Hey everyone. I have a 2 door Blazer, 5 speed manual, 2000 model that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. However, the military caused some health issues. My back has major comfort problems in any vehicle. I've noticed that after I get a few hours into my day, the pain begins to cause me to slouch. I'm thinking that getting a seat with a 3 or 5 point harness May combat my problem, in addition to the added safety. Any thoughts on how accurate of an estimate this is? Any recommendations toward brand or model? It doesn't need to be a racing seat but I am not sure if you can get a multi-point harness with a standard seat. I drive a lot so this is a priority problem for me. I really appreciate any and all assistance y'all can provide.

 

Sure a 4 or 5 point will keep you more upright but it is also not going to be very user friendly for a dd that you are getting in and out of a lot and the point of them is to keep you glued to your seat so things like shifting, changing a radio station or turning on the ac will quickly become challenging when you can't lean forward. You would at a minimum need a seat designed for a harness and then properly installing a harness can also be life or death depending on the install so its not something that is going to be easily accomplished. It is certainly doable but there isn't a single "bolt in" option anywhere for a blazer. If you really want to take the plunge check out the PRP "Daily Driver" seats, are a suspension seat so they offer a ton of comfort and are designed to be used with a harness. PRP also sells harnesses that are top of the line. I will personally be installing a set of the PRP Premier seats with the 5.3 harnesses in my blazer but thats a whole different animal compared to using it as a DD.

 

You probably won't want a true "race seat." The driver is the heaviest thing in a race car, so you want his butt as close to the road surface as possible. Race seats aren't very padded at all. That also helps with "seat of the pants" road feedback on a race track.

For belts, you must keep the DOT approved (crash tested, installed by GM) belts and wear them. You can add more harnesses, like 5 point race harnesses.

If you're wearing big red race belts, you can count on more attention from "officer friendly" when they are having their "click it or ticket" revenue drives. If they catch you without the DOT approved belts buckled, you'll get a ticket. No amount of race harnesses will get you out of the ticket.

I have had an officer ticket me for wearing a race harness over the stock belts. I politely asked him to note on the ticket that I was wearing the "unapproved seat belt" in addition to the stock (DOT approved) belts. The traffic court judge threw out the ticket and gave the officer a bit of a lesson about the difference between DOT belts being required (by law) and race belts being prohibited (there is no law to prohibit wearing additional belts).

You might contact some race teams in your area and see if anyone would donate their time to create a molded seat insert for you. You can even make one that will go over/in the stock seats. That would be my recommendation, using that with the stock belts.

There's a lot more to adding 4 or 5 point race harnesses than just the harness. You need structure to mount the belts to. In a race car, that's usually part of the roll cage. In a street driven Blazer, you might be able to add some reinforcement to the roof or something, but you need a real engineer to at least look over and evaluate your design. You also need to consider relative motion in the event of a crash. Belts being pulled in different directions can really mess you up! permanenly!