 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Harness and Seat belts - what's road legal? |
 
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| Froglaise Member Since: 24 Sep 2016 Location: left forum Posts: 212  |
Plenty of Caterham etc out there with harnesses passing their registration exam, mot, insurance etc...
My understanding is that if something is fitted to the car then that must be working and fit for purpose. The only standard applicable to harnesses are the MSA marking...there are brands without that, so can't be used for motorsport but not a lot of point buying a harness thats not rated. |
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11th Jan 2017 3:39pm |
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| davew Member Since: 02 Jan 2012 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 888  
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Any seat belt for road use needs to have the appropriate standard (either European e or E standard or the British Standard kite mark followed by a number). It is an MOT failure as well as not complying with construction and use if it doesn't have these marked on all components of the belts.
The problem with harnesses is varied. Some may meet a higher standard (FIA, for example) but not carry the appropriate E or BS marks which makes them unsuitable for road use although many people don't know that or don't care and use them anyway. Many MOT testers also don't check them for the E/BS mark and will pass FIA ones, probably using common sense... The ones that use an aero style twist release are definitely illegal for road use even if the belts themselves are marked. This is because of a requirement that the belts use a "push button" release which, obviously a knob/lever you turn doesn't comply with. Generally that's thought to be an oversight from when the regulations were munged with the EU regs and it's never been put right. When I had 6 point harnesses in my Defender with an aero style release I maintained the standard 3 point belt for road use. 3 point harnesses are not allowed for UK motor sport btw, they don't meet MSA or FIA regulations. The absolute worst choice is a 3 point harness without an E/BS mark but some places still sell them ! http://www.yorkshireoffroadclub.net/ |
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11th Jan 2017 4:01pm |
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| Jexy1 Member Since: 29 Nov 2016 Location: Surrey/Hampshire Posts: 5  
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Thanks davew - appreciate the knowledge share and info.
Gareth |
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11th Jan 2017 4:08pm |
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