RIB seats

[gavin]

Scotty we are in a similar position with the bench seat on the Hysucat, over the past few weeks when time allows we have being working on a mould for jocky seats, you may have seen the posts on the site, to be fair before we do any more long haul stuff we are going to fit jocky seats.The bench seat is comfortable strong and good for stowage, it can acomadate two people, however jocky seats are the ultimate ,low centre of gravity and as you know allow you to sit as if on a motorcycle , it is difficult to stay seated as we are in rough weather , what we are after is better stability, comfort and saftey.We have yet to make the seats , when the Hysucat came to Ireland it had no seats for the driver and you drove standing up!

[Flanker]

Can you not make seats with suspension built in like some of the modern cycles have on the forks?

Pete

[narked]

The seats in the Redbay cabin RIBs have suspension. The boats themselves are a bit pricey however. I wouldn't say no if someone offered me one of those beasts with a couple of diesel inboards!

Matt

[Flanker]

Have you ever seen a jockey seat with suspension, or would it be impossible to make?

Pete

[narked]

Never seen one, but it'd be doable. A few shocks between the base of the seat and the seat itself, with one of the rubber protectors like mountain bike forks have between em to keep the shocks clean. You'd need quite strong shocks though to avoid damage caused by them moving from side to side. Perhaps we need a RIBnet R&D department to look into this sort of stuff

Matt

[gavin]

I have heard of it once on a rib with bucket seats, one problem though it would have to be stainless steel and this would be an expensive seat, remember guys this is a first seat building project so we are going to keep it simple and double up on the foam

[Richard B]

Originally posted by gavin
double up on the foam

Gavin, from my brief experience on RIBs, the harder the foam, the better the seat.

[thewavehumper]

Do they make Stainless steel shockers!


Scotty, I got beaten on the last Ireland challenge and going around your lovely countrys coastline is definitely unfinished business. The Irish guys on the event were talking about setting up some form of Irish Rib Club....has this happened yet?

I realised as I was rallycrossing the Camel across, and up and down Ireland that I really wanted to do it again as a member of an Irish team. I think my little Scorpion would be much better suited to the job.

If you fancy teaming up . then send me a PM

Cheers
Stuart

[narked]

Been giving the suspension jockey seats some thought. Yes, they would be taking a lot of punishment, but I reckon no more than the shocks on a proper (ie not one of those 100 quid jobbies from Argos) mountain bike unless you're out in some serious conditions. A possible problem, however, is the cost. Proper suspension mountain bikes cost a lot of money, and most of the cost IS the shocks. One of the better front suspension forks is going to set you back £200+, with rear shocks being a similar price. As the seat would need at least 2 shocks, you're looking at a lot of money. If, however, you went with something like the more basic bikes have (such as my cheapo bike), the rear shocks cost nowhere near as much, and are basically a thick spring. These can also have a certain amount of preload applied, through the use of a simple nut above the coil, on a threaded barrel. Turn it one way to tighten the suspension, the other to loosen it.

I reckon it could easily enough be doable, but you wouldn't find out how much comfort is gained (if any) until you've built it (and therefore paid out). Could be interesting though.

Matt

[Flanker]

Narked,

Why not try strapping the bike frame to the RIB and trying it out?

I'm sure some clever sod could adapt the frame to fit in a jockey seat. Anyway the technology is already there for the cheapo bikes, it's just a matter of speaking with the manufacturers and doing some adaptions, I best get down to that patent office

Pete

[Julian]

I have seen these used quite a bit. I have seen some good one made from Moto Cross rear suspension units. Worked a treat and you can pick them up from scrap yards at a good rate.

Julian

[John Kennett]

You don't need suspension on jockey seats. That's what your legs are for!

Various people (mainly racers) have built bucket seats with some sort of suspension or shock absorbers, with varying amounts of success.

The main problem seems to be that they all break. Offshore with a broken seat is not good.

John

[Jelly]

Wasn't the Ulman seat designed to do this with the handle bar steering?
If you are going to use bucket seats and shock absorbers, does this not mean that you are strapped in - with all the safety implications that incurs?
Well thats posed more questions thatn answers!

[Manos]

You don't need suspension on jockey seats. That's what your legs are for!

JK, although I tend to agree with you, I think taht you will find that an Italian RIB manufacturer uses suspention (Can't remember the name but there was an article in last months RIB Int'l about them and also an article in the Greek 'RIB FOUSKOTO ).
These people manufacture RIBs for the military. The RIB is 40 ft long (I think - they have a wide range), has jokey seats in the bow section with pre-pressed springs and with full load it does 60 knots, inboard 2in Yanmar engines.

[Brian]

I looked at the Ullman seats.
One possible problem is that, just the bit you sit on, is US$1000 a pop. Then you need a modified jockey type console to mount the seat on.
The conclusion I came to was that a) it was going to be b***** expensive to seat 4/6/8 people and b) although "the ride" was fine, it was hard on both your nethers and the inside of your thighs. You wouldn't want to sit on one for more than an hour I can tell you (unless you were Princess Anne, of course)!!

I have it on reasonable authority than some people with cabin cockpits, use truck seats which are beautifully damped and give a superb ride. What they would be like at lasting on an open rib though.......
Nevertheless, down to yer local breakers yard and cheap, cheap, cheap surely?

[thewavehumper]

Hmm Ribcarro seats

[Daniel]

A friend's RIB (not computer-friendly this guy, else he'd be on RIBnet) has two side-by-side recaro type 'bucket' seats towards the rear of the boat and they are supprisingly comfy and reassuring even in quite rough seas.

Him and i have been out in a F7 and i was struggling with my jockey-style seat where as when we did a boat-swap for 1/2 hour i found his seating quite reassuring.

Two points to be made, however:

1) My jockey seat is too low and too long i feel (ie you need a crew to nestle you're bum into as you stand up!)

2) Martin's RIB is a 7m or so and the seats are well back in the boat where the ride is generaly 'flatter'.

For an idea of what i am on about look at my website here http://grayswish.rib.net/gallery/other_ribs/06.jpg or here http://grayswish.rib.net/gallery/other_ribs/05.jpg

[Alan]

called "Kahn II" which featured in RIB Int 3 or 4 years ago and had suspension bucket seats. It was an old flatacraft fitted out by a chap called Chris Hough, who became a mate of mine after ScotRIB a few years ago. Chris's suspension seats were superb and used a motocross shock absorber ina very cleverly designed stainless steel frame. The boat was set up fantastically well, it was like driving a jet fighter (or felt like it at least in a 6m boat with a tuned Merc 150, bucket seats and a wrap round console!)

Chris and another chap developed a mark II version which was even better (you could flip up the squab for example so that you can stand when manouevering the boat in harbour) which he fitted to the 8.1m Scorpion he fitted out this year. Trouble is he then promptly emigrated to the US taking the boat with him so I never got a go in it!

He reckoned that each seat cost many hundreds of pounds to build as effectively each one was a prototype and that whilst there would be a demand for commercial production, costs would still be prohibitively expensive. A shame really as I know that he is a talented enough engineer to make the design work.

Going for a bucket seat also fundamentally changes the layout and size of your console as you tend to be sitting lower than on a jockey. This would also prohibit easy retrofit to an existing RIB. (For example, on Cyanide Brian you would have to mount the seats on a box at least a foot high to see over the windscreen!)

Interesting though, given the cost of a jockey seat, which is a simple bit of kit, how much would you be prepared to pay for a realy robust suspension bucket seat?

Alan

[Christopher]

The Seats refered to from Italy were probably those manufactured by FB Design(Fabio Buzzi) and are called Tecno seats

He has brief details on his web site www.fbdesign.it

I saw them last week at his factory in Milan, and they are the Rolls Royce of seats with a price to match. About 6000 US dollars each

[Keith Hart]

Hi folks, please bear in mind that this posting is comming from someone who sits on the tube and steers the engine with his left hand on the tiller.....

Jockey seats seem to be the most favourable in rough conditions. It seems that the 'damped' seats do not last.

Well, a bit of latteral thinking here. Have you ever watched motor cross racing? Those guys give their motorcycle a shed load of hammer. Huge jumps, bumps, bangs, crashes etc. The rear suspension gets more hammer that a rib seat ever could.

So what?

Well just look how the seats are made. The rear end of the motorcycle pivots from the rear of the engine on a sort of wishbone shape with a monoshock (single shock absorber and spring). The rider has his feet on the pegs and holds onto the handlebars.

Just transfer this idea to a rib. Think of it for a minute and you can see the simmilarities in seating position. The helmsman holds onto the steering wheel. The passengers can hold onto a handlebar or grabrail. They sit astride the seat with their feet on the deck. The seat and monoshock are in a frame underneath them on the same lines of the rear subframe as a motorcycle. It pivots at the front so the seat can arch up and down. This makes the seat more stable and stronger. Therefore it is less prone to damage.

I don't know if I am making myself clear, or the idea may have been tried before. I wish I was clever enough to illustrate it for you.

Still for what it's worth, that is my idea.

David Manning (Duke of Dudlay), being a motorcyclist as well may know what the hell I am waffling on about.

Regards

Keith Hart