f5fstop or anyone else is this safe

[RBorgers]

Well my OCD kicked in Saturday and I fabricated a couple of brackets to raise the driver?s seat one inch. I made the front brackets out of ?? x 1? flat steel, and the back I just used flat washers to shim it up one inch. Works great except for hitting my head getting in and out. But, Is it safe? I noticed there were a couple of metal pins approximately 8mm in diameter that went into corresponding holes in the floor board when the seat is mounted flat on the floor board. When I raised the seat up the pins were not long enough to go in the corresponding holes. Is it safe to drive it with out the pins in their holes?

[Huck BB62]

Having put custom seats in various vehicles, and by looking at the mountings for the seat belts, I'd say "probably". I think that by the time your lower mountings fail that you've described, you'll have a lot more to worry about! The critical part is the leverage created by an impact. The belt's still mounted to the B pillar. The lower one will have to shear all of the stuff you've bolted down. I'm no engineer but I'd find that highly unlikely. I understand the pins, but the forces required to tear bolts and steel apart at only an inch extension would seem to be pretty high, high enough that again, I think you're in a heap of trouble bone and skin wise at that point!

How's the comfort now? This may be exactly what I'm looking for! Me and the missus kick ourselves every single time on a longer trip for not getting the lux package!

[SHYANNE]

I would probally be wandering what will happen in a crash if the seat or bolt breaks or something with the air bag could hit you diffrent.If the seat did break and you got hurt and the insurance company saw this in a inspection which they will do alot in a serious wreck when you or someone else is hurt bad or kllled you might have something to worry about. I could be wrong but Is it worth the chance I dont know thats what you might want to ask your self. I also hate my seat being to low also but have leared to live with it for now.

[f5fstop]

Sorry, I'm on the conservative side, I won't say it is safe or not. I really have no idea what you did, what you used for a bracket, what you used to retain the rear of the seat when you deleted the use of the pins. To be honest, I would not comment if you gave me all the specs and engineering drawings.
I never commented in your original thread, but had to laugh when someone said it is no problem (guess they have tested this mod already in a high speed crash).

I can say I would hope your home-made bracket in the front will hot the seat in place in a head on collision at 35 mph, it won't buckle forward, it won't pivot. I can say I hope that whatever you used to pin the rear of the seat will also hold up to prevent the entire seat assembly from pivoting forward in a head on. I will say I hope you never have to find out.

Sorry if I seem harsh, but when it comes to safety matters, I will not comment, unless to say remember GM pays millions to crash test these vehicles, let alone millions to simulate the testing on high speed computers.

I have to admit it is a shame these seats don't fit all people; not sure if there is a way to resolve that or not. (I do know there are many cars tall people can't drive comfortably - Saturn SKY for one).
Maybe I will mention it at work someday. We do offer seat belt extenders for the obese who require the extender to allow the seat belt to fit, maybe GM should look at some type of seat height raiser that the dealer could install.

[RBorgers]

Thanks for the input, I put it back to the original configuration. Just didn,t feel safe. Kinda of a dumb idea for somebody that used to investigate and reconstruct accidents.