Another seat belt question

I followed for several days a previous thread on RV seat belts but couldn't find it when I went to post these additional questions. I'm thinking about replacing my original Vans lift latch seat belts with Crow seat belts. Here are my questions:

1. How wide should I order the webbing? Someone suggested to me that the three inch webbing would rub me and/or my passenger sore - particularly if we're wearing a shirt without a collar. He said, "wide webbing doesn't add comfort but does increase the likelihood of rubbing.

2. I'm sure I want the shoulder strap pads but what about waist belt pads? When I called Crow, the gentleman I talked to said he would make some special order Velcro attached waist pads for an additional price but also volunteered he wasn't wild about their waist pad design and said they would interfere with the adjustment of the seat belt. I noticed Hooker sells both yep az

Which latch type are most people using? Kam Lot or the old military Lach and link? What is you reason for this choice?

I ordered Crow belts today for my RV-10 project. 2" wide, no pads, which is the setup I've used on my RV-6. I did go with their Kam (rotary) latch, because I think it'll be easier for passengers to deal with. I always have to walk passengers through using the latch and link style.

I went with RJS racing 5 point 3" cam-lock harness, you can mix and match the web harness 3" on the lap, 2" on the shoulders or what ever, and many colors, around 150.00 each and free shipping from Summit.

Hookers with lap and shoulder pads. Love 'em, and so do all my passengers. Very comfortable.

Plus they look cooler

Don't know if it's still true, but years ago racing seat belts by rule had to be replaced every two or three years, so they were not UV protected. On the other hand, aircraft belts are UV protected.

A possibly relevant factoid...

Ed

Ed_Wischmeyer said:

Don't know if it's still true, but years ago racing seat belts by rule had to be replaced every two or three years, so they were not UV protected. On the other hand, aircraft belts are UV protected.

A possibly relevant factoid...

Ed

Click to expand...

Good point, tho on the other side of the coin, at what speed are you planning to crash your airplane? And.....are auto belts ever replaced in the life of the vehicle?

Just a thought.

maniago said:

at what speed are you planning to crash your airplane?

Click to expand...

Well, actually I hadn't gotten around to planning that, but... At Oshkosh, Barnaby Wainfan showed a slide of aircraft crash survivability based on combinations of lateral speed and impact angle. As you might guess, vertical impacts were not survivable, but as for horizontal only velocity, the survivability line was at about 75 knots -- justifying the FAA's 61 knot stall speed for single engine airplanes. I think he said the slide was from SAE, but a quick google search didn't find it.

In crash parlance, seat belts etc should prevent "secondary collision," the collision of the occupant with the interior of the vehicle.

Ed

Hooker.

We went with Hooker with the Sport 5 point standard latches. I had Jack to make the front and back seats colors to match my wife's school colors in the back and my choice in the front. We found that the rotary locks where not any great advantage. You will pay a little more but to us it was money well spent to give us the comfort and security we wanted. Yours, R.E.A. III #80888

Ed_Wischmeyer said:

Don't know if it's still true, but years ago racing seat belts by rule had to be replaced every two or three years, so they were not UV protected. On the other hand, aircraft belts are UV protected.

A possibly relevant factoid...

Ed

Click to expand...

Ed, I am not sure that is true about the UV protected belt material. Heavy equipment company C did a bunch of testing on various belt materials and as a result they require 3 year replacement. Lots of application qualifiers, but it is a legal requirement now. Apparently the strength is lost rather steadily after that. As cheap as they, are if they could be UV protected, they would. Odd that autos don't have to do this at any age. If you have any exposure data handy, please reference. I am not personally worried about this but will also look for some data.

EDIT: Looks like nothing to worry about based on conclusions. https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/SEBED Report_Final_5-2010.pdf

I have Crow belts, with the rotary latch, 2" webbing, and shoulder pads. Love everything about them. Of course, I fly an RV9A so no upside-down.