Finally got my roll cage tube bent!! What a hassle, after about 3 months waiting for the race cars guy to bend up the second hoop I took it to 3 others, the first two kinked the tube and the last one left some 1/4" wrinkles, pretty bad but I have little options. The race car builder had what I thought was a JD2 bender, and so did the last guy, but the following bar was different. The car guy had a trinagle following shoe instead of just a rectangle shoe. The triangle had two holders like the normal JD2 but on the top it had a nut welded to it. As he bent the tube he would keep tightening a bolt that forced the shoe into the die. His did not wrinkle the .058 co-molly, but deformed it very slightly. What do you guys use for bending 4130? I kindof burned my bridge to the race car guy or I'd go over and get the model of the bender. At the time I just took it for granted it was a JD2 bender.

Now that I on to the roll cage, I'm having some head room issues. With the wider lower frame rails I was able to squeze the Pilot seat I purchased for the FL800 into this frame. I made the seat frame even with the frame rails, but with the added height of the suspension seat I can hit my head on the stock roll bars without a helmet. Therefore I need to raise the stock cage if I use a suspension seat. Also with the seat, it leaves the top frame bar about thigh level giving the feeling your sitting on the frame instead of in the frame. I really want to use a suspension seat for cumfort and safety reasons.

What have you guys done with the suspension seats in your Pilots? Is my seat just wrong? It seams TOO thick. If I take out the lower cusion it is a lot better, maybe making a thinner cusion is in order. The cusion is only about half the problem tho. And what about head room clearance, what is concidered ok...6"?

Thanks
Wayne

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but you DON'T want a suspension seat older than 5 years old. Most reputable makers won't warrantee them past 5 years for a reason, the suspension (elastic straps) will start to show signs of age and cracking after 5 years.

Old seats are either harder (stiifer) than new or may break when you think you need it most.....

My Corbeau seat had cotton rope for the suspension part and rotted within a year. I replaced it with nylon rope from homo-depot.

I believe different than Hoser on the suspension seat debate and I know it makes a big difference on the average riding trip. If your worried about the slack in the belt go to a 6 point harness.

Tom

Fact are facts then pick your poison! We could debate for hours on me saying he got a compression fracture from a hard seat and you would say he smacked his head from slack in a belt. Either get hurt before or after. With your bad neck you more than anyone ( in my opinion!) would benifit the most from a suspension seat. You know you love the woops out at LS along the edges! How many times you flipped or ran into a tree in the last 15 yrs? I personally believe that the day to day "non-flipping or running into trees" driving I do that the suspesion seat helps protect my tired old bones.

Isn't a suspension seat and the slack issue the very same as a modern day automobile? Some get hurt, some don't. A flip of the coin maybe?

You believe your facts and I will believe mine.

You know I respect your opinion as much as or more than anyone else in this sport on all things including this just don't see things the same on this subject.

Be good!

Tom

Not saying one is better than the other, just stating the facts of my experience in a situation that we need to prepare for and hope doesn't happen to often.

what I care about is ensuring anybody using one knows the facts about the seats then let them decide

Make sure you also to tell them the facts about a guy that had a compression fracture from a stock seat and that a suspension seat could possibly have saved him a lot of pain. All the facts must be told if any, not just the ones that reflect our opinion.

Tom

How much slack or compression of a suspension seat are we talking about? 3" 4"? In my personal experiance( Just rolling my pilot 3 weeks ago) It doesnt move that much. If you actually strap yourself in the proper way, tight, real tight you wont feel that much movement while rolling( From what I remember).

Jeeezzzz...........

You're both smart enough not to let stupid words bother you like this right?

C'mon, call my mom some names, like I give a chit.........

Get over it already, dumbasses!

I personally like suspension seats, in light duty buggies, we have them in our buggy and the manx (like that will ever see action.........) and they are not as likely to be rolled.

I also personally would never use one in a Pilot or Odyssey because no matter how tight you cinch yourself down, it's just not going to be as tight as the stock seat would be. I have rolled Odysseys and I know I don't want to be moving around when I roll one of the Pilots and I KNOW it will happen.

C'mon bash me you BIG BAD BOY you.......

Dipsticks.........

Ok, got it now,, the spec guy was talking about the extra suspension bands under the seat. We put 2 2" pirelli straps under the seats for the race vehicles. The RaceSeat and Elite Seat are 'born' with them, on the other seats it is $15 per seat to put them on. We are ok'd for SCORE, SNORE, CORR and BITD
Gwyn Frantz
RaceCraft Seats
866-663-1358 xt 1