Hans Device Group Buy from Northstar Motorsports

JonOrangeElise said:

Oh, boy... where do we begin? The short answer is, "For some, yes; for others, no." HANS fitment is quite specific with respect to harness angles, and seat angles. For some people, their harness bars are mounted too high with respect to the Exige shoulder-harness holes. Then there is the issue of the Lotus seats relatively vertical seatback; the seatback can make contact with the back of the HANS, which isn't recommended. All that said, some people use HANS model 20s with no problem. It didn't work for me, so I went with the Safety Solutions R3. Both are great products. I guess I'm just saying that if a seat isn't marked "HANS ready" or compatible, or words to that effect, you can't assume HANS will work. As for the harness bar, I'm pretty sure some of the bars out there mount low enough. (My sector 111 "4tress" bar would have been ok, but it positioned my shoulder straps jussstttt at the edge of the HANS spec.)

Click to expand...

I contacted howard bennett of the hans company, he said, HANS compatablity has to do with the slots in the seat for the shoulder harness.
they cannot restrict the movement of the belts in any way.

ALSO, all the seat manufacturers, as well as the harness manufactures specificly say to on their websiresNEVER MODIFY A SEAT BY CUTTING HOLES IN IT FOR A HARNESS APPLICATION. but sadly/strangely a reputable seller of lotus aftermarket parts still promotes a product to do just that.

now, just because a seat is HANS compatible, doesnt mean its going to work in your application.

you must have the seat at the proper angle when its installed. not verticle for the seat back. it needs to be at the correct angle(~20 degress when used with the HANS model 20). if the seat is too verticle, then the seat back will be pushing on the device and making it feel as though its pushing it foward on your body.
also, the harness attachment points must be done correctly. you do not want the harness bar where the shoulder straps attach to be in a location to allow for a steep angle going over your shoulder stock. this means that you must verify if your lotus harness bar is at the correct height for you seat installation, with your body while wearing the hans are in the seat.
I believe the window for the correct angle of installation is 0-negative 10 degress from horizontal. if its too steep, it can cause spinal compression issues in an impact.
also, you want the shoulder harness postioned on the harness bar to be close to each other. i believe the spec from hans is 3" from webbing to webbing of the shoulder straps, and have them fixed there, so they cannot slde around on the harness bar and seprate widening the distance between them.

these are the guidleines i used when installing my new sparco circuit pro seat into my 944. it sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasnt.
get the seat positoned so that it is adjustable in height, i used the sparco seat mounting bracket for this and moddifed the bracket for my application. it has 4 holes for height adjustment in the front, as well as in the back. I ultimately ended up needing to go with the highest location in the front of the mount, and the lowest in the rear of the mount to get the desired angle for the hans. when it was attempted with the seat at even adjustment points, the seat was much to verticle, and not usable with the hans.
when we made changes in the seat angle, it significantly changed the reach i had to grab the steering wheel(a small change in angle made a big difference in reach). once i had the angle where i wanted it, and then had the disatnce to the steering wheel where i wanted it, I had a harness bar welded into my rollcage positioned so that the angle coming over my shoulders to the shoulder attachment points on the harness bar was negative 5 degrees from horizontal( i split the difference between horizontal and -10 degress). i did that so in case i ever moved the seat one position forward or backward, i would still be w/in specs for the angle of 0-neg 10 degrees. we used my smart camber guage to get the angles measured.
then when i had the harness bar in place, and verified the angle with myself while wearing all my gear, HANS included, i had the welder make some brackets that were shaped like a large upside-down U to be used as stops so that the harness mounting points would not slide apart(seperate) along the harness bar.

now my HANS compatible seat, is truely HANS compatible in its (correct)application as it is properly installed.
I really doubt if you just throw a hans compatible seat in your louts that its going to be a correct install without having the proper 20 degree angle for the seat back(or close to it). 20 degrees is pretty laid back, more than one thinks until they are playing with the seat angles on the install.

i strongly recommend you use the HANS and do the proper installation of the harness bar and seat. if your not going to do it right, just blow it off, and dont do it at all, and go another route as far as H+N restraints are concerned.

personally, i wont get into a race car w/o my HANS device, and if you cannot work out the HANS system, then get something else. going w/o any H+N restraint is foolish when you know (first hand)how well they work.