How to attach racing harnesses to a bus seat?

[musigenesis]

I've removed all my seats, but I'm going to be re-mounting one of them so I can carry a couple of passengers. This is not a normal seat, but is rather the seat that was originally mounted next to the side exit door, so it is bolted entirely to the floor (no chair rail in this spot) via two long feet, and the bench part of the seat folds up. Album:

https://imgur.com/a/4Oo7Bww

I'll be re-mounting it front right in the position shown in the album. The folding aspect is good because I can mount the seat further forward than a normal front seat (this will allow it to be in front of my bulkhead wall behind the driver's seat). The seat also has lap belts, but because this seat will not have a padded face-smasher in front of it like a normal front seat, I don't think just the lap belts would be adequate.

I was thinking I could remove the lap belts and attach something like these buggy belts:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BUGGY-BELT-...K/282810705423

... instead. I would bolt the lap belt part of them in the same way as the existing belts, and then the shoulder harnesses would go up and over the back of the seat and underneath the bench and bolt into the same under-bench brackets as the lap belts. Is this a sound way to mount these, or would it be better to bolt the shoulder harnesses to the floor (I'm somewhat unsure of whether they're long enough for this - I need to measure)? Either way, I will attach guides of some sort for the belts on top of the seat back.

[Native]

The buggy belts you linked appear to mount at the seat. The shoulder harness comes around the back of the seat but looks to attach at the seat, not the floor.


My suggestion is ask the manufacturer how they are mounted.

[o1marc]

Racing harness's should be mounted by attaching through the floor with a 1/8"-1/4" steel plate welded to the underside of the floor pan. The belts should not be brought from the floor straight through the top of the seat, there should be a bar behind the seat at shoulder level for the belts to come to your shoulders at that level and not below by much. The belts should prevent forward movement, not pull your spine down, if you know what I mean.

[ermracing]

Look at page 15 of this PDF for a quick description on mounting racing belts:

https://24hoursoflemons.com/wp-conte..._v3_051817.pdf

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Racing harness's should be mounted by attaching through the floor with a 1/8"-1/4" steel plate welded to the underside of the floor pan. The belts should not be brought from the floor straight through the top of the seat, there should be a bar behind the seat at shoulder level for the belts to come to your shoulders at that level and not below by much. The belts should prevent forward movement, not pull your spine down, if you know what I mean.

Hmm, I thought these harnesses might be a simple and inexpensive way to get proper restraint on my folding seat, but it seems they're not generally a good idea.

I just want to have two lap-and-shoulder-belt setups for this seat. I guess I need to run a steel pillar from the floor to the ceiling behind the seat that the shoulder belts would bolt to (my bulkhead wall will be built from 2x4s so I can't bolt the shoulder belts to that - at least I don't think I can). How strong would a pillar like this have to be?

[ermracing]

I know you already have a seat, but many SUV's have seats with integrated belts (lap and shoulder), including foldable 3rd row seats. Check car-parts.com for salvage yards.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by ermracing

I know you already have a seat, but many SUV's have seats with integrated belts (lap and shoulder), including foldable 3rd row seats. Check car-parts.com for salvage yards.

I actually wasn't able to find many SUV seats like that. It seems the ones with integrated belts (like from a Ford Ranger) are only lap belts. I'm looking at something like this now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Transi...d/282408196279

I have come to accept that my existing seat is a bit crap - it's free but I'd have to pay a lot to give it proper three-point restraint, and then cross my fingers and hope the PA inspector thinks I did it right.

[Ohregano]

You might consider a special needs harness that is made for a bus seat and is easy to install as well as removable.

Securements

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Ohregano

You might consider a special needs harness that is made for a bus seat and is easy to install as well as removable.

Securements

Thanks, but I finally decided I was going to kill somebody trying to install my own belts for this. I found a brand-new Ford transit van seat with integral shoulder belts on CL and I'm going to install that instead.

I've sat in it and I honestly feel sorry for anybody that's going to be riding along with me. The double seat is 31" wide, so at 15" per person it's worse than coach on an airplane.