Seat Belts

[JR]

Were seat belts an option or retro safety fit for 350's?

[spooler]

You bring to mind, Brent. A fine man that I asked for advice from on buying my first crawler. He is a Master Mechanic from the North Slope and his son had a 420 for sale. Brent introduced me to the 420 while offering me to take er' for a spin. I had rented a few crawlers for small yard jobs and always seen and used a seat belt. I got in the 420 and took through the woods. Thrashing around and over logs, I got tossed about without a seatbelt! When dismounting I asked him if it might be a good idea to install a seatbelt, to which Brent replied. " I think you need to learn to operate." LOL
How right he was! I dont know a thing about original seatbelts in a 350.

Thanks for the memory.
Chuck

[wwattson]

Just to make sure, you would only put seatbelts on a machine with a ROPS, right? The thinking is a machine without a ROPS means you have to be able to jump free in a rollover whereas a machine with a ROPS you want to stay in to avoid being crushed by the ROPS itself.

Or am I wrong?

[hunter41mag]

My John Deere 4310 compact tractor owners manual states to use the seat belt at all times except when the ROPS is folded down. Than they say not to use the seatbelt. So Bill I would believe your statement to be correct on not to use a seat belt unless a ROPS is in place. I know I would not use a seatbelt on any tractor or crawler unless the ROPS was in place.

[JR]

Yes there is a rops on the 350. Learning to drive is not a good answer. Should you not need seat belts in your car if you just won the Daytona 500?

[CatD8RII]

I know for a fact that they were standard equipment when you got a ROPS on a 350C. The JD parts website lists a seat belt for a straight 350 I'd assume the straight 350's were the same

[Lavoy]

They do not appear in the straight 350 parts book, but that is not to say that there was not a bulletin issued later on how to install them.
Lavoy