ron's car; set them up with the best compromise between distance and seat infringement that you can. You will have to accept some bit of belt deflection to get something approaching optimal. Either that or cut your seat and make it perfect.

 

It can't go either left or right, it's caged,

I probably should have removed the cage when I had it out this past winter, who knew??

ideally the left one would be a little more to the right and the right a one a little more to the left.

But as I said this seems to be where they want to ride, going by DJ's philosophy let them find their own place.

The belts feel comfortably in the Hans groove and every thing is tight so I guess i'll go w/ this unless I hear a reason not to.

 

I've been using aluminum collars like the ones you have for a couple years and there is zero visible chaffing. With the belts tight around the cage bar, they have little tendency to move and the collars are there to ensure nothing happens in a wreck. (Mine are in a nice straight part of the cage bar also.)

 

Ok, thanks to all, on and off the public forum for your advise. Due to unanimous demand I cut the cages of,f ground down the nubs and repainted the bar.

Tomorrow i'll refit the harnesses closer together, as close to the 4" OC that Schroth seems to want as is practical.

 

That could be why it is chaffing.

Anyway it seems really bad to have harness loop on any thing that is not exaxtly 90 from the harness run. Any angle would allow the loop to slide from normal tigthtening loads and may compromise it in impact.

The goal of the collars is to prevent the spreading that can occur. This spreading should be rather lightly loaded or at least much less force than what is going through the belt.

 

The first pic is how I set my harness belts. I used SFI padding and zip ties. Note that mine are set 5" from center of belt to center of belt. I used a spacer to maintain this distance. I may change to shaft colars. Mine will require 2 - 9/16 in the center on 1 on each side.

The 2nd pic shows shaft colars used to posistion the straps of the right side net. They are slick.

 

I did something a little different. I don't like back braces to stab you in the spine. I like seats mounted to cages not floors. I like aluminum seats because you can cut and tig weld them if the shoulder holes are in the wrong spot or if you want to add more support to them. In the photo below the back brace is designed in such a way as to contain the shoulder harnesses. I'm using hans specific 4 shoulder straps so it is a bit different from using 2 straps. The point is the back brace elements contain the shoulder straps so I don't have used split ring collars to contain the belts.