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need advice on seats

flinchy

NAXJA Forum User
Location
wyoming
i am looking to get new seats for my jeep i have 4 point harnesses and need to have seats that will work with them i have looked at the plastic molded seats i need something like that cause my jeep has no roof anymore and want it to be able to handle the elements. any advice would be great

thanks in advance
 
I have had Mastercraft basic non reclining seat in my TJ, had the Mastercraft Baja recliners in my JK. The mastercraft seats in my opinion are superior. I had PRP in my rhino. I like the Mastercraft the best!

I'll have a set of the Mastercraft recliners in the JK as well
 
i looked at those sites but im wondering how these would hold up in the elements. also cost is a factor its a budget build has anyone ever used the seats from summit racing or jegs?
 
I have a set of Beards in my class 10 car and they have been through silt, mud, crap, piss, ketchup from a hamburger, beer, and most of the dirt and rocks out near Plaster City, Superstition, Ocotillo Wells.. For quite a few years.. Not a tear on them.. Still keeping my ass comfy. Truthfully they are more comfortable that the motor home seats.

For a budget check out the craigslist for the San Diego area (Prerun capitol of the world) as well as the classifieds at http://www.race-dezert.com/home/

I do also have a no-name single seat. Reupholstered it last year and never used it.. Private me if you want a pic.. Only want $60 for it..
 
Now im getting (after reading) what your looking for.. Elements with no roof.. Well these seats soak up water like a sponge because that's what they are. Metal frame and sponges suspended by bungee cords. Keep a roll of trash bags in the heep when you know its going to rain. ;/
 
im hoping to find something cheap from jegs or summit that is molded plastic or whatever and has a removeable cover does anyone have any experience with that kind of a set up
 
http://www.jeepswag.com/empi/buy2/

$200 a pair for EMPI race seats. Not as good as a PRP, better than some plastic thing.

Learn to cover them in trash bags when you park the jeep in the rain, or buy a tarp.

Tell him Cal sent you.
 
i remember hearing that plastic seats are bad in offroad cars, due to them basically being the complete opposite of a suspension seat. i remember a thread where a couple (man and his lady) were in an accident with plastic seats, and both suffered spinal injuries... it was on pirate IIRC.... makes sense, as i NEVER see them in offroad cars, only like street/strip dragsters etc.
 
just found the link: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=727180&highlight=seats+injured

lets all be safe out there, mistakes have allready been made, lets at least learn from them.

If you search through a bunch of my posts in the past you'll probably find some here and there where I am talking about my experiences with plastic racing seats and how I don’t' find them very uncomfortable and possibly even interpret some of what I've typed as an endorsement for them. This post is to tell people about my recent experience and retract anything I've ever said about them and flat out warn people NOT TO EVER USE PLASTIC RACING SEATS IN THEIR BUGGIES / TRUCKS!!!

As many may know I run the cheap plastic racing seats in my buggy. I have done so for a long time thinking that my cage can stand up to anything and my overall comfort level inside the cage is of little importance since I never spend very long periods at a time in the seats. I’ve never found them to be uncomfortable anyway and never found that they beat my kidneys to death as some have claimed. I found out the hard way this weekend that none of that matters worth a god-damn when it comes to a drastic end over end roll though.

I am on a long 14-hour trip top Harlan, KY right now from FL. This is a trip I look forward to all year long. I arrived early Fri. with my group. There was rain coming into the area so we all wanted to hurry to get out onto the trails before the bottom fell out. The first obstacle on the trails is just a short, small hill made of slime with a deep dug-out on one side at the top. The dug-out makes about a 4 – 5’ ledge that the right front has to climb while the left just goes up the embankment. It’s not a difficult obstacle by any means when it is dry but it’s a whole different monster when its wet. By the time we got to it though it had started raining and making it slick. I knew nothing but a full throttle assault would get the job done so I didn’t bother tickling its XXXX with a crawl attempt. My first full-throttle attempt was almost successful. After a second or two of very violent rockwell-style, front tires in the air bouncing I managed to get my front end up and over the obstacle but I let off the gas for a second and it ruined all my momentum. Since I was halfway up though I figured I just needed to back down and get my momentum back, so I went back down and made a second attempt. The front end bounced over to the right and my side-lugs caught traction on right wall of the embankment, shooting my front end up straight into the air. I tried to catch reverse coming over but couldn’t get to it in time to save it and I went front end over back upside down. No big deal normally and at the time we were upside down I figured everything was going to be OK. But I had enough momentum to send the back end over the front again, pivoting on my nose and slamming down hard on my rear end. That’s where all hell broke loose on my girlfriend Ashley and my backs. Since the ass end landed from an upside-down position, we were hanging out of our seat by our seat belts when the rig sling-shotted around taking us with it. When the rear end landed it landed hard, and we were shot straight down into the hard plastic racing seats with no padding.

The instant everything stopped moving I realized we were both hurt. Neither of us could breath because the wind was knocked out of us. I was doing that muscle-memmory moaning that people do sometimes when they can’t breathe but Ashley was just dead silent. It’s happened to me before though and I knew I would be fine and I knew it had never happened to Ashley before so I knew she would be scared. In addition, Ashley has a bad back from a car wreck she was in in the past and I was EXTREMELY worried that her back was damaged as mine was pretty damn hurt, too. Trying to make this long story short though, I’ll cut to the chase and say that Ashley was way more hurt than me. EMS was called and they came out and cut her out of my buggy, taking out any tubes they needed to do get her out without risking further spinal injury. I didn’t care as it was obvious that my chassis took the brunt of the damage and was effectively totaled as it was. We spent several hours in the ER getting cat scans and x-rays done of her. Thankfully, there appears to be no permanent damage to her spine and it all appears to be just very bad whip-lash. (We still have to get a bone-scan done by her regular dr. when we get home to know for sure.) We are spending the rest of the weekend in a hotel room resting, hoping that she feels better in time to drive home on Sun.

I’ve seen countless buggies with suspension seats take this exact type of roll in competitions before and never once have the occupants been hurt. I am 100% confident that with suspension seats in my buggy Ashley would have escaped with little to no injury. The buggy would still be totaled but at least we would be out at camp drinking beer with our friends instead of holed up at a hotel room nursing our backs.

People site cost as a huge reason to run those plastic racing seats. There’s about a $200 - $300 difference between a good suspension seat and the plastic racing seats. But I guarantee you that that difference and about 10x more has been erased after all the bills come in for the ambulance ride, the ER visit, the cat-scan, and the x-rays, not to mention the therapeutic bills in the future that are going to come in.

Another reason to run them is that they are more compact and easier to build around. But the EMS had to cut my buggy to pieces to get my injured girlfriend out. I now have to build an entirely new buggy to wheel again. It would have been much easier to just design around the bulkier suspension seat to begin with.

People say that suspension seats soak up water, dirt, grease, etc. WHO GIVES A XXXX??? So your new seat looks old after 2 trips. It still looks better than the plastic ones. Maybe you had a wet-ass when it rains and you don’t put a trash- bag over it, but in relation to the pain that me and my girl are in now, a wet ass is nothing.

I’m here to say that there is NEVER an excuse to run plastic racing seats in a buggy or any vehicle that may ever flip. There is nothing that is worth what we are going through now that could have been avoided if not completely with a simple suspension seat. That being said, I have a pair of black plastic racing seats for sale CHEAP if anyone wants them.

I’ll not be wheeling for a long time now. I’m just not in a position to build another buggy quickly right now. I’m going to take a year or two to enjoy my time with Ashley, travel for reasons other than wheeling, and just relax. I’ll be back someday as I already have many parts for my next one. I’ll never be able to stop wheeling and will always have to push the envelope. It’s one thing when I get hurt but something completely different when someone I love so much gets hurt because of me though. Let’s just say that it rearranges my priorities in life and I hope that my experience rearranges everyone else's when it comes to choices in occupancy comfort and protection. I know my next buggy will be a veritable fortress of padding and seat belts on the inside.

J. J.

very glad your both ok JJ.

I kept talking my neighbor out of using those but he's likes mud. after a small drop off with a hard landing hoping hill change them out.
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thanks for sharing.

-Tristan

that bruise is mean, but that gash in the middle is downright disgusting... god only knows what evil swill came out of that...
 
Good lord!


I've had a set of Beard Enduros for many years. Awesome seats, many drives of 10+ hours and my back and ass were always happy. You can't go wrong with a pair of quality seats. You get what you paid for.
 
Mastercraft, Corbeau and I'm sure other seat companies all sell seat covers that can handle the elements and you can still use the seat with the cover on if you need to. My friend does it in his Corbeaus all the time.

I'll either be getting some MS Rubicon's or Corbeau Baja JP seats in the near future.
 
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