89importeater

i see lots of pictures with cars that have racing harnesses in them and i thought about putting one in my car but i looked in the summit magazines for them and all of them say that they are not dot approved. so i thought if they arent dot approved how do you get your car inspected? does someone make them that are dot approved or do you just take them out and put the regular seat belts in when its time for inspection? thanxs

Apeiron

I imagine you'd get it inspected the same way, you'd just fail. You'd have to leave the factory belts in and use them to stay legal.

smokefan

thats one thing that i never understood about racing belts. they have an experation date on them. when you go to the track they check the dates but stock belts are always fine. weird. i think that expired racing belts are still much more better than stock belts

Apeiron

Factory belts are designed by engineers to meet a definite set of standards, and are tested to make sure they meet those standards before the car is allowed to be sold.

Racing belts are designed for entirely different scenarios, and they can be installed by any moron in ways that can greatly increase the chance of injury in an accident.

Jekyll & Hyde

Factory belts are also designed to protect for long time, the racing belts have dates because they don't want to get their a$$ sued off it a point snaps during a wreck.

ZEEYAA

I know that aftermarket belts are safer than the factory units, if installed properly. We here in Georgia dont have car inspection any more, used to about 20years ago, but now we have the dreaded emission test...lol. I would just leave both sets in that way you want have a problem.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

I too would think racing belts would be safer than stock belts. In theory you are supposed to change out a factory belt after an accident anyway. They are designed to stretch to protect the body. They only stretch once anyway so if you got a 5 point and had an accident you would want to change that too. The government has some stupid f'ed up ideas about safety. For instance in PA you cant have wheels that are differrent sizes from the factory wheels, or lower profile rubber more that one series larger or smaller. GM can do it so why cant I? and dont give some BS about them not being "safe" (rant, sorry)

Apeiron

It's not that whatever you do isn't safe, it's that it's not known to be safe. GM had to prove all their designs and safety features, and is prepared to accept some amount of liability if they don't work. Aftermarket part suppliers can't do that, especially when installation of their product is entirely out of their control.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

I can understand seat belts, but wheels? Come on (playing devils advocate, not trying to start anything)

Apeiron

I would imagine it's pretty much the same thing... a stupid person could put drag racing skinnies on all four corners or something.