In the last year with very little family flying having taken place due to my career change, the kids have out grown their car seats.  Without the car seats installed, the ship’s back seat hip belts could not cinch down enough for the kids with their smaller frames so I decided it best to replace the rear seatbelts, or at a minimum have the webbing shortened.  The front seatbelts having 1,700+ hours of use looked a little worn so I figured we would look for a new set for the entire airplane.  After looking around, I decided I prefer a Kam Lock type vs the latch type setup the airplane had installed.  Another point of issue is that while flying Young Eagles, adjusting the Hooker harness’ was rather cumbersome so I was in the market for something that would allow faster adjustments.  I spoke with the folks at Hooker about “rebuilding” the set we had but learned that as very little would be re-used it was best to start from the ground up.  After comparing the value point of Hooker and Crow product lines, we decided on a new kit of Crow Safety Gear harnesses with all of the current upgrade options.  

The Hooker product is more robust, finer detail, and a higher quality (although not easier to adjust).  This comes at a higher cost both in dollars and weight.  The Crow belts use a lighter/thinner webbing material.  The weight difference between the (4) sets came out to about 2-1/8 pounds, with the Crow Kam Lock being lighter.  Its small details that make the Hooker higher quality.  As an example, Hooker uses color coordinated thread.  Crow does not.  Hooker folds the tail end of each strap over twice and sews it, Crow simply burns the end of the tail so the nylon melts together.  If you want a higher quality item, Hooker is your brand.  In my opinion, if you want a better value, Crow will fit your mission better.  The upgrades on the Crow also make it easier to adjust.  Not sure if the current Hooker products have something similar to the Crow?

The Hooker had a pad on the lower hip belts that provided little value in use.  The pad on the neck was sewn the same way as these shown here and would agitate your skin on long flights.  They do not have soft edges but rather a finished edge that is stiff.  The Crow on the other hand has a softer material that is not likely to agitate your neck, but also does not look like it will last as long.

This is the material Vans recommends and supplies to create bushings for the belt ends.  I bough 18″ long pieces of stock.

T6 Aluminum Tube .058 x 3/8 x 18″

SKU: AT6-058X3/8X18

AT6-058X5/16X18

SKU: AT6-058X5/16X18

Interior section of the stock.

I had to “machine” down the exterior diameter to fit into the belt holes.  I found a pipe cutter made nice clean, square cuts.

Deburring the ends was easiest with this General Tools deburring tool.

Top Crow belt with new bushing, bottom Hooker belt with worn bushing.

The two rear crotch straps use a smaller bolt to attach to the airplane.  This required milling out the ID of the larger material to 5/16″ to accept the smaller material.  My Dewalt drill and a 5/16″ bit did a rough job of hogging this material out.

Crotch strap setup.

Crotch strap setup.

Rear seat belt weight for the Hooker latch.

Front seat Hooker latch setup weight.

Rear seatbelt weight for the Crow Kam Loc.  See the softer pad on the shoulder straps here.

Front seat Crow Kam Lock setup weight.

Worn bushing with a crack developed in it.  This bushing needed to be replaced either way!