With all the talk about seat belts I thought it would be good to put our heads together and share info. Like list all of the different companies that make belts/harnesses, the different styles that are available, and opinions from those that have actually tried certain brands/styles.

Obviously everyone knows about Crow. I still think Crow makes good belts, recent events aside.
http://www.crowenterprizes.com

There is Simpson. Good belts.
http://www.simpsonraceproducts.com

Impact Racing, which is Bill Simpson's new company. A friend who races sprint cars (2005 track champion at Manzanita) uses these and really likes them.
http://www.impactraceproducts.com

And then Team Tech Motorsports. These are by far my favorite that I have worn but are very expensive.
http://www.teamtechmotorsports.com

I'm sure there are more but I'm short on time right now, so I'll leave it at that.

Deist
http://www.deist.com/main.asp

I've had several friends use them and been happy with them.

DJ Safety.

Their website doesnt show anything though.

Mastercraft, seats and harnesses

http://www.mastercraftseats.com/restraints.shtml

Does mastercraft make their own or are they made by someone else and private labeled? I have Mastercrafts and would like to know. I will give them a call also.

I'm using R.J.S. 5 way belts 3" Lap,shoulder,submarine. Purchased thru Summit for $58.95ea.....No problems as of yet...and easy to adjust.

Call Joe and the Crew at DJ Safety (1-818-951-0774) it's the only belt that I'll use.

when looking to purchase or replace your saftey restraints, an important thing to look for is the SFI approved tag. not all manufacturers get thier products approved. webbings (the strapping itself) not only are manufactured in differant colors but also in differant strengths. for a restraint system to get an SFI approval it goes through a very strict testing process. so you can bet if the product has an SFI approval, its a well made product.

Agreed. If they don't take the time for SFI approval then they are cutting corners on bringing comfort to customers.

DJ Saftey saved my life. I was in fourth gear and ran out of talet over a dune and landed on the other side nose first end over end a few times. The car was bent up bad! All I had was a broken finger. Peiced the whole car out.....only thing I have left are the belts.

They are the shoulder stitched to the lap!

As mentioned in another thread...
A shoulder belt which is stitched to a lap belt cannot be SFI certified because it does not meet the requirement of:
All belts must come loose with one single movement/latch.

But, not meeting that requirement does not take away from it's safety. It merely means it might take more than (12 seconds?) to extricate yourself as per most racing requirements.

To defend our company, our website is being reconstructed from the ground up. Granted there is nothing there. BUT if you e-mail us we can send pictures and give you the best customer service out there. Please feel free to contact us with ANY questions or concerns.

Thank you Jenn!

Thanks! We will definately take care of you!

That is not necessarily true. All styles of our belts are manufactured with the same nylon we use to manufacture our SFI harnesses. Please use the SFI website to further educate yourselves on the certification.

Just got done ordering new Ram-Pac belts from TeamTech Motorsports. With the chest and pelvic pads and sternum strap, seems like a great choice. Curt was a great help. My belts are almost 3 years old, so I was due to order new ones. I pray that I'll never have to test them out, but the piece of mind will be nice.

Another for DJ! I love my belts, they spent an incredible amount of time 2 years ago gettting them "custom fit" to me and Joe and his crew have always been available to answer any and all questions, even when I dig past the "basics" (like today). My belts are over 2 years old, and will be being sent back in to be rewebbed before our season starts here.

Bohica-are those the ones Kerrin has in her car? I don't know if you have experienced them firsthand but I know she and pretty much everyone who has ridden with her really disliked them. They may work great at first but they were always a pain in the a** to get fastened-and you'd think it had gone in but hadn't. Always attributed it to sand getting into the mechanism. The one time I double checked when I put it on to make absolutely sure they had latched and the first time we turned hard one of the latches popped out. Like I said, not sure they are the exact same-was a little hard to tell from the pic and the afternoon sun

I remember Kerin bitching about her belts. I got the standard latch link instead of the rotary fastener.

Don't forget Sabelt harnesses. They've been used in LeMans, rally and formula 1 for many years. They have a lot of $$$ invested in R&D to meet the FIA regulations.

Sabelt harness

I think a more important thing than harnesses is seats. The suspension seats are indeed really comfy but I don' think they are as safe as the fiberblass or carbon fiber seats used in rally cars, as the seat position is allot more reclined and the headrests are located futher away from the drivers head.

Sparco seat

The information that I've read (while dealing with this whole seatbelt issue) clearly says that a seat should have no more than about 1/2" of padding, otherwise it will give too much causing the belts to not be tight enough.
Not being on the scene, and only seeing pictures and hearing accounts I might suggest that this very well could have been a contributing factor to the failure of the Crow belts in this most recent incident.

I am sticking with Crow. My car is getting the "Super Prep" right now. The car is 6 years old and has mega prerun miles on it. It's down to the bare frame and I'll be replacing all belts and going with sternum straps on all seats. I am also looking at the BTR Beadlock Wheels http://www.btrracingwheels.com/

BTR = Better Than Robbies - No Shiat!

I dont understand why buggies dont have the type of harnesses posted in the first pics in the first place 3x3swith separate 5 point connectors(like loosnut and bohica posted) vs the shoulder strap sewn in the lap belt.I know true race belts take a lil longer to get into but way stronger.

Not to start a flame war i was under the impression that most buugy builders used a race type 5 point harness.

I agree.

Very true. I pasted the link to a very good thread on Race Dezert.com about the suspension VS. Hard Shell seat in another thread..

Most TT's now run a hard shell seat for good reasons. Don't listen to me. Check out the thread..

P.S. F.I.A. will not certify a suspension seat of any manufacturer.

Carl

You are smart, I had the rotary (helicopter) latches years ago and when they get sand in them they won't release. Sometimes simple is better.
DON~~~

Won't latch....won't release-seem like a pain all the way around....

IMHO-I believe it is the way Crow manufactured their harnesses with the sewn in shoulder straps that was more the issue here. If you look at there web page and look at the amt. of sewing that is done to hold the pieces together you will see there is an "X" with a box around it. Look at all the other harnesses and you will see there is a zigzag pattern, back and forth, over and over holding the harnesses together. Why did they not do the same thing on the part holding the sewn-ins together??
That is the way my sewn ins are manufactured by DJ Safety. I talked with Joe Hansen from DJ at length the other day about my belts. He has absolute confidence in his design and runs them in his own vehicle-even though money spent in regards to his belts is a moot issue. I honestly do not believe that anyone involved in an accident like the one that occurred last weekend would be any better off with a true "5 point" IF the sewing holding the 5 points links was as flimsy as what they were on the sewn ins involved.