I’ve started down the path of adding a 3-point harness to the rear of the LJ. I’ve started some rambling on the subect in another blog post. My intention is to install the harness so that my 6 year old daughter can us it. I don’t do any crazy wheeling with her in the Jeep, but I still want her safe, and I figure this should do the trick.
I made this video once things were completed, Watching this, and reading this article, should give you a pretty good idea of how to get this all done. Enjoy!
I bought the Rock hard 4×4 LJ Rear harness bar to use as a cross-bar for the shoulders of the harness. I’ve found very little information about this variation of the product, so I wanted to be sure to post as much information as I could about it. The bar that every single place that sells this item shows, is the TJ bar. It looks like this:
As far as I can tell, the part number for the TJ bar is RH-1001-J. When I ordered, that was the bar I expected to receive, as no one shows anything to the contrary. Even Rock Hard’s own install insructions barely reference the fact that the LJ bar is different.
The LJ bar has a much deeper arc to the bar, and if you mount it the way it’s shown in this picture, it will not fit under your top. It’s also silly to mount it the way they show in this picture, as it would stick up off the rear of your sport cage like a dang spoiler. I believe its part number is RH-1001-U. I wrote Rock hard about it, and they said that it’s supposed to be mounted inward, which is exactly what I expected them to say. Mounting it inward puts the bar right behind the top of the back seat. I’ll try to get a better picture once the install is complete.
I primed ad painted the harness bar with some generic silver that was close enough to the original body color. I cut the rollbar pad, and slit the cover, to fit the mounting clamps while retaining the cover.
After getting the bar installed, I went through some more confusion, related to what type of harness should be installed wiht this bar. First I bought a bolt in 3-point Corbeau harness, which I couldnt make work, and I didnt like the non-removable nature of the bolt-in attachment. So I ordered the same harness in clip-in style. This workd better, but I just couldn’t figure out how the third point was supposed to be mounted. I ended up reaching out to Rock Hard 4×4, and eneded up speaking with James. I explained my confusion, and he understood. He actually told me that at Rock hard, they sometimes don’t realize that there are guys buying their stuff that have never installed harnesses before, and because of that, their instructions are sometimes lacking. He said they’re working on it, and then spent a good 20 minutes on the phone with me explaining how the harness should mount to the bar, and what sort of harness I should have. It turns out that the 3-point corbeau harness that I had, did not need a harness bar, and that they were really designed to be installed in applications that needed a long 3rd point mount. LIke front seats where the rear seats were not used and the harnesses mounted to where the rear seat would be.
After talking to James, I had a much clearer picture of what I needed to do. I went looking for a 4-point harness, that had wrap-around upper shoulder belt mounts, and clip-in lower mounts. This should give me the removability that I wanted, so I could still unclip the harness and fold up the rear seat. Something that’s important to me. I went to Summit Racing, because they have a huge selection of harnesses, and found an affordable 4-point that met the bill. I ended up with an RJS Racing harness, with 4-points, and a sternum clip. Using standard buckles, not the fancy racing style.
When I received the harness, I first saw a bit of red. The upper and lower mounts were both clip on! But after I took a closer look, I realized that the upper clips were removable, and they wrapped around my harness bar perfectly after I took off the clips. I was able to mount the lower clips to the loops that came with one of the Corbeau harnesses I bought, the RJS didnt come with hardware, which was a little bit of a let-down. Now I cant return the Corbeau until I replace the hardware I stole from it.
After getting the harness in place. I had kiddo sit in her booster seat, and I adjusted the harness. It fits perfect! It could be a little snugger on her shoulders, but it’s still pretty secure, and she’ll grow into it. I call this one a success!
