Well, it's been 9 months with my '02 silver and I love the car to death but...

I've found that for some reason, I cannot get comfortable in the drivers seat in terms of the seatbelt- the shoulder strap keeps digging into my neck. Since seatbelt height is not adjustable in our car- and I've tried taking the shoulder harness out of the side-of-the-seat clip but to no avail- I now am at my end with this, and find that I have been using my seatbelt less and less- which is not a good thing and needs to change. The slipping-the-strap-under-my-left-arm trick is a temporary fix- but is not as safe...

I figure at this point that I need to somehow install a 4 or 5 point harness in the car- at least on the driver's seat- if not the passenger side as well to match. I have no clue where to buy, what a good one is or isn't, what a good price is, and how the heck I can install it in our car safely. MORE INFO NEEDED PLEASE...

i know there HAS to be a way...and my patience with this damn seatbelt is growing thin. I do track the car from time to time too, so this mod certainly isn't only for comfort- it'll come in handy on the track.

your collective help is appreciated...

 

Before you even think about getting the harness get a roll bar that adds height relative to the stock rollover protection. Unless you're a midget you're actually safer with the stock seat belts in a roll than you would be with the stock roll hoops and a harness. With the harness you'd be forced into an upright position which most likely will put your head above the height of the stock roll protection when you have a helmet on. With the stock seat belts you can lean forward and potentially avoid getting your head crushed should the car roll. The Bitterman rollbar adds about 5-6 inches of clearance. With that rollbar, or something similar, most people will be ok even if they add a harness. It's easier to mount the harness to an aftermarket rollbar as well.

 

no cage, no harness! Very very important! Try one of those seatbelt cushions you can velcro on.

 

Yep, pick up an inexpensive seat belt wrap-around cushion at any Kmart, auto store, etc. Works fine. If you buy black, it looks fine also.

 

tried the seat belt pads- none of em work. I'm 5' 10" tall, but have short torso I guess...cause this thing digs into my neck no matter what. Someone should come up with a mod to retrofit our stock seats with 4/5 pointers...

There has to be another way

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gomason
[B]tried the seat belt pads- none of em work.

 

The point about harness unsafe with stock roll bars sounds logical enough but are you sure? Is this an opinion or "expert" opinion?

 

Yes, even I'm sure about this.

Think of it this way - your car rolls over -
...and you have a stock seatbelt: Your body can lean to the inside or even the outside if needed.
...and you have a four or five point harness: Your body can not lean anywhere, its upright in position and your head/helmet is holding up the car once the front windshield gives way.

I'm not an authority by any means, but I have my opinions, especially about safety that I don't want to test out to prove.

Hope this helps.

 

I haven't heard of anyone foolish enough to try to find this out by experience. Hopefully we've discouraged at least one more candidate with this thread.

 

the mustang that rolled at willow springs last year illustrates that effect, just slightly different b/c of the back seats. This stock mustang flipped at the track and the roof collapsed to door height. The ONLY thing that kept the driver and his passenger alive was that when the roof pushed on their bodies the force broke the seats and they fell backwards.

If there was no backseat, what would have happened? The force would've had to compress their bodies and bend them forward to absorb the impact, or crush their spines. If they had harnesses in that situation, what would absorb the shock if the body could not fold? It all would be taken in the spinal column and killed the poor fellows. Instead because of ford "engineering" and seatbelts that give slack to the body they had their lives saved.

The same argument goes for putting in race seats without additional rollover protection...it's too dangerous because it leaves less room for shock absorption in case of rollover.