Harnesses Good thing or bad?


Matt-EK9

Matt-EK9

ex EK9 owner
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Right basically Ive been thinking about getting some harnesses for my EK9 but after doing much research Ive ended up gettting more confused than anything here are the main things hopefully this will be of use to anyone currently using harness or thinking about it.

Multipoint harnesses are less safe than OEM 3 points because they no not strech and allow the airbag to work properly meaning that you will not be brought to a stop as gently and means that you will be more at risk from neck injuries and cracked/broken collar bone etc?

Multipoint harness are banned at track days espically with reclining buckets as if the back collapses in an inncident the belt will go slack as you move with the seat?

Angles? Unless you have a harness bar in your civic you wouldnt be able to get the right angle from the harness leading to possible back injury in the event of an accident due to downward force on your back rarther than a straight backwards restraint.

MOT testers / Police will give you grief if you wear them on the road?
I was thinking of getting these: http://www.sabelt.co.uk/harness5.php (clubman harnesses) which are marked as road legal so I assume they must be pretty safe I know other people run scroth's with are also approved. Id like takatas's but they are so Overpriced IMO and not safety marked for the road. (they do carry FIA approval tho).

If anyone has any advice on these points or any more that I have missed feel free to post. If you have harnesses and use them on the road lets here your opinions too.
 
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harnesses are a pain on a street driven car, if you want them for the track that's fine but make sure to leave in the factory harness for when you drive on the road.
 
blinx9900 said:
harnesses are a pain on a street driven car, if you want them for the track that's fine but make sure to leave in the factory harness for when you drive on the road.
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Thanks blinx I take it you say this because you cant lean forward to look around at junctions etc or is it a more personal choice? I know some people do use them on the road. Any advice on correct mounting and if its likely to cause me any greif with MOT testers because you cannot use the rear seat. Have been told you can have issues if you remove seatbelts/seats because you are changing the class of car (i.e Honda say the civic is a four seater but your car dosent match this description because one rear seat is obstructed by a harness and the OEM rear seatbelt is gone?)
 
I personally don't like them on a daily driven car because it's a pain to get in the car and buckle yourself in, once your in it's hard to move around, reach your radio, glove box, etc... If you drop something you will not be able to reach for it, your passengers will need your help everytime on how to plug in all the bloody plugs into the main clip and its a PITA adjusting it for your passengers all the time, trust me on this one, it's a major PITA for a daily driven car, not to mention the safety issues of an improperly installed harness.

Harness belongs in a car with a race seat and a roll cage.
 
Thanks for your advice Blinx it’s been taken on board.

You mentioned about the safety issues of an incorrectly installed harness there seems to be some different information about what is and isn’t the correct way to do things I think it might be good to make a thread with the correct way to install harnesses so that anyone thinking of using them can look and see what’s right.

This is not me arguing with you Blinx but there will always be people that want to install harnesses even if only for track days so hopefully this information will be of use here are the correct ways to install a harness as far as I understand.



1. Around a horizontal bar in the roll cage positioned behind seat and in such a position that the harness is not at an angle of more than -35degreess from horizontal

2. Around a harness bar positioned behind seat and in such a position that the harness is not at an angle of more than -35degreess horizontal

the harnesses can then be suitably anchored to any point after they have been wrapped around these but the harness must remain tight. Some harnesses can be buckled in such a way that the loop around the bar/cage becomes the anchor rather than bolted down.

The angle quoted above was taken from a Takata installation picture which I will post up later. I believe that this angle is used because with lower angles you are still able to move forward in your seat during an impact and you will be at risk for spinal compression is wearing a harness that pulls downward on you upon impact rather than backwards into the seat.

If any of this information is false please let me know as I do not want to be responsible for spreading misinformation and the purpose of this thread is to prevent such occurrences and keep people safe.
 
i use harness on my only car which is daily driver, cant argue with 1 thing blinx has said as basically all true (not nice fior daily driving, awkard doing things, cant turn around etc so rely lot more on mirrors, more inconvenience each time compared to 1 click of seat belt), i just feel much safer with harness though hence my choice and enjoy driving which requires me to be held in better to my bucket seat (ive gone back to seatbelt then back to harness)

i personally wouldnt recommend them for daily driver (stupid many will say as why do i run 1 but hard for me to answer tbh), my car isnt nice for daily driving anyway

mounting angles, wont say much as im not qualified and critical area and have no experience of testing harness's or theory behind mounting them but best to read harness manufacturer instructions and reasoning given on some of their sites and then make decision on how you will mount them
 
matt i don't know the exact numbers but the logic is correct, you want them to be as straight as possible :nice:
 
my daily drive is also what i use for road rallys, and you feel more secure with harness on when thrashing around, so i bought eyelets that go in the original seat belt bolts and bolted the seat belt back on with them. I have sabelt 4 point harness with the spring type clips so when iv done an event i can unclip them and go back to seat belt for daily use. may not look as good but you have best of both worlds.
 
m477y23 said:
my daily drive is also what i use for road rallys, and you feel more secure with harness on when thrashing around, so i bought eyelets that go in the original seat belt bolts and bolted the seat belt back on with them. I have sabelt 4 point harness with the spring type clips so when iv done an event i can unclip them and go back to seat belt for daily use. may not look as good but you have best of both worlds.
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You have a picture of this?
 
Hope this helps
 

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i have harnesses in my civic with fixed buckets and its not that bad at all but mines are only 4 point
 
Thought I would bump this up

Would deffinately reccomend a harness if you have a fixed bucket seat on the drivers side and enjoy some back road thrashing/track work

Fitted a Takata to mine last week and what a difference! You feel so well strapped in, also a good idea if you are running an aftermarket steering wheel with no airbag for obvious safety reasons
 
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