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Advice pls, crutch strap fouling seat rail


CtrMint

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Hey All, 
I'm looking for some advice, hopefully, I've done something wrong or someone has a tip to resolve the challenge having been through the same thing.

A couple of weeks back I installed the crutch strap kit as supplied by Caterham.  It's all fitted fine, the harness is so much better.  However, there seems to be a small drawback.   

The retaining triangle section of the straps which are bolted between the floor and bracket are fouling on the seat rail, it prevents the seat from traveling all the way back.  As a result, I've lost around 4 cm of rearward travel on the seat position.  I measured between the seat back and the dash on the 420 and 620.  The 420 has the crutch strap fitted and there's around 4 cm in it.  

I've put an endoscope down to have a good look with everything fitted.  It all looks fine, nothing daft, just there isn't room.  

Has anyone else dealt with this?  The loss of 4 cm makes a big difference on an S3, the seat feels to far forward now.

Thanks

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Hi Mark, I have different seats and belts to you so I don't know if this is helpful but I have had a look at mine. I have removed the seat base to get a view. The crutch strap mounting points appear to be inbound of the rails so they don't foul. See the photo. Mine is an S3 with lowered floors.

A536653B-85AB-4AF3-8A67-9225CD52DE00.thumb.jpeg.af3052bb9b1e0c85e363507e71dcec94.jpeg

 

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I'm not sure how many spacers I have on the seat, between the seat and the rail, I think 1.   I don't have any spacers between the floor and the rail. 

From the pics etc I believe the conflict is occurring at the back of the rail, I'm not sure a spacer can help.  I need to find a solution even if it's taking out the strap, having my knees up against the dash is awful.

 

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I'm not sure, you might be able to cut the rail down, but I don't fancy it.  I suspect the two sections wouldn't run freely.

I'm wondering if it's possible to mount a bar across the two mounting points, then attach the strap to that.  Doing so should also the mounts to be move inboard suficiently to clear the rails.  Though I'm not about the engineering of that solution, obviously it would need to be safe.

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I'm still trying to find the solution to this problem.  My next step is to pull the seat out again and see if I can account for Neil's comment stating he doesn't suffer the conflict on his install.

Before I do, I've checked the seat assembly diagram.   I notice there appears to be 3 possible holes in the seat diagram where the seat attaches to the rail.  Does anyone know if these are configurable?  i.e. you can use a choice of the 3 and essentially offset the seat forwards or backwards slightly?  

seat_rail.thumb.jpg.6481bdb67694ed228a41ed639d7763a1.jpg

It would be amazing if that was the solution.  Other than that I'm struggling to account for the difference.

thanks, really appreciate some support with this,  my knees are up against the dash and the bottom of the wheel is rubbing on my legs.  it's ruining the drive.  But the crotch strap is a massive improvement so really want to solve the issue,

thanks

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Not familiar with Tillet seat set up, but in the diagram it looks like seat is mounted to the 2 extreme end holes and therefore no alternative. I have leather seats and lowered floors and I did fix a bar across the 2 mounting points. From memory I think I used one "conventional" mount and one from the bar. I'll have a look and try and take a pic if you wish. BM me if you want a pic.

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Paul, 

if you could take a pic that would be amazing.

I've taken the seat out and runner off.  I found I could rotate the inner runner, and use a different set of holes, this moved the seat further back and solved the problem on that side.  On the runner with the adjustment mechanism this wasn't possible.  I also found the diagram isn't accurate, you cant use the rear most hole as the front mount hole doesn't align with a bolt hole.  You need to come forward one at the rear.  I think this then causes the excessive movement to the back.

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Hi Brett,

Thanks for your contribution.  From a safety perspective, I'm not so sure it's a good idea.  I'm assuming the documented installation is designed to spread the horizontal load between the mounting tab and floor.  Placing it above might negate that benefit, however I'm not a mechanical engineer so can't be sure.  I'd also need to excessively pad the mounting tab with washers and also a new spacer combination to fit that way as the tab has a raised lip on the sides. 

Thanks

Mark

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A couple of thoughts on the above...

Is it possible that you are pushing the seat back and trapping the harness anchor plate before it has been aligned with its direction of pull?  If that were the case then it could just be a case of pulling the crotch straps to align them as you slide the seat back.

If the above is not the case and mounting the anchor plate higher up (in line with the chassis fixing) I would just do that.  The mount will buckle at the floor mounting point first.  At which point it will have a moment on the chassis mount (due to the distance), that will increase the stress on the weld/joint.  Assembly instructions are fine but not infallible.  If you see a better way of doing something it makes sense to just do it.   

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Also, the assembly guide doesn't cover your seat or runners. The runners and seats illustrated are the standard (or R500) Tillets.  You have the Tillets introduced with the 620R which have different runners fitted with captive nuts.

Has anyone installed the crutch strap with the 620R seats?   I installed them on standard Tillets years ago with no problem, then again the amount of movement you get on a Tillet is limited at best. 

 

   

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