i put a 5 point harness in my fox and my buddy was telling me its not gonna pass tech because he said you cant wrap the shoulder belts around the roll bar. but the directions that came in the box with the harness show you how to do it correctly (but they dont say anyhting about tech).

so i was wondering and, i read the sticky, can you legally wrap the belts around the bar or do they have to have the tabs welded to the bar then bolted together?

and does anyone know what the sfi spec 16.1 actually is? i mean i know my belts meet it, but what is it? i couldnt even find it on the sfi website. the reason i aks that is my friend also told me he got a ticket for not haveing dot belts and so i want to research it incase i ever get a ticket for it and try to fight it etc.

 

"wrap around" type harness used be to legal. im not up on currect specs. it wouldnt be an sfi spec, that would be an nhra spec.
here is sfi website.
http://www.sfifoundation.com/
a harness is not dot legal. you could be strapped in twice and at the feet. thats going to be at the officers descretion. you will lose a battle in court, IMO.

 

thats the same website i went to. i cant find anyhting on their website that says what that 16.1 spec actually is. my thought is if i can find out what the the spec is it may relate in some manner (for arguments sake) to whatever specs the dot requirments are.


and as i said, im worried about passing tech so of course the sfi spec is not what im talking about. i went to the nhra website but cant find any info on a rule about rapping the belt. i was hoping some one had a current rule book or knew where to look one up (i.e. pdf etc) so i could verify about passing tech.

 

There is only one company that sells a DOT and SFI approved racing harness, but I cannot remember who makes them. The law says your seat belt must be DOT approved, regardless of whoever else approves them it still won't hold up in court. I fought that in court...

You can pull all of the SFI specs that you want but as I said you cannot convince a judge that something illegal is legal. lol Not to mention a harness is much safer when properly strapped down, but you also need a helmet and neck collar to prevent neck injuries in an accident. Honestly you are safer with a stock belt unless you are wearing a helmet and neck collar...

 

there is no coorilation between dot and sfi specs.
one is for transportation and the other is racing. sfi could exceed dot specs by 6 miles and it still will not or is not legal unless its got a dot tag on it.
im not sure why you would want to argue. that just leads to more problems. not in this post, but with an officer.
i am in no way trying to argue, just stating things the way i see it.

 

Go with the wrap around, you will be fine. It is fool-proof and the is no tab or bolt to break in an accident. If you tear the belt or the bar comes out, then you are probably chingada anyways.

 

chingada.... haha. never heard of that word. makes sense now.

 

the harness is already wrapped i just want to know form someone who has a rule book (the track near where i live is soppossedly the wrst in the country as far as passing tech, its called gateway, st louis area. technically its madison IL)

and tj , thank you captain obvious for simply repeating everything i say. and unless you can actually add somthing to the conversion (like actual facts you can verify) please refrain from just repeating me. thank you.

 

Gateway isnt bad at all for passing tech, i race there quite often. they usually just look at the belts for the date.

 

I race at 66, and they are the worse (most strict) in IL. Regardless, the wrap-around belts are in all 3 of our cars and another one we just did a cage in. All of the cars have passed tech at NHRA divisonal events, NMCA races, IHRA races, bracket programs, and two of them have been chassis certified.

Call the manufacturer of your belts and they should be able to provide documentation, but any decent tech inspector should know these are fine.

 

thank you. thats what i needed to know.