What you need for the shouldre belts is what is refferred to as a harness bar. There are some made by RD engineering that i use in corvettes. unfortunately, no one at this time makes them for dakotas. hmm...
what they are is effectively a secure bar that locates between the two shoulder belt bolts on the B-pillar. (all measurements i am about to give are off the toip of my head as used for a dakota. I HAVE NOT MEASURED TO FAB ONE FOR THIS APPLICATION. just thought about it since i totalled my last dak the day after putting another one of these bars in...) it is 1X1 1/4 inch thick tubing. this mounts by way of fabricated brackets that are an L-shape. long part is going to be about 2 1/2 inches, short side 1 1/2 inches. the long side will have a 1 inch stub of 3/4 tubing belded to it that the shoulder belt bolt will pass through, thereby locating the horizontal tubing. make sure to tweak the angle of the short side so that the flat of the bar is perpendicular with the seat. also, gusset this angle heavily. the horizontal tubing will mount to the L brackets via 1 3/8 bolt per side. reccomendations are ARB grade 10 Wav-lok. typical application is rod bolts...
when done installing this, you will need to fabricate supports from either side of the bar to the floor to keep it from rotation. the methgod i devised will use 1 inch wide, 1/4 inch thick steel strap from the back side of the bracket, again retaing with the 3/8 bolt, to the 1/4 inch bolt in the bottom of the cupholders on either side of the tool tray in the club cabs. use a 1/2 inch steel tube to make a spacer, and use another grade 10 bolt.
after this, secure your harnesses. the factory dakota seats will not allow for proper shoulder harness routing, therby necessitating either seats with a harness pass through, or a spreader strap.
also, as a note on 4-point harnesses: dont. the four points are not typically constructed in the smame manner that a cuatlity SFI spec 6 pont is constructed in. they are generally made to appear after a manner, rather than perform a task. go with a six point harness. use the two front seat rail mounting bolts, fasion a 1/2 inch round bar and mounting brackets between the two, and secure the submarine belts to this.
and in case your all decide to call me into querstion on all this, stating it is either ovekill or inpractical, remember my shop build race cars and HPDE machines. there is no such thing as overkill on safety features in my book. and also, feel free to critique or do actual measurements, as i have now been working 20 hour days for the past week, and am running a bit short on brain power. maybe after some sleep, i can help some more....
and a link to RD for some idea generating pics:
http://www.r-dracing.com/
is under cross bar.
goodnight all.
michael
