Crouch Strap story

"Ed Byars" wrote a good piece on belting yourself in.

Before you just go and install marginal belts, look at what is available in
the sports car world
and choose the correct parts. Crotch belts or "5 point harnesses"
were developed for upright seated positions. They worked by holding the lap
belt
in the proper position over the hips and weren't designed to take impact
loads
without "stuffing your balls through your throat". As cars became faster
and aero considerations
moved drivers to the supine driving positions used today, "6 point systems"
evolved.
The load path in grontal impacts could no longer be absorbed by the lap
and shoulder belts because the vectors were wrong. What has evolved is a
belting method
that creates a web seat secured to the lap belt attach points. This
prevents the driver from
sliding forward out from under the belting system.

My SCHROTH harness hooks up like this.
Connect lap belt.
left 6 point go's under my leg, around my upper thigh, over to the
left lap belt anchor, thru a loop and back to the buckle.
Same for right side
connect shoulders
done.

What this does is transfer any decelleration loads into the upper
thigh/lower butt
area and is quite comfortable. It virtually eliminates soft tissue bruising
..
I would not fly a 5 point harness as I feel they are unsafe, the risk of
internal injuries to
the soft stuff is too high. BUT the 6 point harness works very very well.
I have
had the unfortunate "experience" of stuffing a formula car and know exactly
what works,
and what doesn't.

I don't have good pictures, but looking at the WILLANS web site gets the
message across.
Look at the way all the sub straps create seats to support you against
sliding forward.


http://www.willansharness.com/

Scott Correa