Seat belt manufacturer

[Mark Goldberg]

Guys, me and several customers have been trying to work with a Florida seat belt manufacturer that I had mentioned previously. They did provide one Patrol customer with a very nice set of seat belts. But everyone else I have sent to them has complained about how hard it is to work with them. I find that to be the case also. I could detail the problems faced trying to buy from them, but no purpose is served. Just let me say they are a BIG company. And the issues/problems are all about big company BS rules and procedures. Our business is not important to them and we are treated accordingly.

Yesterday I spoke with Hooker Harness who has been in the seat belt business a long time. I should have gone to them first after Jim House passed away. I had the very mistaken impression that Hooker's stuff was super high quality but super expensive. I was totally wrong.

What I am trying to do is come up with a "standard" seat belt set for all 3 models. If builders want something different - they can work that out with Hooker. But that is the direction things are going. More later. If you would like to help or participate in the design of these "standard" sets, let me know.

I apologize for wasting some of your time and steering you in an unproductive direction. Mark

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Thanks for your efforts, Mark. I appreciate your giving it a go!

[rv8bldr]

Hey Mark.

If the Hooker thing doesn't out (although I expect that it will), Crow Enterprises make dragster/race car seat beats. I had them do up the 5 point harnesses for my RV-8 and they were great to work with and quite inexpensive too. When ordering, all they needed to know other than style, color and options was which RV I was building. They build so many that they know the dimensions for each model. I'm sure that if you were to provide the dimensions to them they can do the job.

Cheers

[n144sh]

I second the Crow recommendation. I worked with them for 5 point harnesses for both my RV-4 and Bearhawk front seats. Pleasure to work with and priced right. Very pleased with the quality and customer service.

Steve
RV-4
Bearhawk 4PL

[swpilot3]

Hey Mark,

I'm in need of some seat belts. I'd be happy to do what I can to help.

[S Lathrop]

I had Hooker do my belts. They made belts for the front and rear seats. The front have a "Y" type shoulder harness and the rears have a cross the chest type harness.

I am very happy with what they did for me.

[Rollie]

Sounds great, I've been trying to get seat belts ordered from the Florida place for about 5 weeks and so far no luck. I'll keep trying until something easier comes along. I was starting to think it might be easier to just make my own seat belts.

[S Lathrop]

I should have mentioned in my previous post that Hooker loaned me one of their inertial reals so I could figure out the shoulder harness before I placed the final order for the belts.

They also have an order form that makes ordering easier.

[Rollie]

I called Scott at Hooker this afternoon and ordered seatbelts for my Patrol. Very pleasant to deal with, there are three options for buckles, the basic square type, the lever release type like in old cubs or Hueys and the rotary release. The square type being lowest price and the rotary type the most expensive. The other option is inertia reels. I went with the inertia reel for the front and not for the back. For as often as I'll have a human in the back, its not worth doing. (my dog just won't care.) He didn't ask what color I wanted so I asked him if I get to choose the color and he said yes so I asked for dark gray. I don't know how many options there are with color, but I imagine they would cover the basic seatbelt colors like black, gray, and blue.

After speaking with Mark I called Scott back to ask about the back seat shoulder harness length, (I guess different builders have wanted to mount them in different locations) without getting into opinions about where to mount it, he said they are making the tail piece, the part that mounts to the plane, pretty long, I forgot how many inches he said, but it was long, and its adjustable at the back end as well as at the ends that buckle into the belt, so he is pretty sure it will adapt to wherever you want to mount it.

The price was higher than the other place in Florida was supposed to be, but after going back and forth with them over the past few weeks I realized they were never going to sell me seatbelts. At this point I was willing to pay more to just be done with seatbelt shopping.

I hope this helps. Thank you Mark for sending my to Scott.

[Av8rPaul]

My build partner (A&P/IA) and I are in the process of setting up a seat belt repair shop for certified aircraft, and manufacturing belts for experimental aircraft as well as cargo nets. We hope to have pricing and other information soon.

[Rollie]

Just a quick update, I heard from Hooker today and now it looks like their price is going to be very close to what the other place was going to be. We can thank Mark for working that out for us.

[marcusofcotton]

Trusting that means lower than otherwise.
Thanks Mark!

[Rollie]

Yes, the price came down significantly after Mark talked to them.