Co pilot chair location

[Scott & Heather]

This pic prob doesn't help? Maybe??? Wife is removing the seat rails....

[Boomer]

Grant, the anchor belt should be attached to the seat belt.  The anchor belt should be afixed to some very sound structure.  So in a severe decel scenario the anchor belt and seat belt holds you and the seat both to the bus, not just you to the seat.  Use grade 8 bolts.

A few years ago a bus driver in my area hit a trailer laying in the middle of his lane at night.  The driver (still strapped in) and seat both were ejected through the windshield and flew for over 100 feet.  It was an MC9.  Everything pulled right out of the floor.  Thought about that many times.  HTH

[grantgoold]

Boomer, there is nothing about flying 100 ft attached to my bus seat and already having ejected through the front window that sounds good!

I have pedestals that are very solid and I will maximize securing the pedestals to the floor. Ironically, the seats themselves are bolted to the electric track mechanism with four bolts that are 3/16 at best. No real way to modify the seat frame to add more connection just thought about all the work to secure the pedestal only to have some rather wimpy bolts actually secure the seat. I too have seen many examples of people still in seats that are not longer inside the vehicle as intended.

Thanks

Grant

[Uglydog56]

I recently was involved in a headon with a drunk driver.  Both front seats ripped loose. Mine was factory mounted, hers wasn't.

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[luvrbus]

I was shocked to see how the drivers seat is mounted in a 2002 H model Prevost not much there holding the seat looks like it would go through windshield easy if one had a head on  

The co-pilot seat has 4 -1/2 in bolts that go through the plywood floor with a 3/8 thick plate 16x16 on the bottom and the seat belts are anchored to metal brace and it's not much  

I am guessing it would be impossible for the seat to pull a 16 inch square through the double layer of plywood and I could be wrong but I don't see that happening with the plate on the bottom with 4 grade 8- 1/2 inch bolts with a 150,000 lbs rating 

[grantgoold]

I am also thinking that the original seats where secured via the OEM track and they seem to stay put unless the frame bends.  As a result, I am thinking about finding the buried OEM track and mounting the base plate to the track using grade 8 bolts engineered to fit the track. I will also include at least four large lag bolts to go through nearly 1.5 inches of marine grade plywood.  I am also thinking that with the seat belt systems in place properly that if your body was involved in enough kinetic energy to rip the pedestal base out of the floor my guess would be my body would not survive.

Thoughts?

Grant

[Jriddle]

I am also thinking that the original seats where secured via the OEM track and they seem to stay put unless the frame bends.  As a result, I am thinking about finding the buried OEM track and mounting the base plate to the track using grade 8 bolts engineered to fit the track. I will also include at least four large lag bolts to go through nearly 1.5 inches of marine grade plywood.  I am also thinking that with the seat belt systems in place properly that if your body was involved in enough kinetic energy to rip the pedestal base out of the floor my guess would be my body would not survive.

Thoughts?

Grant

Kind of what I was getting at in my post earlier. We can only do what we think will work. When things are real bad we may need help from a higher power to survive. I have seen S&S couches with seat belts installed with only wood screws holding it to the floor. Not sure that would be good in the event of a real bad crash. I realize we aren't all invincible but I hope I drive defensibly enough to HELP protect me from harm.

John

[grantgoold]

Wife working on the bus

Priceless!  Keeper for sure!

Grant

[grantgoold]

Good day today on installing the co-pilot or bosses chair! First, we determined that the easiest way to secure the seats was to mount the pedestal to the original seat brackets. I made some test bolts and once they seem to work, replaced the first set with grade 8 bolts. As you can see, I was able to find the original track made access holes just big enough to allow for easy installation and removal. The six way electric pedestals cost me $20.00 bucks and about one hour clean up and rehab on both.  I needed to fab some new seat contact points as the leather seats are 27 inches wide!  I placed a small rubber gasket between the pedestal base and the floor. Once mounted I used a car battery to ensure the boss was happy with location, swivel and so forth.  Not bad for a mornings work!

Tomorrow it looks like I need to build a custom riser for the drivers side. Want to make sure I can move the seat back and forth. 27 inch wide seats make for a tight fit on the drivers side.

Thanks for all the ideas and opinions. Anybody need the original seat and pedestal for an MCI?

Grant

[johnjem]

The passenger seat that came with the bus when i got it ,was a seat sam caylor put in many buses as he told me was a movie theater seat,it folded up when not in use an even rocked ,i removed that and put a real seat in!