Buttkicker mounted on timber frame under full sized car seat?

[Metla]

Greetings Folks, Just had a convo with a lad at work who was raving about his buttkicker, so I figured I'd buy one for myself.

However, Looking at youtube it seems they are all mounted to rigid metal frames under those skinny things pretending to be chairs, However I'm a big lad and I'm running a seat out of an SS Commodore mounted on a timber chassis. The buttkicker would need to be mounted directly onto the timber framing under the seat.

The question being, would this cause too much dampening to the buttkicker?

I'm not sure if the buttkicker works by shaking the frame, making a pressure thump under the seat or a combination of both.

 

[SwiftyOne]

I would say yes, this would cause too much dampening to the buttkicker if you were to mount directly onto the timber framing. You would get much better THUMP if you connected it to a metal part of the seat. Search Google for welding a buttkicker mount that should give you some more idea's if you can't get to a metal part of your seat

 

[FireWithin]

Greetings Folks, Just had a convo with a lad at work who was raving about his buttkicker, so I figured I'd buy one for myself.

However, Looking at youtube it seems they are all mounted to rigid metal frames under those skinny things pretending to be chairs, However I'm a big lad and I'm running a seat out of an SS Commodore mounted on a timber chassis. The buttkicker would need to be mounted directly onto the timber framing under the seat.

The question being, would this cause too much dampening to the buttkicker?

I'm not sure if the buttkicker works by shaking the frame, making a pressure thump under the seat or a combination of both.

If you post picture or sketch of your idea I can give an opinion, I did deal with BKG2 and wood, and it works great.

Cheers!

 

[Fi22le]

I have a BK Gamer 2 mounted to a sheet of 18mm plywood under my Sparco R100. It works well.

The buttkicker itself is clamped to an old spark plug socket which is bolted through the sheet via one of these:

Easyfix 4 Pronged Tee Nuts M8 x 11mm 10 Pack - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. M8 x 11. 4 pronged tee nut. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

They can / should also be used for bolting the wood to the seat (to allow max transfer of vibrations.

 

[FireWithin]

I have a BK Gamer 2 mounted to a sheet of 18mm plywood under my Sparco R100. It works well.

The buttkicker itself is clamped to an old spark plug socket which is bolted through the sheet via one of these:

Easyfix 4 Pronged Tee Nuts M8 x 11mm 10 Pack - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. M8 x 11. 4 pronged tee nut. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

They can / should also be used for bolting the wood to the seat (to allow max transfer of vibrations.

Nice & cheap mounting solution

 

[Metla]

I went ahead and bought one yesterday, The local distributor had one on the shelf so I thought it would be rude not to.

Turns out its far smaller then I anticipated and there is plenty of room to mount it on a sheet of board I installed under the seat to add rigidity.

This one is called the "sim" kit in that it comes without the horizontal bracket and for reasons unknown was more expensive.

 

[FireWithin]

I went ahead and bought one yesterday, The local distributor had one on the shelf so I thought it would be rude not to.

Turns out its far smaller then I anticipated and there is plenty of room to mount it on a sheet of board I installed under the seat to add rigidity.

This one is called the "sim" kit in that it comes without the horizontal bracket and for reasons unknown was more expensive.

View attachment 439502

This is basically the same as the BKG2 in terms of internals (both type should deliver the same power, ohms differ a bit). I have experienced the BKG2 with the arm extension only but I believe the LFE mini should be mounted with rubber spacer so it is not too rigid keeping the shaker free of movement. (but testing different mounting options can be eye opening)

What amp do you got?

As shown on your picture you're going to transfer about 20-30% of it potential energy to the seat at best (assuming your seat is rigidly connected to the lumber frame?) . . you probably want more if you want to really feel those gear shift

With a full car seat (lot of damping material) vs bucket seat there's some challenge.
But see here, that's a bucket seat example which is probably pretty good at dispersing energy directly to the seat (if that's what you want?) again testing is key!

Cheers!

 

[Metla]

Thanks, I'd agree there must be a lot of dampening happening with they way I have mounted it,I can feel it working but it has to travel a long way to get to my....uh....butt.

I did go all over the seat I have and wasn't able to find anyway to mount it directly. The only metal is buried deep inside,feels pretty insignificant and to get to it would destroy the seat.

More thinking required.

 

[Metla]

So, The board I had it on was acting like a drum, clearly dampening the output to the point I had to run it at an unhealthy level to feel it, But it was also reverberating from the butt-kicker, In essence acting like a speaker. You could hear the effects and engine notes clear as a bell. In fact I thought at one point I had messed up my cables and had the audio output enabled on my monitor.

Anyhow, Moved it to the timber structure, I'm sure its not as good as a rigid metal frame but its much much better then before.

On that note, Damn its good, once I done some fine tuning I was well impressed.

 

[Mr Latte]

So, The board I had it on was acting like a drum, clearly dampening the output to the point I had to run it at an unhealthy level to feel it, But it was also reverberating from the butt-kicker, In essence acting like a speaker. You could hear the effects and engine notes clear as a bell. In fact I thought at one point I had messed up my cables and had the audio output enabled on my monitor.

Anyhow, Moved it to the timber structure, I'm sure its not as good as a rigid metal frame but its much much better then before.

On that note, Damn its good, once I done some fine tuning I was well impressed.

You want the best most direct contact with the seat as possible.
Here is a an option to consider.



1) RED = Bolt a 5mm steel or 8mm alu plate to the metal seat component to install the BK here.
2) GREEN = Add isolators on the wood support and lower the height/depth of the wood support if required

You have the rig frame decoupled from the floor with isolators but not the seat decoupled from the rig. These will further improve what you feel.

At the moment nothing is making the energy go up into the seat more than go down into the wood.
Especially as the unit is connected to the wood support and not the seat itself.

The metal part of the seat will connect with its internal frame, this is what you want to make contact with. Isolating the seat from the wood and the better you do this then the better the energy is maintained in the seat and less will flow into the wood frame beneath.

 

[Mr Latte]

This is basically the same as the BKG2 in terms of internals (both type should deliver the same power, ohms differ a bit). I have experienced the BKG2 with the arm extension only but I believe the LFE mini should be mounted with rubber spacer so it is not too rigid keeping the shaker free of movement. (but testing different mounting options can be eye opening)

What amp do you got?

As shown on your picture you're going to transfer about 20-30% of it potential energy to the seat at best (assuming your seat is rigidly connected to the lumber frame?) . . you probably want more if you want to really feel those gear shift

With a full car seat (lot of damping material) vs bucket seat there's some challenge.
But see here, that's a bucket seat example which is probably pretty good at dispersing energy directly to the seat (if that's what you want?) again testing is key!

View attachment 439504

Cheers!

I remember this....

Compared to mounting direct to the seat.

This example/method has one advantage that it sends energy to the seat via the bolts/supports connecting the seat to the frame. So it gives multiple entry points for the energy to disperse when a direct connection offers primarily a single hot spot.

Yet what it is not doing and would improve such further having metal plates each side drilled to the underside of the seat base
.
These then connect with the horizontal supports the BK is mounted.
Having this would then give both the direct energy flow similar to mounting direct to the seat but then also the additional flow into the seat mounts.

Different ways of applying such an approach.

For mono based BK seat installations
It is an optional solution, some should consider than directly mounting BK Mini or Large BK to seats. Lots of people that mount to seat brackets forget/ignore that they can make contact with the seat ALSO from underneath,

 

[Metla]

You want the best most direct contact with the seat as possible.

Its all good, if it vibrated more then I have it set to now I'd turn it down.

That said, I have no doubt what you have said is 100 percent correct, and I thank you for sharing your expertise.


10 minutes later

Hmmm..second thoughts, Think I'll buy some hardware and have a crack at it.

 

[Mr Latte]

Its all good, if it vibrated more then I have it set to now I'd turn it down.

That said, I have no doubt what you have said is 100 percent correct, and I thank you for sharing your expertise.

It's not that it vibrates just more, the point is that it would help contain the vibrations better.
You still are wasting much of what it is potentially delivering.

 

[FireWithin]

It's not that it vibrates just more, the point is that it would help contain the vibrations better.
You still are wasting much of what it is potentially delivering.

And being able to lower volumes and reduce clipping - distortion, ability to add more effects. And yes contain to increase fidelity.

 

[Metla]

Righto, pulled the seat off, cut her open, and evidently I know pretty much nothing about seat construction as the metal frame took all of 3 seconds to expose.

Got the drill out and in less then 10 minutes I was bolting the seat back on.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Could you tell about your experience with the distribution of the rumble?

I was thinking about a mounting like yours only with two "engines" left and right for stereo effect.

When this one kicker shakes the whole seat it would not work in stereo.

MFG Carsten

 

[FireWithin]

Righto, pulled the seat off, cut her open, and evidently I know pretty much nothing about seat construction as the metal frame took all of 3 seconds to expose.

Got the drill out and in less then 10 minutes I was bolting the seat back on.View attachment 440472View attachment 440473

Interesting, how is it?

Do you use rubber spacers?

Cheers!

 

[SwiftyOne]

Interesting...Just like I said in the second post Anyway, it will work lots better for driving Sims than being attached to the wood, you will feel the small rumbles in the road too

 

[Metla]

Could you tell about your experience with the distribution of the rumble?

I was thinking about a mounting like yours only with two "engines" left and right for stereo effect.

When this one kicker shakes the whole seat it would not work in stereo.

MFG Carsten

It shakes the entire seat, But you can definitely tell its coming from the side its mounted on. I'm considering mounting one on the left as well,

 

[Metla]

Interesting, how is it?

Do you use rubber spacers?

Cheers!

Metal to metal, Just used what I could find in my workshop.

Its sharper then when it was mounted on the wood, Though its lost some thump.

I have turned it down by a fair bit as now more of the detail is getting through it was just a buzzy mess. Still making adjustments to my settings in simdash.