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#31

03-04-2013, 03:26 PM

ChuckRob

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ALBUQ F-1

The plates are supposed to be fully welded in, not spot welds. The last thing you need is for there to be a crash and to have them hold a little, then snap off. It's like a slingshot, the effect is worse than if you didn't have shoulder belts at all. Personally I'm not convinced there is enough structure in the Bonus Built cabs even for a fully welded setup. The better setup would be seats with the belts built in, then you only have to reinforce the floor (substantially, but no paint issues).

I will agree with you that there is not enough structure in the Bonus Built cab for a shoulder harness setup wether it fully welded, bolted or glued. No matter how much weld or how it's welded the base metal is only I believe 16 guage metal. The geometry being located behind the window frame helps some but it is still just sheet metal. I will however disagree with you about the seat belts located in the seat. My seat base plates are 3/16" plate and the mounting bolts are backed up. Even with this setup the seats will move because the surrounding floor moves. The floor would have to be completely rebuilt the get any kind of structual integrity. At least with the harness mounted in the back of the cab some of the load would be tranfered to the back of the cab instead of the floor where the seat would act as a lever acting on the floor in an impact condition. I guess that it really does not matter because if you got in a 60+ head on you would be dead as a door nail with all the saftey feature built into the 48.

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#32

03-04-2013, 07:02 PM

ALBUQ F-1

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The plates I'm familiar with weld to the back of the door frame and the brace that runs to the rear window. Most of the cab is 19 ga.

I agree about the floor, but the main structural rib running in front of the gas tank (to the cab mounts) is completely adfequate for lap belts. If you ran hat-channels forward from that you could stiffen the floor, that's essentially how OEMs do it.

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#33

03-04-2013, 09:21 PM

AXracer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckRob

Actually mounting to the thinner sheetmetal is safer than to a totally ridgid stucture. It's called controlled deformation. What you do want to prevent is pull or tear out. Simpson for example allows installing it's racing harnesses to a vehicle's sheetmetal floor (such as unibody vehicle where the floor is seldom thicker than 20 ga) with a hardened 3/8" NF forged eyebolt or a 1/8" mounting plate and 3/8" NF grade 8 bolt using a 1/8" x 1-1/2" hardened washer on top and a mild steel 1/8" thick x 4" diameter or square backup plate and washer on the bottom of the floor.
The old saying it's not the crash that kills you, it's the sudden stop.

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