This product has been in the back of my mind for a few years now. I never thought about purchasing one until I found two NOS units for $79 on ebay. Using the nifty Submit Offer I was able to do even better. I won't say how much better, though, because it is the ebay member's right to ask whatever he wants.

One left on auction!: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=150325742124

IO Port Racing price for Stable Energies GB3: $114
http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...oduct_Code=GB3

Picture of harness bar


I also recommend wiping down the harness bar with alcohol. The black coating was coming off on my fingers. A simple alcohol wipe fixed that. The powder coating is great and so are the threads cut into the adjusting mounts. It *is* a universal bar, after all.

Easy install and allows full use of stock belts. I was worried that the belts would not be able to still rotate, but they do!



The included instructions state to use the exact amount of washers in the same configuration as stock in the B-pillar seatbelts. They also include two lock-washers which you place between the stock seatbelt bolt and the harness bar. These are pretty much useless. Tomorrow I will have to go to the hardware store and get two crush washers and see if that works out better.

Here's why: The angle of the harness bar mount isn't quite completely the same as the b-pillar. This creates a little slack that won't allow it to be fully tightened without attempting to strip the bolt. See photo




That little space you see, if you try to move the bar back and forth horizontally gives a little bit. Although I do not see this as a problem if you don't bother to figure out a way to solve that horizontal movement. I tried with all my might to pull down on the bar and it would not give. This is what the bar is really designed for. The vertical load that would be present on your shoulders if you were to use your harness in AutoX, RallyX, or a HPDE and get into a frontal crash.



I give the product a 8/10. One point deducted for it being universal, a second point for the slight horizontal movement when mounted.

Oh yeah, and just to show off here's the new driver's seat and harness (bad cell phone pic is bad) the Willans Supersport is eyebolt compatible so its a five minute install or take out:

 

looks like a nice/easy install...what are the gains from using this bar? more body stability? (like a sway bar?) (i really don't know, hence the question)

 

the point of the bar is to drape the harness over it so that in the event of a crash your pulling straight on the harness opposed to having pulling you at a downward angle, which is very bad for the back. I personally would figure out a way take any movement out of the bar. pulling on it wont put nearly the force on it as slamming agianst it and the slack in the bar is going to exagerate the effects. Racing harness are meant to be worn tight, and that little bit of slack could cause something to snap.

 

Its also a good alternative for people who only have a single hoop rollbar, such as the cusco model.

Some people would rather have a harness bar separate from the rollbar or cage. The cage might punch through the floor-pan in an older car taking the harness and you with it. This is mounted separate to prevent that.

It is NASA and SCCA legal, btw.

 

Do you need a bar to use harnesses in a seven?

When I was planning on putting some in I was looking at hard points in the hatch area that had very shallow angles.

 

You can totally install a harness at the correct angle. The bar eliminates any idea (I found some crush washers that are normally used for tranny and oil drain plugs that work great to make it stiff as a gay **** ***** (put this inteh archives!)) of spinal compression short of a collapsing roof in an impact.

Its called an inexpensive preventative measure.

Also back to an unanswered semi question of BlackDeath647:

I doubt it'll add any noticeable or substancial rigidity, but harness guide bars *are* stiffer than rear strut tower braces. This is de-facto. Otherwise manufacturers would tell you to wrap your harnesses around or over your rear strut brace;which would be stupid anyway because it is too far away and would cause slack. I'm not sure if the placement on the b-pillar makes a difference compared to above the rear strut towers, though on structural bs.

And yes that is a bong on the table next to the bottle of Sailor Jerry's

 

Two concerns. What's the specks on the bar itself? Diameter, wall thickness and is it DOM? Second concern is what's the angle off of the horizontal plane between the bottom of the pass through holes in the seat back and the top of the bar? That angle can vary between different aftermarket seats. Recommended max down angle is 15*, up angle is generally not a good thing. Will it add to chassis rigidity, no, too close to the roof. Where do you plan on terminating the rear anchors?

If it meets specs, that's a good find.

 

Looks like a good alternative to mounting your race belts. Good find!

 

Diameter 1"
Wall Thickness: .40ish" (what I measured)
DOM: Was told so.

The angle is pretty much parallel with my seat. No excessive angle to the human eye using a protractor.

I haven't made the measurements for the rear eyebolt anchor yet because I haven't been to the hardware store to purchase them. I have my handy dandy surveyor's protractors that I found at a garage sale way back. In your opinion where would you suggest since its now open season for my drill?

 

Rubber o'rings! That's the secret. No horizontal movement at all in the bar!

Double Banzai Bonus!

I expect this to also reduce vibration in a small effort to help with the camera mount that will also be going on the guide bar.

Trochoid: What camcorder would you recommend? I see you have some videos.

 

A SSD camera would be best; no risk of tape/drum desync or HDD head derangement due to G's.

Any flex in that bar during a collision would introduce slack in the belts. Not to mention that the offset between the bar's position on the end plates, and the center point of the seatbelt mounting bolt, will place a great deal of leverage and shear force on those bolts for which they were never designed or specified.

The stock belt bolts are designed to sustain cross-bolt shear forces when bolted flush to the b-pillar, not off-axis lateral forces prying at the bolt-heads from a half-inch out. I'd worry about bolt shear, especially if those are the stock-length bolts.

 

I don't own a camcorder, can't help there. Most of the harness anchors seen I've go through the floor in the hatch, through the secondary inner frame rails. I would also add a 2X3X1/8-3/16" plate above and below that frame rail to prevent the bolt from pulling through or crushing the rail. Make sure the spot you pic ti drill clears the fuel tank. If you can't access a good spot through the fram rails, reinforce the floor pan with4X plates top and bottom.

The other thing I've seen are wire loops on the bar that the shoulder straps pass through to prevent them from sliding sideways.

 

I've seen those harness guides that clamp onto the adjustable headrests. BMW guys take harness mounting without roll bars and cages very seriously for daily drivers. That's how I discovered this Stable Energies bar.

Oh and I'm thinking about waiting until May to get a camcorder for track use. The new Canon FS200 is coming out with a lower resolution than the FS100, but supposedly better low light and night mode to compensate. I dunno about that, though.

 

If I remember correctly, depending on how tall the seat is and where exactly the holes for the straps are, (I am assuming that they are all fairly similar, because of the diversity in people's height) and the offset between the rear hatch area and front floor pan. You should be able to achieve an angle at or less than 25 degrees, with an angle like that the compression I would assume under the load of impact would be fairly negligible vertically and work just as well as if a bar were installed.

 

The ebay seller is sold out now, and via submit an offer.

Did someone on here buy the second one? I'm curious.

 

Yup I was the one who picked up the other bar. I can't seem to install it the way you did though, the harness bar would almost have to install behind the stock seatbelts, and I'm not sure how to do that. This is due to the spacer on the bolt which allows the stock belt to move freely
Bryan

 

roughly this is how it should go depending on what year you have because of differences in number of washers. When you took off the seat belt bolt you might have dropped the washers out of order. One of the washers is large enough for the spacer to fit inside it. That is the one you place after the seat belt tongue. The bolt tightens against that in the sequence so that the tongue moves freely on the spacer. That is, if I'm remembering correctly. This was a while ago. I'm sure you can figure it out. Its like a simple puzzle. Just put the circle in the circle and the square in the triangle... no, no the triangle in the triangle. Its just like kindergarten! You might need to pull the bins if a washer dropped down to where the seat belt mechanism is. I dropped a few washers and coins down there. I had to pull an entire metal assembly because the SA chassis doesn't have bins. If you have the bins you won't have the work I did.

Mine swings perfectly freely. The only things you lose are the plastic covers. You can remedy by painting the seat belt bolt with an acrylic paint and paintbrush after installation so it looks camouflaged.

 

Yeah how the actual pieces go together for the set belt to move freely is pretty easy. There is a bushing on the bolt near the head, and then the plastic bushings and such that sandwich the seatbelt D-ring. That part I get. The problem is that if I try and put the harness bar on the bolt first that the bar won't fit over the bushing. If I install the seatbelt D-ring first and the plastic bushings and washers then the bar, obviously the D-ring doesn't hang as it should and the belt then doesn't work.

Or am I being a complete and total tard....does that bushing on the bolt move freely?? my RX is 1.5 miles away during the week, so any help here would be great....that would explain it...grumbles I hope it's not that simple.....
Bryan

 

yeah, that's it

 

Anyone ever try their roll bars? I'm pretty sure I'm about to buy one from them right now!

 

reviving a dead thread. A other reviews for this??? This is the only harness bar that I could find. All other harness bar come with roll cage

 

If you ask me you shouldn't really be using race harnesses without a roll cage anyway. The purpose of a standard 3 point seat belt is to allow you to move sideways in the seat if the head height in the car is reduced (i.e. rollover crash). If you switch to race harnesses then you eliminate this side movement in the event of a rollover crash. If you have a roll cage, then that's fine. If you don't then your head gets caved in. To me harnesses should only be used with a roll cage. And a roll cage should only be used with a helmet.

Changing one aspect of safety can really have an effect on other things that people don't think about.