The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Lap belt installation

This should probably be in the "Interiors" forum, but not much activity there lately. Anyways, do any of you have a few words of wisdom for mounting lap belts?

Judging by the large washers they give you with the kit, it looks like you're supposed to bolt the ends directly to the cab floor. That shouldn't be a problem, but my concern is the actual location where they will be bolted. I'm afraid that if I don't get it right, there'll be too much extra belt length on the buckle side.

Any help or rough measurements would be appreciated.

Deve Krehbiel did an extensive write-up on his site for a 3-Point Seat Belt Installation, Fred. You may be able to adapt his info to your situation.

Advance Design 3-Point Seat Belt Installation

Hey Fred

On my stock seat frame I cut out two small pieces of metal right @ the base of the lower back of the seat, about 1-1/8''x 2-1/2''(about the size of a seat belt buckle. These were equally spaced for three belts to fit along that back rail. this allows me to direct the middle belt(s) & buckle directly thru those two slot holes and to the 'crack' between the bottom and top seat cushions as possible. When I first installed the three belts (one for the middle passenger), the middle belts had to get routed over the steel frame (about 8'' high), then down and through the 'crack' of the top and bottom of the cushions. this did not work very well as when the seat gets re-positioned forward or back there was slack or tension in the lap belt that had to be taken up in order for the seat belt to fit properely.
I attached the belts to two new holes equally spaced along that back seat rail just in front of the gas tank using the big washers. the other two attachments were to the frame bolts that come up thru the cab (two 3/8'' along that back rail), nyloc'd.
I have now removed all the belts and bought two new shoulder belts from julanios (because their belts are a couple inches longer in length than jcwhitless'. i now see that dave also used julanios. I did because I read catologs and found their's allowed a little more 'girth room'.
http://www.julianos.com/3_point_belt_bench.html
I pretty much did what dave did

also
if you buy from julanios
you don't have to buy the steel mounting kit. so that could save you some $$$ and most of us can make our own and their kit for the most part does not fit our trucks.... so wasted $$$ there.

http://www.speedprint.com/Deves50/seatbeltassembly.php
the new belts use that same cutout in the seat frame but the take-up reel fit neatly down in the cabs lower 'pocket storage below the door' area. it's real hard to take a picture down there cause you can't see much, but I think I did a nicer way than dave did. he welded some attachment to the frame where as I did not... yet. I had to make a steel backing for the upper shoulder belt attachment and positioned that just above the corner window.

I just wrote a long post in the interior forum on 3-point seat belt installs in a 3 window and it is about the same for lap belts but you can skip the part for the shoulder reinforcing plate.

Buy your belts and reinforcing plates on E-bay unless you can find them cheaper elsewhere, which I doubt. (E-bay seller TRUCK AND RV SUPPLY has great deals on belts.) The reinforcing plates come with the bolts you need for lap belts. You need four plates total for three lap belts.

I plug welded the reinforcing plates under the cab floor- Basically marked where the plates need to go, drilled a hole for the bolt and then one hole 1 1/4 inch on either side of the bolt hole. Bolt the plate to the floor and then fill the other two holes with weld. Grind, primer and paint.

One plate behind the seat riser at the each end of the tank and two inside the riser about 12 inches from each side. The 'tank end bolts' hold the tounges of the belts, the inside plates hold the 'clip-in ends' and both sides of the lap belt for the middle passanger, if you add one of those. Then the belts in the middle thread up through the space between the back and bottom of the seat.

I don't think you have the weld the reiforcing plates in place, especially if you aren't using the 3 point seatbelts. If you aren't welding, you don't have to take the tank out either.

I think the best place for the outside lap belt attachment points is on the floor at either end of the tank. Just be sure that when you drill the holes the are far enough back from the seat base so that the reinforcing plate will clear the structural reinforcement under the cab.

Rereading Caroline & Jims' posting I think you could also use the two rear cab mount bolts that come through the floor just aft of the door to attach the outside lap belt ends.

I can send you a link to the pictures of my install if you send me your e-mail address.

I got the lap belts mounted yesterday. The job was pretty straightforward. Many thanks to Caroline's truck and especially NM51 above for their help and the pictures.

I wanted to mount the lap belts without welding and without removing the gas tank. I used a combination of methods from the above posts. If anyone wants the mounting point dimensions or photos, just Email me.

Thanks again, guys.

Hey, Guys, I'm just about to install seat belts in my '59 Apache. Your posts have been very helpful.

Thanks!