Pull Up Vs. Pull Down Harnesses

Pull-Up Harnesses

• Pull-up harnesses work like seat belts but include straps for the user's shoulders. The straps cross the wearer's body and join at his lap, where they attach to a lap belt. The harnesses attach to the car's floor and rise to meet the wearer. Tightening a pull-up harness requires pulling the harness' tabs upward. The tabs are usually at the point where the harness attaches to the car's floor.

Pull-Down Harnesses

• Pull-down harnesses work in the same general manner as pull-up harnesses, with shoulder straps and a lap belt. A pull-down harness attaches to a car's sides and the seat. Tightening the harness involves pulling its tabs down. The tabs are on each side of the harness.

Operation

• The obvious and fundamental difference between pull-up and pull-down harnesses lies in their operation. To tighten the former, the user pulls the harness' tabs upward; to tighten the latter, the user pulls the harness' tabs downward. Additionally, the wearer pulls the slack on a pull-up harness toward herself to tighten the belt when seated in the car. When seated in a car that has a pull-down harness, she pulls the slack on the harness away from herself in order to tighten the apparatus.

Use

• Pull-up harnesses provide much more limited use than pull-down harnesses because they create a good deal of slack material on the car's floor, and that material can get in the way of the driver. Pull-up harnesses usually are used in cars with very limited room, such as single-seat cars, including drag racers, Formula One race cars and dwarf vehicles. Using pull-up harnesses in those types of cars keeps the bulk of the harness, such as the attachment devices, away from drivers. Larger cars with more room can accommodate attachment devices for pull-down harnesses without their material getting in the way of drivers.