How well are you secured?

[Caleb Lawrence]

In your vehicle, that is...

Having had an old, broken-down bench seat with a lap-belt was not very comfortable, safe, or appealing. So, I made the change to bucket seats with 4 point harnesses, and this is the end result. Had to make a couple of custom brackets/mounts, but it worked out in the end.

And yes, I am a redneck.

 

[Blake Michaleski]

I hate to tell you but if you get into a frontal collision you will break your collar bone. those shoulder belts are not installed correctly by any means. they are to be mounted no lower than 3-4" below your shoulder height.

read #4

you meed to mount them as close to horizontal as possible coming off your shoulders you can mount them to the floor if you take them back far enough so that the belt angle is less than 45 degrees to horizontal.


hope this helps.

 

[Chris Sokol]

LOL...yeah...I saw this and was composing a post...you beat me to the punch. Yeah Calab...this is not a good set-up. What you need to do is weld or mount a horizontal bar in the rear of the cab to mount the shoulder straps.

 

[Caleb Lawrence]

Nah, I'll keep them the way they are; since it's the only option I really have without fabricating a roll-cage inside the cab. Besides, if I get in a frontal collision, it sounds like I'm pretty screwed as it is. Better than a lap-belt which would thrust my ribcage and face into the steering wheel, and flinging my legs up under the dash in rag-doll fashion.

 

[Blake Michaleski]

whatever dude, its your life.... :roll:

 

[Caleb Lawrence]

Do you have a solution?

Here's the deal. I bought bucket seats partially for the reason that I could lay them down; to make sleeping easier away from home, in case I needed it. Like other chasers. Which means, I can't mount a bar behind the seats for the belts because it'd impede that. "Sleep is more important than your safety in a collision?" you may think, but no, it isn't; but it's part of the problem in the quandary of this solution that needs to be brought about.

If I was to bring the straps back past the pillars, without a steel bar going across, behind the seats, the back seat for passengers would almost be rendered void for passengers. So, for now, I am stuck with what I have until I (because no one else can come up with a solution) have figured something out to solve my specific predicament.

 

[Caleb Lawrence]

Problem is, that diagram shows an example in what looks to be, if we are to take the image in question as a detailed picture of what the seats are being installed in, an old coupe car with a stock low-back bucket seat. In another words, this is grossly too far from my application of a '73 crew cab pickup truck with bucket seats specifically made for harnesses. 'preciate at the suggestion, though.

 

[Rob_Davis]

Since you cite a desire to not eat your steering wheel as a priority, allow me to mention one other potential problem here. You say you had to custom make some brackets. What are they made of? Do you have engineer certifications on the strength of the metal? What about the bolts you used? Do you have the strength ratings on them? And what did you screw them to? The strongest bolts in the world won't hold you if they are simply screwed through the sheet metal floor of the truck.

The point is, your stock seats are professionally engineered to hold in place during a collision, in accordance with NHTSA standards. They don't use hardware store bolts or miscellaneous scrap metal brackets. If you do, you are likely to still eat your steering wheel, but do so while wearing your custom seat, which is no longer attached to the floor. The ONLY seats I ever saw broken loose in over twenty years as a paramedic were aftermarket seats installed by the owner.

Your original concept is a good one. You just can't be amateur in the implementation phase.