Aero-Tuff Seatbelts

swpilot3

swpilot3

4-Place Kit Builder
Hello everyone!

I started looking into buying some seatbelts for my 4-place. Of course the Aero-Tuff inertial reels are the preferred ones. However, it looks like sadly Jim House has passed away and Tuff Tow isn't taking any new orders.

Does anyone have any other recommendations on how to get some Aero-Tuff inertial reels belts or something equivalent?

Thanks!
 
Wow, that's sad to hear! I was able to get some military surplus Amsafe sets on ebay. I looked today and there aren't any cheap ones. I paid around $40 per set for the first four, and $30 for one. I sent them to Tuff Tow for some modifications, including the intertia reels for the front.
 
Terrible news! I talked to Jim this past summer and ordered some belts from him. He was great and cheerful to talk to and made a great product. Was just getting ready to order 3 more belts from him.
 
Check out the Schroth / Takana website (http://english.schroth.com/aviation). I don't have any personal experience with these guys, but the Grumman Tiger/Cheetah/Traveler guys use them for pretty much all their replacement harnesses. Apparently, you can custom order just about anything you want (color, type, buckle, inertial reel or not, etc.) from them. If Mark G doesn't find another supplier, I'll probably go with Schroth/Takana...
 
Thanks guys. I didn't know Jim House and didn't have a chance to ever talk with him, but it really sounds like he was very well respected and liked in the industry. I'm sad to know we lost such a great guy.

Thanks for the recommendation Jim, I'll check out Schroth / Takana.


Bobby
 
Jim House was a very nice guy and a pleasure to work with. His widow said she might sell the business to a couple interested parties but I never heard anything further. So I am at a loss to recommend a seatbelt supplier. I have made some inquiries, but none has worked out so far. I just called the sales manager of the company Jim Parker recommended above. She was very nice and helpful. I will supply her with a drawing showing some of our seatbelts and see whether their pricing is something the Bearhawk builders might be interested in.

This company's main business is jets, helicopters, & military stuff - all high dollar. But it seems that they might have a more low cost line of seatbelts if we don't order them "gold plated" like some of their customers according to the sales manager. Not sure how soon this will happen as I leave on a 3 week trip next week. But I will try to get the ball rolling. Mark
 
Any progress on this? For the four place, does anyone have specs for the seatbelts using the 4 pt for the front seats with the inertial reel?

Thanks,
 
Scott at Hooker Harness is where most builders have been getting seatbelts. He will give you a range of options. Remind him to give you the Bearhawk discount. Mark
 
I'm pretty happy with the Hooker Harness seatbelts. The lapbelt part could be a few inches longer for the back seat. They made the front and rear lap belts the same length and due to the mounting locations the one for the rear seat should probably be a few inches longer. I mounted the rear shoulder harness at the rear of the baggage compartment and the length is good for that. So I would say that the measurements Scott has at Hooker are great except for the lap belt for the rear seat should be a few inches longer. I'm 185 lb and my front seat lap belt fits me with plenty of adjustment for a larger pilot, but the rear fits me with only about an inch of belt left and thats after I made some mounting brackets to extend the belt. I'm sure that if I contacted Scott, he would probably take care of it, but it hasn't become a priority yet.
 
Good to know Rollie. We just need to let Scott know so he can adjust his specs to make the rear seat lap belt a few inches longer. Mark
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for rear shoulder harness attach options? Unfortunately, I've already installed the fabric ceiling., so welding attach points isn't an option. Thanks.
 
My Citabria simply has the rear harnesses looped around a frame cross-member, and held in place with a "seatbelt keeper" device. (It looks like a rounded rectangle with two 1/4" slots cut to just slightly longer than the width of the seat belts.) Shoulder harnesses go under-through-over-through-under the bracket, around the cross-tube, then back through the "keeper" paralleling the other strap. They don't slip at all, even doing aerobatics. You might have to cut a slit in the fabric for that, but it's the least intrusive way I can think of to "retro-fit" shoulder harnesses back there.
 
Thanks, Jim. I'll definitely look into that. I didn't plan on inertia reels for the back, so that should work just fine.
 
I had a couple ideas about that, one was to use 5/16 steel cable with vinyl tubing on it, to protect the tubing, and wrap it around the tubing and attach the shoulder harness to that. That would have been easy, but I didn't think I would like how it looked so instead I took a couple pieces of 1/8 thick 4130 and heated them and bent them around a piece of tubing and drilled them for the harness. I out a long notch in the middle of each so they would sit one on each side of the small tube that goes up to the stringer and could swivel. If that makes any sense. I had planned to do something like that when I did the fabric interior so I had put a fabric tape in the right place with a slot cut out so its a fairly neat install. as opposed to just cutting a hole in the fabric. I'll see if I can remember to take a couple pics today, thats probably better than trying to describe it.
 
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This is how I mounted my rear seat shoulder harness. It isn't painted yet, nor is the rear bulkhead so its not all that pretty, but I think it will be functional. Its pretty well hidden so it wasn't easy to get very good pics.
 

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The Details of proper seatbelt installation interests me.

Today for some reason I sought out design aspects of a properly engineered system. Simple design aspects that we don't realize until they are needed are abundant and amazing. I learned about the importance that the lap belt hit the pelvic bone, and how to accomplish that. Only then we can properly position the anchor points of the lap belt. When I was studying this, I thought about this thread.Specifically Rollie shoulder Harness attach point. Rollie hit the bullseye without pulling out the torch.

If you have not given your restraint system much thought, then please refer to this free online book called Construction of Tubular Steel Fuselages.

http://www.raptorairworks.com/documents/134-construction-of-tubular-steel-fuselages-v2.pdf

You have to dig down to chapter 10 on page 127. There are Great diagrams of forces are applied to a body during accidents, Lap Belt Geometry, Hardware design and selection, Attach point design and selection, They should include Rollies restraint design for the shoulder harness. I copied his photos and pasted them into the "Seat Belt" section of my build manual that I am developing for myself.

Brooks Cone
Patrol #303
 
I am using y style shoulder harnesses front and back. I was going to mount my rear shoulder harnesses to the 5/8th x .035 tubing at station F like Rollie did. It occured to me that I could just wrap the strap around the tubing and save the weight of an attach point. I question the strength of that size tubing. Would like thoughts as to whether it needs some reinforcement, I could split a short piece of thicker tube and weld it around the 5/8th and or add a short diagonal from the attach point back to the longeron.
 
Here is what I did for the shoulder harness mount. I am using a Hooker system with an inertia real.
 

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We used Hooker in our Patrol. Both lap belts were just a bit short. Sent both back to Hooker and they lengthened them at no charge and back in less than a week They even covered the return shipping.
 
I did something very similar for the front shoulder harness mounts, it is the mounts for the rear harnesses I am concerned with now.
 
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