seat belt upgrades?

[kab7]

I need to upgrade the seats, but would also like to install
three point seat belts (with a shoulder belt). Any suggestions
on where to get the belts, particular brands that work well,
or installation tips?

thanks,
Karen
1973 23' Patience Tester

 

[richard macdonald]

Karen, I found my upgraded seats (Leather) with 3 point belts at the Mens Mall. Seriously, there are a lot of good bargains as a result of the Cash for Clunkers program.
--
Richard MacDonald
Punta Gorda, Florida
76 Edgemonte
94 K2500 6.5 Turbo Diesel Silverado

 

[bob stockholm]

> I need to upgrade the seats, but would also like to install
> three point seat belts (with a shoulder belt). Any suggestions
> on where to get the belts, particular brands that work well,
> or installation tips?


Here is some information I posted when this subject came up before.

Anchoring down a seat with integral shoulder harness is probably going to be very hard to do correctly. You will notice that GM is actually getting away from those types of seats in most of their vehicles. They have actually buckled the floor where the seats are mounted and that is not in a major crash. My sister works for GM (still) and she is in charge of the safety restraint systems group. Before all the cut backs a few years ago she was able to find an engineer that still had info on GMC seat belts. Part of the design of our setup is the seat belts bolted to the floor actually help keep the seat in place as well as the person. So the seat belts were designed to take that kind of stress. Most newer types of seat belts (especially with air bags) have a section of belt that is designed to slow you down and release some of the belt so you move forward and are stopped by the air bag. When replacing seat belts this should probably looked at also.

That all being said I do feel strange without the shoulder belt myself but I will keep with the standard lap belt and hope I never need to prove any of this.

--
Bob & Terry Stockholm
Xenia, OH
1976 PB

 

[bob stockholm]

> That all being said I do feel strange without the shoulder belt myself but I will keep with the standard lap belt and hope I never need to prove any of this.



I also forgot this part:

I forgot to mention in my last post on this that when the engineer actually looked at the design of the GMC motorhome seat belt system he did say that it was actually a very good design. Now that is coming from a current day designer and what they do today is so much more advanced from back in the mid 70's. In fact every time I mention to my sister about a car I may be looking at buying I will get a lecture on how poor the crash data was on it. It seems very few cars meet "her" requirements.


--
Bob & Terry Stockholm
Xenia, OH
1976 PB

 

[randy1]

What about the Chysler Swivel and Go seats? That seems to meet all the criteria we have for seats in our GMCs
--
Randy
1973 26' Painted Desert
Ahwatukee (Phoenix) AZ

 

[chris choffat]

Soooo...

What does she drive?


> > That all being said I do feel strange without the shoulder belt myself but I will keep with the standard lap belt and hope I never need to prove any of this.
>
>
>
> I also forgot this part:
>
> I forgot to mention in my last post on this that when the engineer actually looked at the design of the GMC motorhome seat belt system he did say that it was actually a very good design. Now that is coming from a current day designer and what they do today is so much more advanced from back in the mid 70's. In fact every time I mention to my sister about a car I may be looking at buying I will get a lecture on how poor the crash data was on it. It seems very few cars meet "her" requirements.


--
-Chr$: Perpetual SmartAss
77 Ex-Kingsley 455: The Engineer's Motorhome
Scottsdale, AZ

 

[Glenn Giere]

I got everything from a Ford Econoline van at the mens mall. I even cut out the nut plates anchoring the shoulder harness. Installing the two end anchor points to the GMC was a breeze using the original bolts but it took some engineering to attach the shoulder bracket in a manner I felt would be crashworthy.

Glenn Giere

 

[Ken H.]

I hate to be a nay-sayer, but every time I hear of someone installing
shoulder harnesses to the GMC body, I remember this photo:
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809

http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809 After the
rollover, the driver and passenger were still sitting, unharmed, in those
seats. Would they have been if they'd been wearing harnesses attached to
the missing body above the coach's beltline?

I won't risk it.

Ken H.

>
>
> I got everything from a Ford Econoline van at the mens mall. I even cut
> out the nut plates anchoring the shoulder harness. Installing the two end
> anchor points to the GMC was a breeze using the original bolts but it took
> some engineering to attach the shoulder bracket in a manner I felt would be
> crashworthy.
>
>

 

[les burt]

My wife had been asking repeatedly about installing shoulder belts. She
wanted the more secure feeling. Once I showed here those photos, she stopped
asking. My problem now is I need to convince her that the GMC is a safe
coach to travel in. I've been searching for crash survivability statistics
for RVs but haven't found much. Overall she likes the GMC a lot and I'm sure
her safety concerns will fade into the distance with time. I'm still curious
though if anyone has found any crash stats?

Les Burt
Montreal

-----Original Message-----
From: gmclist-bounces
[mailto:gmclist-bounces] On Behalf Of Ken Henderson
Sent: November 16, 2009 6:58 AM
To: gmclist
Subject: Re: [GMCnet] seat belt upgrades?

I hate to be a nay-sayer, but every time I hear of someone installing
shoulder harnesses to the GMC body, I remember this photo:
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809

http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809 After the
rollover, the driver and passenger were still sitting, unharmed, in those
seats. Would they have been if they'd been wearing harnesses attached to
the missing body above the coach's beltline?

I won't risk it.

Ken H.

>
>
> I got everything from a Ford Econoline van at the mens mall. I even cut
> out the nut plates anchoring the shoulder harness. Installing the two end
> anchor points to the GMC was a breeze using the original bolts but it took
> some engineering to attach the shoulder bracket in a manner I felt would
be
> crashworthy.
>
>
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GMCnet mailing list
List Information and Subscription Options:
http://temp.gmcnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gmclist

 

[shan rose]

That hurts to see a coach wind up like that, gladd the people inside were not harmed. one needs to be careful when driving on any windy winding mountain road!

as for safety belt I dont think a shoulder mounted system is best for our coach what should be considered is a racing stule 4 or 5 point harness system which would mount to the sear and floor supports rather then to the body of the coach. just a thought...


> I hate to be a nay-sayer, but every time I hear of someone installing
> shoulder harnesses to the GMC body, I remember this photo:
> http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809
>
> http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=25809 After the
> rollover, the driver and passenger were still sitting, unharmed, in those
> seats. Would they have been if they'd been wearing harnesses attached to
> the missing body above the coach's beltline?
>
> I won't risk it.
>
> Ken H.
>

>
> >
> >
> > I got everything from a Ford Econoline van at the mens mall. I even cut
> > out the nut plates anchoring the shoulder harness. Installing the two end
> > anchor points to the GMC was a breeze using the original bolts but it took
> > some engineering to attach the shoulder bracket in a manner I felt would be
> > crashworthy.
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> List Information and Subscription Options:
> http://temp.gmcnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gmclist

 

[Ken H.]

True, but that one happened on a straight stretch of I-65 in FLAT country.
No one has a good explanation of what happened, but possibly a blown tire
on the toad, along with several tractor trailers flying by MAY have been the
cause. At any rate, they rolled down an embankment and landed upright
against a pine tree with both of them sitting in their seats. She, in the
driver's seat, had gasoline on her back. A small fire started but he,
luckily, found the fire extinguisher laying on the ground among the other
debris and put the fire out before any damage was done -- or she was
ignited.

Don't run off the road! Mountains or not.

Ken H.

>
>
> ... one needs to be careful when driving on any windy winding mountain
> road!...