Safe or not? Ghetto or not?

[little_joe]

I know we have several engineers here and I need some learned advice.

I am thinking of making seat brackets out of 1"x1" square tube. I'd mount the front seat to this, then mount this to a properly engineered bracket secured to the factory location.

After fitment etc, I'd like to have the ghetto square tube brackets welded to the actual brackets.

I am concerned about this should I ever, heaven forbid, be in an accident. Any concerns or advice?

(I think I can hide it well enough to not be totally ghetto)

 

[Barnes]

im no engineer but i think it would be fine. Ive seen fabbed brackets on other vehicles. I would think that the sheer strength of the bolts would be thef the seat fram and the bolts.... (think large body lift+bad accident=sheered bolts and body coming off frame)

 

[mtweller]

So I'm no mechanical engineer (just electrical, and even the state of NC doesn't agree with that), but IMHO, 1x1 square tube (of proper thickness) will provide just as strong of a base as the stamped steel OE. My only concern is that 1x1 typically is sold in pretty thin gauge. You may have to order some from somewhere to get material that doesn't resemble tin foil. Given the small amount required, I would consider using bar instead of tube.

R

 

[strong_toy]

If it would make you feel better, I can run FEA (stress analysis) on your bracket.

Another option would be to machine the brackets out of solid steel stock, similar to Landtank's seat brackets. Then you can drill and tap holes.

Yet another option would be to bolt everything together, seat -> tube, tube -> floor. You could drill access holes in the top and bottom surface to access nuts/inserts. You could even tack the nuts to the tube if desired. Just throwing out options...

If you made the adapters out of bar stock you can probably keep the height a little lower.

 

[Mtbcoach]

Just call our buddy Shep at Fabco and get a price for some. I'm confident he could order most any thickness you'd want of 1X1 square tubing.

I'm with the other engineers in that I'd feel comfortable it would meet and/or exceed the strength of the stock stampings. With a 1X1, 0.12 thickness, I'd bet would be plenty strong for seat brackets. Looking at some "speed shop" websites, it appears that between 1/16th and 3/32nd inch thick material is being used to mount seats...