Is seat belt webbing necessary?
Even 1” poly webbing has a 600 lb breaking strength, and there are a dozen strips interwoven in a canoe seat. Do the math.
The 1 ½” stuff runs 800+ lbs breaking strength and the “heavy” poly webbing stuff 1145 lbs per strip. I am willing to bet any staples, or the seat frame biscuits/joints will fail before then.
http://www.rochfordsupply.com/shop/...bing/Webbing_-_Heavy__15_inch_Poly/index.html
Seat belt webbing is like 6000 lbs breaking strength. Times 12 woven webbing strips. . . . . 72,000 lbs.
dang, I’m fat, and sometimes plunk down heavily on the seat from on high at awkward launches. But I’m not 72,000 lbs fat. I’d have to fall from a fair height and reach terminal velocity to test the breaking strength of seat belt webbing.
Maybe there are there other advantages to using seat belt webbing; extreme UV resistance or durability?
As food for thought when you put a staples straight across the weave of the fabric the staple legs bear on only a few cross strands of the weave. If the staple is driven at a diagonal angle to the weave you load twice the fiber strands with the staple so the fabric is less likely to tear or stretch. I'm not sure just how much this matters with nylon or polyester webbing but it's just a habit from my days learning how to upholster furniture.
Good suggestion, I’ll try to remember that next time.
I think the installation, the staples tapped fully seated, the stapling technique, having sealed webbing cuts with straight melted ends and cut ends, folded under unexposed, has as much to do with webbed seat longevity as anything.
Duck your head in and really look at the manufacturer’s simplistic staple efforts on bottom of most webbed seats.
If that
no-one’s-ever-going-to-see-this-side slopjob lasts for years and years I expect that a better cut/sealed, folded and multi-stapled webbing DIY on a canoe seat should last for decades.
I re-webbed some seats early on with 1” nylon webbing and 3/8” SS staples. I did neatly hot putty knife cut & seal the webbing ends, wetted it out for some nylon stretch and folded under the bitter ends before stapling. Those nylon webbed seats are going strong 20 years on.