To those more knowledgeable,

In my ongoing quest to lighten up my 170B its been suggested that lighter front seats may be an idea worth considering. I have sourced lighter rear seats and further only operate with one installed during the float season. It would seem that the only serious specification to observe is the track width of 11". Recovering said seats is a must do as well so what are the lightweight options in that process, I'm rarely in the seat for more then 1.5 hrs. maybe 2.0 hours max.

Mapleflt

Do you know what your seats weigh now?


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I've heard of people reupholstering seats, using ceconite stretched on the seat frames (bottom and back), covered with (comfort) foam.
VS old-school springs, wires, and horsehair.
Dunno how much weight savings is available, or how legal that "repair" might be.

A lot of Cessna seats, both front and back, have skirts consisting of aluminum-backed fabric or leather that is strictly ornamental.
Might be able to shave off a little weight by eliminating those.

If you look close in the videos, FRank Knapp's "Little Cub" front seat has a back that's only about half as tall as the normal Cub seat.
There's a little more weight shaved off.
As people have pointed out many times, weight loss on an airplane is a game of ounces.
You take care of the ounces, the piunds will take care of themselves.
Just a matter of how much time & money you want to spend to eliminate (a little) weight.
And maybe how much comfort you're willing to sacrifice.

To answer the earlier reply I don't have an accurate weight on the existing seats but they are the original ones therefore anything will be lighter, how much is an unknown agreed. The idea of just "refreshing" the existing seats with newer, lighter fabric, ditch the springs etc is being considered and as well.

Years ago, I was seriously considering spending all sorts of money by trading off my Trek road bike with the chromaloy steel frame for an aluminum framed road bike. Wow! I could shave my bike's weight down from 32 lbs. to 22 lbs., and the price would be in the $4-5,000 range. I mentioned my idea to my riding companion, my son, who is much wiser than I am. "Dad, it'd be a whole let less expensive if the rider were to lose 10 lbs."

I've remembered that "advice" ever since. Whenever I think of lightening my airplane, I look for the less dramatic ways of doing it. So if I want to leave a given airstrip at 180 lbs. under gross, the easiest way is to make sure I land with 30 gallons less fuel. If you shave 6 lbs. off of each front seat (which frankly I'd be surprised if you can do), that's 2 gallons--pretty easy to plan to carry 2 gallons less.

I met a couple of guys at OSH one year, who'd flown up in their older 172 from southern Ohio. They'd "modified" the old bird by taking out the back seat to lighten the airplane, replacing it with a piece of 3/4" plywood shelf and 4 "legs", so that they could put all their camping stuff under it and on top of it. I don't know how they held it in. Pretty cool--saved them the 34 lbs of the stock Cessna seat and backrest, but added at least 10 lbs. of wood. Why'd they do it? "Saved a bunch of weight". Right--4 gallons worth. From their home to OSH would take roughly 48 gallons of gas. If they started with full tanks, they'd have to make one stop for fuel. If they carried 30 gallons instead of 36 gallons, they'd still have to make one stop.

Just food for thought.

Cary

I stripped the springs off my seats in my old 170 and sent them off to be recovered with nylon bladders around the frame and built up with new foam and leather. They were pretty light, using fabric instead of leather would be lighter.

Rob where did you send those? That looks really well done.

Robw56

Those pictures are EXTREMELY convincing; very impressive work, what model year of 170 where these seats from. I'm sold on and will be going to the hanger as soon as possible to peel back the layer of old fabric to view the frame underneath to see if its the same configuration.

Thank you kind sir,

Mapleflt

FWIW I’m another one of several people here who went the same route as Rob (above). I’ll try to dig up some before and after weights. Mine were the stock 170 seats with the rounded backs.
-DP

Those seats were actually from a 1962 182. My 170 was a 1953. I swapped the original seats out when I did my restoration. The seats are essentially the same except the stock seats had a round back. I still have the original seat frames already stripped down collecting dust in my hangar.

Denali Pilot,

I have the rounded backs was the sub-frame essentially as seen in robw56's pics

Mapleflt wrote:Denali Pilot,

I have the rounded backs was the sub-frame essentially as seen in robw56's pics

You can do the same thing with 170 seats. I stole the idea from Bigrenna here on BCP.

Are those the "rounded" seats you have collecting dust !!!!

1955 - 170B
Square back seats with too much crap 14.3 lbs



Striped seats of everything....



Powdercoated frames - covered with Ceconite 3oz. - new foam and upholstery = 10.2 lbs

If I don't get around to finding my pictures, they're pretty much the same as Rob's and Greg's anyway. I suggest doing your own stripping, then blasting AND powder coating at a shop of your choice. Get new seat track rollers etc from McFarlane while you're at it. Then, send the seat frames off to Ron Matta of Aviation Creations and ask him for the Greg Hren treatment.
Cheers,
-DP

* Found it here:

You won’t find Cessna seats much, if any lighter than the original 170 seats, and none simpler. I’d strip them, get rid of all the junk and recover with poly fiber, ceconite, etc, then rebuild with new foam and upholstery. That’s what I did with mine. They didn’t weigh much less but they were sure more comfortable.

They looked a lot better as well.

MTV

This is the kind of "intel" the BCP site is spectacular for (not so sure about leaving gas behind, is gold !!), thanks to all.

Mapleflt

Well, since everyone else is showing off their seats...



Courtesy of Mr Hren.

I think the seat is the last place I'd try to save weight.

If you want to save a few pounds, strip down the rear bench and cover it with dacron or just pull it out all together. No one ever sits back there anyway.

Bagarre wrote:....I think the seat is the last place I'd try to save weight. If you want to save a few pounds, strip down the rear bench and cover it with dacron or just pull it out all together. No one ever sits back there anyway.

x 2 on the backseat advice.

All the photos of the front seats makes my wallet itch to re-do mine.
Not for weight loss, but for more comfort and beauty.
Those are nice!

I lost 10lbs even after adding cushions to the back seats.


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