Got the message, and thought I'd offer a rebuttal. First, the concerns are
overblown. As someone who grew up in the steel industry and an attorney who
has done passive restraint litigation, I am not particularly ignorant of that
which I am about to offer.
Concerning angles and pry-points, look at the variance of seat belt
connections on the cars being offered today. Second, add in the variable of
the driver
size for all the people these belts have to fit, and you'll see a range of
some depth. The standard three point set-up is what it is, and in that sense,
it provides quite a lot of protection for a simple little configuration.
What's most important is that there are indeed three points. Unless you want a
four or five point manual-adjusting system (and then try to check your blind
spot) just getting them in is what is necessary.
Concerning the steel plate on my reconformed belts, I am not certain of their
strength, yet not particularly worried about them braking. An old motor
cycle adage comes to mind. 'Once your driving eighty, take it to one-twenty.
The
results are the same.' If this is going to be a forty G crash, in a '66 two
seat British roadster, I'm dead anyway, and whatever I hit, I am sitting under
its axle. If it hit me, its bumper is somewhere north of my firewall. If it
was a head-on, our rear bumpers have met (like the proverbial bug that the
last thing he sees when he hit the windshield is his a-h).
Moving to more realistic situations where I am about to be impaled on the
dated steering column, or just as bad, fling my head into the steel cross
member
at the top of the window, this set-up will work fine. Look at most early
belts before they were hidden with a large sleave of vinyl, and you'll see that
the run-up from the inside bolt is either a piece of 3/8" cable (Volkswagen) or
a 12 ga. piece of steel plate approximately 5/8" across (ala Jensen Healey).
The plate at issue is every bit analogous.
Considering the idea that it will bend, sure. But not much. It is not going
to go vertical. Indeed, considering the direction of the body in motion
(me), a fifteen degree bend at the bolt would be about the maximum ocurring.
Some
simple geometry would disclose that the extension on the system would
approximate an inch. That's no more than the normal play to begin with.
Furthermore, these belts are snug as a bug in a rug with no lightening
mechanism
(acutally a problem). Lastly, while you might be able to break or shear a
plate
vertically, try pulling it apart horizontally. If .024 guage were sufficiently
anchored with the stress equalized, a one foot square piece could hold a herd
of
elephants. To twist the Bard (?), Me thinks the protests are too loud.
Still, its always fun to hear them and read them.
Bob
B382000975
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