Tillett and harnesses for the slim of figure

[LazerBrain]

After changing to a 310R with lowered floors and Tilletts from a '97 SuperSport with S-types, I've got a bit of an issue with getting the harnesses tight enough unless seriously togged up!  It's true that I'm a skinny git, but I can't be the only one, and it's not practical to be wearing a fleece and jacket when it's 20C+.  My previous 7 had the straps fully tightened if I was driving in a t-shirt.

Some metric chassis have extra bosses a few cm further back which could be used for mounting the harness, but my car doesn't have these.

I contacted Luke and they can shorten the lap straps on the harness for a small fee, but this would put the adjusters inside the slots on the seat, and therefore really hard to adjust.

There are other harness brands that might work better - Schroth were mentioned.  Their harnesses have thinner webbing for use with HANS kit, and I'd prefer the wider webbing.

Other thoughts:

- Soft bits Tillett seat pads.  There are 2 thicknesses available.  The thicker one has 1" padding - which will compress somewhat, but that's not going to be enough on its own.

- raising the seat - either removing the lowered floor or raising the seat runners would effectively take some of the slack out of the lap belts.

- adding the crutch strap.  Although this would keep the buckle lower, it's not going to fix the fact that the lap straps aren't tight enough.

- switching to S-type seats.  This would raise me up,and thus tighten the lap straps.  Bit of a last resort as I'd quite like to keep the Tilletts.

 

I'm interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar issue, and how they solved it.  (And yes, most of ReHaB have already suggested increased pie consumption!)

 

thanks,

Darren.

[Golf Juliet Tango]

I have a similar issue during the summer. Being short in stature as well as slim of figure, the crotch strap wears against the Tillet as the seat is well forward. Other straps are OK. I have Titon harnesses fitted in a live axle car.

[7 wonders of the world]

Couple of large steak and ale pies with chips.....

[Englishmaninwales]

My Schroth 6 point harness has separate length adjusters on the shoulder and waist straps near their chassis points in addition to the ordinary adjusters.  It is, however, the narrow width optimised for a HANS device, so might not be what you want. May help with your 'skinny problem' 

https://caterhamparts.co.uk/seatbelts-harnesses/6490-schroth-6pt-rh-kit.html

[Nigel B]

Well that’s interesting, I thought it was just me with this problem! 

My previous 7 didn’t have lowered floors & I had no problem getting the harnesses tight enough. However, in my new car with lowered floors, the harnesses aren’t quite tight enough, even when they’re fully tightened up. (I bought the car second hand, I wouldn’t personally have specified lowered floors. They compromise ground clearance too.) I do have s type seats, however. 

Strangely, I do have two holes a few centimetres further back for the lower harness straps to mount to, but only one of them is threaded. I’ve raised the drivers seat by about an inch, using Tillett seat washers, which has improved things quite a bit, though the harnesses still aren’t QUITE as tight as I’d like. 

Another thing you might want to consider is moving the pedals further forwards, so that you’re sliding the seat further forwards. I guess it depends on where your pedals are mounted at the moment & how close you’re sitting to the steering wheel, but you may be able to take out the slack that way.

[Jonathan Kay]

Darren: Please check your mailbox from yesterday.

[LazerBrain]

Thanks all - good to hear I'm not the only one!

Nigel - My steering wheel looks like it could go 20-25mm towards the dash, so there is potential for the seat to be moved forward a notch.

 

After taking the pics and looking at the harness more, I've had some more thoughts...

First pic shows how much space there is between the buckle and me in a t-shirt.  I reckon this gap is about 10cm.

Next, this shows the lap belt tightened as far as it can go.  The limitation is the stitching of the wider section to the webbing:

 

And here's how close the adjuster is to the edge of the seat currently:

The amount of loose webbing on the outside of the adjuster is over 30cm per side, which seems like a lot of adjustment to me.  I appreciate it needs to cater for Tilletts and S-type seats, fully forward to fully back, and a variety of body sizes in different clothing. 

If the webbing connecting the lap belt to the car is shortened (either by reducing its length like the extra adjuster on the Schroth harness, or having Luke shorten it) this will potentially give a little bit of extra tightness, but the adjuster will become very close to the hole in the side of the seat.

Looking at the harnesses, I think the main issue for me is that the wider section of the lap belt which is sewn to the webbing is preventing the harness being tightened sufficiently. 

 

I'm now wondering if Luke would be able to make a lap belt where the wider section is the same length as normal, but less of it is sewn to the webbing.  If this happened in conjunction with shortening the lap belt section which goes through the seat it would be useful, and there would still be almost the same range of adjustment.

[Doctor]

Same issue on 620R SV - ditch Luke and buy some proper harness - I have Sabelt for now but Schroth will go in.