Cool idea for custom seats...

[BulldogK5]

I'm sitting in one of those fancy office chairs now. Very comfortable and strong enough for my big a...er 6'4" 240# self.

As to having them in the truck - go to a caddy junkyard. My neighbor had a caddy, I think it was a DTS, that had air conditioned seats. They were made of a very similar material, and very nice in the summer.

 

[dyeager535]

Actually, a little padding right around the frame probably wouldn't hurt performance, but will solve the problem of a stiff metal frame digging into you.

I'm not talking about normal everyday sitting, the frame doesn't bug me at all sitting in the chair for hours on end, it's what the frame would do, even with a decent amount of padding, when your body gets thrown around in an accident. If you made the back high enough so that your back/head could never touch anything but fabric, it would be ok, but then what about neck movement from your head on a surface that acts like a rubberband? I can't see a way to dampen that action.

Again taking a cue from factory seats, there must be 4" of foam on the seat between you and the frame.

 

[jonrpick]

I'm not talking about normal everyday sitting, the frame doesn't bug me at all sitting in the chair for hours on end, it's what the frame would do, even with a decent amount of padding, when your body gets thrown around in an accident. If you made the back high enough so that your back/head could never touch anything but fabric, it would be ok, but then what about neck movement from your head on a surface that acts like a rubberband? I can't see a way to dampen that action.

Again taking a cue from factory seats, there must be 4" of foam on the seat between you and the frame.

Ah, ok... I see what you're getting at.

The thing about that mesh, it's structural in a way. Meaning you can shape it in weird ways. Like on some seats, you're not sitting in the bottom of the curve, you're sitting on the opposite end. Like a leaf spring. They've got some pretty complex compound angles on them.

So it's totally conceivable to have the top of the "back" fall away so that you wouldn't hit it.

 

[dyeager535]

You are absolutely right, these chairs have some pretty funky shapes, and the mesh isn't just flat.

I think the back portion is all you'd need to really worry about. Your legs shouldn't be able to contact the front of the seat frame. Seatbelt should hold you "down", so that's not an issue for the back of your legs. (which don't seem like they need much protection anyways)

 

[K5dreamer]

something else to look at, is wheelchair seating systems. they mount very securely into tube frames (the wheelchair itself) in fact they are designed to fit into tube frames. and most of them have to pass crash testing, because people in wheelchairs travel in cars too. I actually toyed with the idea of using wheelchair seating in my rig, because they would be very very lightweight, and because many people have....... incontinence problems, they are waterproof as well. And you have to figure, that they are designed not for 4 hours, or even 10, these people live their whole lives in these chairs except for sleeping, they are very very comforateable. i would look into supracore, or is it supercore, i cant remember, but they do a plastic honeycomb seat that is waterproof, very breathable, and very comforateable.

 

[Yobtaf]

I had the one on the third row 2nd one over. It started to fray. The mesh started to fray from getting in and out, like rubbing. I took it back to staples and they gave me my money back. I'm wondering if you can find out from them what the do with them.

 

[jonrpick]

Well that does it... I'm gonna have to get one of these chairs on the way to the junk pile to use for R&D.