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Crow seatbelt attach points?

dwranda

Well Known Member
My Crow seatbelts have 1/4 inch holes to mount to the plane. The holes in the mounting tabs on the plane are also a quarter inch. The plans however show using a 5/16" bushing in the seat belt bracket. I would have to drill out the hole to 5/16 to fit in the bushing. Is there a reason why I can't leave the bushing out and just put it all together with the AN 4 bolt. It seems to go together just fine with no bushing. Trying to figure out the purpose of the bushing. Does it protect the bolt from wear from the seat belt bracket? The crotch strap bracket doesn't use a bushing.
 
You'll get a lot of opinions here

"It's your build. Do what you want."
"Do it per print."
"Check with Vans engineering."
etc.

The bushing will prevent wear of the relatively soft aluminum but you said bracket only. Gonna assume it was based on belts supplied by Vans. The bushing will not make the joint stronger; actually slightly less so because edge distance is decreased so "shear tear out" margin is less. I personally would do nothing. In either case; wear or shear failure, it's gonna out-last you. You can ream and bush it later if the need arises; new belts with 5/16 bracket holes.

Expect opposing opinions.
 
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I'm no engineer but I agree with you on the bolt lasting longer than me. I don't see how when it's all bolted together it could wear on that bolt much. The bushing would allow the belt to move around a bit and maybe that's the idea behind it. Without the bushing the belt would be sandwiched in there and tightened down so there would be no movement.
 
The bushing is used to adapt to the AMSAFE/TUF-TOW seatbelts that Van's offers -- SBH-nnn.
 
safety first

My advice is to not modify any safety equipment. if the belts don't fit, contact the belt manufacturer. In fact, if there every is any wear evident on the belt fittings or webbing, I think that would warrant a call to the belt's manufacturer too.
JMHO.
 
bushing

The bushing should be slightly longer than the seatbelt tab allowing you to fully tighten the attachment bolt while allowing the seat belt tab to pivot freely around the bushing.

Without the bushing, you would either lock the tab in place with no movement available or not tighten the bolt completely.
 
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