Seat Belts Offroad

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Originally Posted by Hall

There can be problems with inertia reel seat belts. At a angle or incline they can some times jam. This could be potentially in some situations a health hazard. My brother fitted a lap belt for when he is driving on harder terrain. He also has the normal inertia reel seat belt for general use.
Cheers Hall

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I am asking the same as the others in previous posts. What is the danger here. I could possibly understand hanging upside down or sideways after an accident, but only if you were alone.
The advantages are way more. A lap belt in my roll over would have allowed injury. On top of that I already had a serious problem in my spinal cord in my neck. I was unaware of that, but a lap belt might have left me a quadriplegic on the spot.
As it turned out a month and a half later I did need urgent surgery on my neck to rectify the problem.
A lap belt is basically useless as evidenced by the racing/dakar drivers who use them
Cheers
Mike

If you have inertia reel seat belts, undo one to check out the situation, then can't put it back on, that becomes a risk to you. I've seen old inertia reels that have become super sensitive to angle and don't extend unless dead level. Not sure at what angle most 4WD seat belt mechanisms start to lock but I'm sure it's a compromise between safety and comfort.

An interesting point.
Why does earthmoving gear come with a little red hammer with cutter on it where vehicles don't.
Its to break glass incase on flooding as you cannot open a door under water,there is a cutter on the hammer incase the seatbelt will not unlock.
Andrew

Had a situation where I ended up with the 4wd truck that I owned laying pretty much on its left side. Had to climb out the window ( truck doors are surprisingly heavy to keep open when opened vertically). The truck being old had lap sash belts. So no problems with belts at all. Try not to get onto those situations these days so personally don`t feel the need to fit non inertia belts, although both the old ute and the disco belts have jammed.
Cheers Hall