Seat belt

[buscrazyinFL]

I got this air seat (pic#1) back in April for $0 (quite the deal) but it didn't come with the base to bolt it down, so before I went to Palmetto Cove, SC for the Rally in April, I made a mock-up of wood (pics 2 & 3) and asked KY Steve if he could make me a steel base, which he did (pics 4 & 5). Now I just need to get it upholstered. I dropped it off at the upholstery shop today. I'm curious, what type of seat belt should I use. I can take the one off of the flexsteel seat that's in my bus now, but I'd really prefer if it was retractable. I found a website that sells them: http://wescoperformance.stores.yahoo.ne ... -ride.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course the ideal thing would be to have a shoulder belt, too, but I'm not sure how I would install one of those. I know the new seats come from factory with them built in (but those seats also run about $1,500.) Does anyone out there have a suggestion or recommendation?

[rusty]

Nice fab work. Does that seat have a place to bolt the seat belt? I am with you the next seat will have a shoulder strap.

Good Luck Wayne

[JimGnitecki]

Manny: One thing I would say very strongly is that you need to ensure that the mounting bolts for the seat belts, regardless of the type you use:

- Must be capable of absorbing incredibly high loads experienced during an accident, and

- Must SPREAD the load to the chassis via load dispersion plates (typically at least 1/8" thick and at least 4" x 4". The surface area of bolt and washer combination is NOT enough - nowhere close.

The mounting arranagements for the OEM RV seat belts and shoulder harnesses are much higher tech than they might appear on casual examination. In a real accident, an improperly engineered moutning system can pull the bolts right out of their mounted positions, and allow the belt to either let you fly, or just as bad, allow your body to move in destructive ways while still being partially constrained.

I hope some of the more practically experienced guys on the board can give you better specifics, but I know enough to simply say it needs some careful thought.

[JimGnitecki]

Nice fab work. Does that seat have a place to bolt the seat belt? I am with you the next seat will have a shoulder strap.

Good Luck Wayne

That would NOT be good enough on its own, unless the metal fabricated base that he shows in the photo is also itself WELL secured, via load spreading pieces, to the chassis of the bus (not merely to a plywood floor!)

In general, the OEMs do not count on the seat to anchor the belts in an accident. They anchor the belts to the chassis itself. To anchor to the seats, the SEAT mounts have to be as tough as they would need to be for the seatbelts, and that's more costly than just doing the belts well.

[buscrazyinFL]

Wayne yes the seat has a place to bolt the seatbelt as you can see on the pic the old seatbelt receiver is there but is no good. Jim the seat base I think is built better than the original. As for the mounting of the seat base to the bus it will be bolted where the original Eagle seat was bolted there is a metal plate already there. I never thought about inspecting how the seat that I have now was bolted down,the two front bolts are bolted on the metal plate and the two rear are bolted to plywood.

[JimGnitecki]

I never thought about inspecting how the seat that I have now how it was bolted down,the two front bolts are bolted on the metal plate and the two rear are bolted to plywood.

It might APPEAR that the seat you have now is only bolted to plywood, but the other side of that plywood could have a piece of thick and wide sheet metal between the bolt and the nut to spread the load. Plywood that has not been reinforced would be useless as an anchor in the event of an accident.

If the front of the old seat was really bolted to steel while the rear was only bolted to UNreinforced plywood, and if the seat belt was attached to the SEAT and not to the chassis, in an accident the following would occur:

- your body would yank the belt forward very hard very fast (milliseconds)

- the belt would yank the seat forward, but if the front was firmly attached to steel and could not move, the BACK of the seat would rip right up through the plywood, and would flip forward, throwing your body first into the dashboard or windshield

- As the seat flipped further forward far enough, the seat belt would no longer be able to properly restrain you to the seat, since the "top" of the seat back would now be pointing to the windshield, so the geometry of the belt would be wrong. In addition, the bolts at the front of the seat would now be bent very severely towards the front, since the entire weight of both your body and the seat would be applying force to them via incredible leverage - your upper abdomen and seatback weight (force) will have at least 30 to 36 inches of leverage aginst those poor bolts - which mean roughly say 200 pounds x 3 feet = = 600 lb. ft of torque twisting those bolts forward. This is the torque output of a medium sized modern diesel engine being focused on those poor bolts, and they were not designed to handle torque in that direction at all, let alone 600 lb ft of it. The likely result is you going through the windshield at high speed.

Not a good scenario.

[buscrazyinFL]

Here are pictures of the old seat belt and the new one I just installed. BTW, that company shipped out right away...it came from CA to FL in 4 days. Great service / good quality product!

[Kentucky Steve]

Manny,

It was good talking to you tonight. The seat looks nice in its place. Glad everything worked out on it. Keep posting pics of the progress of your work as it helps to keep us over converters from going nuts. Its good to see a bus every now and then with some carpet in it rather than just bare floor joist..... ...
Talk to you soon buddy.


Kentucky Steve