miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

I was reading hustlers post about his new roll bar and adding the padding, which reminded me of my roll bar. I have the boss frog double hoop roll bar. Whenever a miata owner or a car guy sees it, they tell me to pad it.
I'm about 5'7" and 155. My seat is somewhere in the middle of the slider, it can slide forward and back about the same amount. It is only reclined one click from strait. When I have my seat belt on, I can't for the life of me get my head anywhere near it. I took my seat belt off and slid up, and off to the sides and still can't hit it. Now I know in a crash the car can flex and the seat may bend, but I'm seriously a good 4" away at full stretch with the seat belt on. I'm more worried about banging my right elbow on the center brace than anything else. People on the .net think I'm crazy, but unless the car gets completly fubared I don't see myself hitting my head.

Here you can see how high and back it is.

This is to show the shape, looks really close but its not.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

I wonder if people who drive sedans worry about smashing their head against the b-pillar? In my tribute there is a grab handle on the a-pillar that would would cause serious damage in an accident.

It's your head, do what you want. Although it wouldn't take much of an accident for your head to smoke the rollbar, don't kid yourself 4" isn't a lot of distance.

Jay

hustler

iTrader: (6)

when you get rear ended hard, you'll come way up. If you have a 1.6, then you have the "stretch belts" and you'll have 6" to move arround. I say if you are going to run a roll bar, run a harness. You can get a sparco sprint seat for $260 with mounts that will put you down lower, and if youlook arround on race boards, you can find an old harness that's too old to certify, that will hold you just fine.

Atleast get sfi or fia foam, its cheap and will help alot in a minor crash (my buddy hit his head and didn't even go unconcious). I bang my head on mine all the time anyway just screwing arround in the car.

miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

I have never heard of the stretch belts before...but thats scary. I think I will take your advice and do harnesses. I wanted to do them because I know for a fact in a roll over I would slide out of my stock seat belt pretty easy. Just a good reason to buy the new race seats I wanted anyway As for padding I will check for clearance. I think the top of the hoop is too close to the top for padding. The side bars will have plenty of room. Would you still pad your bar for insurance if you had race seats and harnesses? Thanks guys.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

I know someone with the same rollbar that has it padded. If you can pad an M1 hardcore, you can pad the bossfrog.

As for a harness on the street. In order for a 5/6 pt harness to be effective it has to be TIGHT. I've tried mine on the street, and with it adjusted properly I can't shoulder check or reach my glove box. Something to think about.

miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

Cool, looks like I will be padding it soon. Did your friend pad the rear vertical brace or just the main hoop? I like to wear my seat belt really tight, so I don't think I would mind. Glove box is empty except for my spline key and flashlight. I generally don't shoulder check, I prefer to use my mirrors. But both are good points. I think harnesses are for me. I really like the held in feeling I get from my seat belt being tight. When you say 5 or 6 point, does this mean a 4 point wouldn't be good enough? Only problem I see with them for my situation is getting my wallet out at drive thru's. But hopefully I can use that to stop eating out. Thanks for helping out.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

I beleive just the main hoops.

All I know is I hated wearing my 6pt harness on the street. Love it for Autox.

A 4pt belt might not be safe (depending on the belt), as it could allow you to submarine under the lapbelt. And with out the sub-belt as you tighten the shoulder straps it can pull the lapbelt up and place if accross your stomach instead of you hips. Not good either. Lots of reading on Miata.net about the subject, I suggest you do some searching before you decide.

Jay

miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I thought about sliding under it. But good point about the lap belt coming up high. I will head over to the .net and do some searching. Thanks Jay.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

First, congrats on making the decision to actually have a rollbar. There are a lot of people who absolutely refuse. "It ruins the lines of the car". "I don't drive hard enough to ever roll it over." "I don't want to hit my head if I'm rear-ended." "I don't want to cut the holes in the package shelf." "A style bar is good enough" (which will kill you quicker than no rollbar).

Be careful if you decide to bring up this debate at m.net. There are a lot of people who are very passionate about it. I know two people who have died in Miatas... neither of them had rollbars. If you post something over there like your first post in this thread, you'll get an earfull. It looks like you've decided to pad it though, so congrats on that too.
If this ends up being your miata someday, http://fizzx.net/safety/index.html you'll need all the padding you can get.

For everybody else trying to decide what to do: THERE'S NO REASON NOT TO PAD YOUR ROLLBAR! It will never do any harm and can only be a benefit.

Plus, if you pad it, and then have a local sewing shop fab up a bitchin' leather cover for it, it makes it look a lot thicker. I think the tubing used in the autopower and boss frogs just looks too thin. Check out my cover, first picture: https://www.miataturbo.net/forums/vb...o=view&id=1012

In the end though, JayC is right, it's a choice... My personal choice is as follows: "I will never get in a Miata without a rollbar that has been properly padded with SF45-1, either on the street or on the track. If not properly padded, I'll wear a helmet." Why take the chance. I'm married. Although I'm worth a lot more dead to my wife than alive, I'd rather be alive with my melon intact.. so would she (I think).

Not flaming or judging... just reasoning.

olderguy

iTrader: (19)

+1

brgracer

iTrader: (14)

Granted some padding is better than no padding, but SFI padding is meant to protect the driver's head in conjunction with a helmet. It wasn't designed to protect the bare head.

People make the arguement that if your car is not a track car then the risk of a rear-end accident where you bean yourself on the rollbar is much higher than rolling over. That said, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone dying from hitting their head on the rollbar from a rear-end accident whereas people have surely died from rolling.

IMHO rollbar (in general) is safer than no rollbar, especially if as you say your head comes nowhere near it. Granted a high velocity rear impact might do it, but I'd think that most rear end accidents would not do it, plus a concussion is much better than being dead.

On another note, very few (if any) 6 point harnesses are DOT approved, but the cop would really have to be an a-hole to give you a ticket for that.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

As far as I know there are no traditional 5/6pt harness that have DOT approval. Schroth makes a DOT approved 4pt, but I question if it is any better than a OEM 3pt.

http://www.soloracer.com/schroth.html

If you want that harness type feel, get a CG-Lock. I've used on for AutoX and it was a huge improvement.

I believe the Bossfrog bars use 1.75" OD tubing, same as the Hardog Hardcore. I don't think I've seen anyone using anything larger unless it is custom.

http://www.gomiata.com/bofrdohopavi.html

Jay

hustler

iTrader: (6)

shroth auto control units are really nice too.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

Especially if the rollbar is properly padded. Granted, the pad is designed to be used in conjunction with a helmet. But the physics of distributing and absorbing the force of an impact even without a helmet should still apply. I think it goes beyond "it's better than nothing even without a helmet."

I've never heard of a rollbar causing death from a rear-end collision either ... but concussion / split skin / headache / large lump / etc... SURE! Even with proper padding, it's still gonna hurt and serious injury is not out of the question... but it's gonna be a lot less than bare metal.

The SF45.1 pad is the only choice... otherwise people would just glue on something like this and call it a day: http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thu...ol_noodles.jpg

miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for all the replies. As was stated above on the .net when I posted all I got was the typical roll bars on a street car are stupid, If it was my car I would take it out. But this forum actually gave some good reasons and got strait to the point.

I have NOT searched up on the info yet, as I have had no free time. But my planned setup is as follows. 2 race seats designed for use with harnesses. I will try to mount them to the floor. A high quality harness, will need to search for how many points and DOT aproval or not. The thickest padding that will fit under the top, and a sewn leather cover.

As for the decision to add the roll bar, I LOVE the way the twin hoop looks on the car. It was actually the very first thing I did to the car. I highly doubt I will ever roll my car, but the thought of it actually happening is enough to scare me into putting a roll bar on it. Once again thanks for all the replys, and I'm SO glad it didn't turn into a roll bar vs no roll bar thing like the .net always does.

poobs

iTrader: (1)

What is special about the SF45.1 pad ? Is it a high durometer or softer ?

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

I will second this. I hate my 6-point and fixed-back bucket for street driving. Running errands? Forget it. If you don't get the order of operations correct, it's easy to get strapped in and realize you forgot to (A) roll up/down the passenger side window, (B) grab your cell phone from the passenger seat, (C) close your open driver side door which is now out of reach, etc.

Seriously, think about it: Right now, you get in and grab the 3-point and are in with one click. With my harness, it's "click, click, snug, snug, click, click, snug, snug - ****! I forgot to roll down the passenger window!" Then, to get out, it's "click, loosen, loosen, loosen, loosen, drape, drape, drape, drape."

Also, with a 3-pointer you know what you don't have? Something constantly trying to pinch your man parts.

poobs

iTrader: (1)

I sort of answered my own question.. One advertisememnt for the SF45-1 says that is harder than something else .

HHammerly

iTrader: (3)

You are correct; My apology for a badly worded paragraph, and a mobile devise is no excuse.
My brother backed his NA into a tree going 40-+ a couple years ago, he and a passenger were wearing seat belts. The kerky seat he was seating on and the oem seat that his passenger was seating on flexed backwards about 30 deg at the tray line and would have put their heads directly under a roll bar if so equipped.
Cars belts and people flex and stretch far more that one may think on a hard impact.
He probably would have been seriously injured if the car had a roll bar on, I padded my roll bar and put on a 5 PT harness the following week.
A roll bar most likely will save your life but it can be dangerous if the driver is not restrained and roll bar not padded properly when driving without a helmet.
I'll see if I can dig out some photos of his head and the car.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

Please edit or re-post the above when you can type on a proper computer or keyboard. I'm assuming you are using a phone.

Your first "sentence" makes very little sense to me. As it reads, your brother was using factory seat belts with a Kirky aftermarket seat when he crashed and his OEM seat flexed approximately 30* above the rear parcel shelf? He smacked his head in to something but not a roll bar because he didn't have one installed?

Wearing stock seatbelts he still managed to smash his face in to his steering wheel?