Does Your NASA Region Require Harness Guide Collars?

[Dubbedown]

Tech guys brought it up to my attention, never been an issue in last few years. Is this a new requirement across all regions?

[19Spec3]

Per the NASA National CCR, the guide bars are required to maintain the required angle, but not otherwise required. There's nothing in the NASA-NE or NASA-MA regional supplement about harnesses.

From the NASA-CCR Rule 15.5 (emphasis added):

6. The shoulder harness should be mounted behind the driver and above a line drawn downward from the
shoulder point at an angle of no more than twenty (20) degrees with the horizontal.

7. The seat, seat holes, and attachments to the seat are not permissible “harness guides” for compliance
with the angle requirement. Only specific harness guide bars, or parts of the chassis or the cage are
allowed for this purpose. The guide bar, if used, should not present a sharp edge to the belt. It should
provide as much area of support as possible to distribute the load.

[TXBDan]

It's a good idea to use guide collars. Without them, sometimes the harnesses can slide on the bar and kind of stick there. You might think you have them on tight, when suddenly they loosen up and then the harnesses are loose. It's especially a problem if the harness bar on your cage/bar curves. I have bolt on clamping collars on the outsides of each pair of harnesses in my car. So two collars per seat.

[Evergreen Dan]

I *think* we are talking about collars, not guide bars.

You should definitely use split-shaft collars or some other structural means (e.g. not wire ties on roll bar padding) to restrain the shoulder belts from lateral motion on the harness bar. Otherwise the seat back will take the lateral load, and we know how much seat backs move in an impact. You should read the harness installation instructions for the distance between the belts. Schroth has a good instructions on this. Unless the bar is right behind the seat, the calculation will probably put them close together, or even crossed if the harness bar is far behind seat.

Whether they are required is in my mind irrelevant.

[19Spec3]

Agree with the last two posts. Just because they're not required doesn't mean they're not good safety equipment to have.

Also, I found another thread on here with a link to steel collars for $8.40 each rather than $20+ for the aluminum ones from most racing supply outfits.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/Brands/...1-2768-175.axd

[Dubbedown]

Thanks, the weight is so negligible I was considering just buying steel split collars off eBay. I see them as cheap as $5 each...

[BlackHawkRacing]

Friday, 4/14, at LRP? Yeah, they brought it up to me to me as well. Didn't fail me for it but strongly suggested I get them. Just purchased some Monday.

Also were very strict on not having my non-AGM battery in a box. Thankfully I had my rear seat delete panel still but yeah, was a bit surprised about how strict they were.

[Dubbedown]

Friday, 4/14, at LRP? Yeah, they brought it up to me to me as well. Didn't fail me for it but strongly suggested I get them. Just purchased some Monday.

Also were very strict on not having my non-AGM battery in a box. Thankfully I had my rear seat delete panel still but yeah, was a bit surprised about how strict they were.

Yep... what run group were you in? Where'd you buy yours?

[BlackHawkRacing]

Yep... what run group were you in? Where'd you buy yours?

HPDE 2

http://www.bimmerworld.com/Safety-Ra...ng-Collar.html

Not the cheapest but I already had to place a large order so I just did it.

[BlackHawkRacing]

I can't speak to how much of a difference the inside ones will make but I purchased 8 because I had always seen it that way.