A common question we get asked is “can I wrap this harness around my harness bar, on my roll cage?”

The answer: Yes! You certainly can BUT only on saloon harnesses which have a removable snap hook on the shoulder straps.

It’s very simple to do – here’s how…

Advantages of doing this:

Firstly, the rear straps of a saloon harness are very long. Roll cage harness bars are normally located very close to the back of the seat where the harness passes through the holes in the seat. This has two advantages; the shorter the length of the straps, the less elongation of the material will occur in a crash. The harness bar is usually level with the harness slots in the seat, which means that the angle of the straps is correct as per manufacturers’ instructions. It’s worth noting here that all rear harness straps should not exceed an angle of -30°. The optimum angle is -10°. The straps should never be installed in an upwards angle. Secondly, by removing the snap hooks, plus the fact that there is now no need for two eye bolts and two spreader plates, a weight saving of around 450 grams can be achieved per harness. If you have two harnesses, like in a rally car, this weight saving doubles.

Step 1:

Remove the snap hook from the rear strap(s). This is very easily done by unwrapping it from the strap. The sliding adjuster bar must be kept on the strap.

Step 2:

Wrap the strap under the bar and back through the sliding bar. 

The sliding bar must be located as close as possible to the harness bar.

Step 3:

The strap now needs to be looped back through the sliding bar, this is the ‘locking loop’.

The side-on profile should look like the below:

Step 4:

There must be at least 10-15cm of excess strap as a tail. Most saloon harnesses have lots of excess so this can be neatly rolled up and secured out of the way with a cable tie.

There you have it. A really quick and simple thing to do which can make the harness safer and lighter in minutes.

Safety Precautions:

It is imperative that the webbing passes smoothly through the seat opening and that there’s no danger of it rubbing against the seat mounts or sharp edges. Any sharp edges would cause abrasion and may eventually cut through the webbing. Always ensure that the 3 bar slide is as close as possible to the harness bar. A loose 3 bar slide can cause slippage. Also, always make sure when wrapping around the roll cage that the final locking loop has been made, it’s easy to forget this last step.

Polyester webbing typically elongates at 3-5%, therefore with a shorter strap there will be less elongation during crash conditions, so the shorter a strap is the better.

Where the roll cage is further away than 50cm behind the seat, it is always recommended that the shoulder straps should be crossed over to aid stability during a crash.

Never wrap with an upward angle. When wrapping around the roll cage any angle between 0º to -30º is acceptable (the optimum angle is -10º).

While you’re going around a corner you want to prevent too much movement of the shoulder straps and belts sliding along the bar

We’d suggest soldering a wire loop onto the harness bar as in the photo below. This will need to be wide enough for the harness to pass through it.