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Seats and seatbelts
matto_89 - 21/12/11 at 03:33 PM

Hi all, got a question regarding making my seats IVA legal.

These are the seats:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72553267@N07/6549236033/in/photostream

Unfortunately they won't pass IVA - they do have headrests, but the headrests are not 700m above the reference point. I originally planned to raise the headrests up by extending and then sleeving the vertical bits. The headrests would no longer be adjustable, that that wouldn't matter for the purposes of IVA. However, if I did so the gap between the bottom of the headrest and the top of the seat would be more than 50mm, so I'd fail on that instead. Its also quite tricky because I don't want any of my fiddling around with the headrests to mean that the route of the harnesses changes, because I think that would result in a fail too.

What I'm now planning on doing is this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72553267@N07/6549242405/in/photostream

I basically want to make a new headrest (as I've done out of ally and padding). The foam that I've wedged on the top of the seat will be the same as the new headrest - all ally box with foam (eventually covered with more thin foam and vinyl). The harness will then pass between the gap as shown. The heights of everything will pass - the headrests will be over 700m above the reference point, the gap between the top of the seat and the headrest will be less than 50mm, and the harnesses will be mounted at shoulder level and their path won't be altered by any of the seat or headrest.

The whole thing will look much tidier and won't have any nasty edges or anything like that, but I just didn't want to go any further before getting some second opinions. I feel like I am overcomplicating what should be relatively simple.

On paper, it seems that this should pass. I can't see why it won't be within the letters of the law, though i readily concede that it doesn't really fit with the principles of it! Anyone with experience of doing something similar? As you can probably tell, I don't really want to go out and buy another set of seats! All help much appreciated.


blakep82 - 21/12/11 at 03:46 PM

if you can weld (i assume you can as the first photo looks like you've yet to weld the lower belt mount tube in?) then why not weld a small vertical tube in between the lower and upper tube, then a head rest type thing can be fixed to that?
i forget where i saw something like it... think it was a racing car either on here or in the 2nd ron champion book...

why would you fail on the gap between the head rest and seat being more than 50mm? i don't remember seeing that in the manual? though it has changed a bit since i last read through it all... should really catch up on the changes i guess

[Edited on 21/12/11 by blakep82]


RK - 21/12/11 at 11:23 PM

bolt something to the roll bar like the racers do.


matto_89 - 22/12/11 at 12:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by RK
bolt something to the roll bar like the racers do.


As far as I'm aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong), I can't bolt head restraints to the roll bar - they have to be integral to the seat. This was one of the reasons for buying seats a while back.