Seat Belt Sucks

[Chuck Oppermann]

I am a firm believer in wearing seat-belts in cars, always. But on my 3720, I know I should wear them but they are so difficult to hook up, I hardly ever wear them, but I know I should. The reason is, I am a fairly big guy, and that doesn't help any and I realize that. But on this tractor, the seat belt pulls from the right instead of the left like on a car, but when I sit on the seat the seat belt reel gets jammed to where it is difficult to pull it out, but I can get it eventually. The other problem is, when I get it pulled all the way out and go to hook it up, I need two hands on my rear left in order to hook them together. The receiving end just kind of flops around and isn't stiff like car belt receivers. In a car it takes one hand, a pull and a click. Does anyone have any shortcuts or fixes or otherwise good ideas. I thought about pulling the belt off and putting a car one one. I think John Deere dropped the ball on this. I did have the belt replaced already because it pulled out hard, but I think it is just a very bad design.

 

[Bird]

Chuck, I certainly agree that some, if not most, tractor manufacturers do a poor job with seat belt design and installation. I did wear my seat belts on my Kubotas, but both left something to be desired.

The 1995 B7100 had belts that were not retractable but came across the edge of the seat in such a manner that they wore the seat cover off the sharp edge, then started wearing the belts in two. I got the belts replaced under warranty; that's how quickly they wore. I then made leather "sleeves?" to go on the new belts to protect them from being worn the same way.

Then the 1999 B2710 had retractable belts and when it got to where I could not pull it out, I had to partially disassemble it and found dirt had clogged it. After that, I periodically blew it out with the air-compressor and kept it working.

Good luck with finding a satisfactory solution with yours.

 

[Chuck Oppermann]

Thanks for the tip. Maybe I'll try some stiff leather on the stationary piece for starters.