Four Decades Ago, A Hang Glider Pilot Tried To Turn Pickup Trucks Into Family Cars Using Giant Hammocks

The pickup trucks of today are often used as family cars thanks to their sizable crew cabs and excellent comfort. But this wasn’t always the case, as the trucks of yesteryear normally had regular cabs with bench seats at best. In the 1980s, a hang glider pilot had been annoyed by the fact that trucks couldn’t carry families, so they invented a back seat for trucks. The twist? The device, called The 2nd Seat, was little more than hang glider parts turned into a truck bed hammock.

The subject of riding in the bed of a pickup truck has been explored by researchers, safety advocates, and regulators for decades. If you grew up in the country, riding in the bed of a pickup might have been a rite of passage. I won’t deny that I’ve had great fun in the beds of various pickup trucks throughout my life. However, it’s been known for a very long time that this is an unsafe practice because pickup beds offer no protection at all for people riding in them.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, an average of 242 people died each year from the middle of the 1970s to the end of the decade from incidents involving rides in truck beds. That average did not change much into the 2000s, and serious injuries and fatalities from riding in truck beds remain a concern today.

Yet, as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety notes, most states allow adults to ride in the bed of a pickup truck, and all states allow at least someone to ride in a truck bed in specific situations.

There have been efforts to curb the practice for decades. As the article ‘Developing a Model Law Restricting the Transporting of Passengers in the Cargo Areas of Pickup Trucks’, which was published in the Journal of Public Health Policy in 2000, notes, states began enacting truck bed riding restrictions in the 1980s. These regulations were considered to be companions to expanding seatbelt use regulations.

However, riding in pickup truck beds wasn’t going anywhere. So a hang glider pilot at least tried to make it safer and more legal by turning hang glider parts into a giant second truck seat.

The 2nd Seat

As the Los Angeles Times reported in October 1985, the state of California passed a mandatory seatbelt use law in 1985. The law, which went into effect in 1986, required that all occupants of a vehicle be secured in a real seat. This meant that the folks rolling around with people in their beds suddenly had to deal with such a practice being illegal.

As it turned out, two California men, Steven Fry and Rod Stafford, had already invented a solution. In 1984, Steven, who was a 32-year-old former photographer at the time, came up with an idea. From the Los Angeles Times:

But it was comfort, not safety, that sparked the development of the 2nd Seat. Stafford and Fry were testing hang gliders “four or five days a week” in the San Bernardino foothills for a Santa Ana company, “and that meant a lot of riding in the back of pickup trucks,” Stafford said.

Using hang-glider part rejects, he developed a hammock-style seat and headrest supported by metal tubing. The supporting tubes, quilted nylon seats and seat belts can be quickly removed and stowed, leaving only the brackets for the belts and the seat. Friends liked the seats, so Stafford made a few more.

Reportedly, Steven was tired of getting absolutely beaten up by riding in a truck bed on bumpy mountain roads. By turning broken glider parts into a giant truck bed hammock, he’d be comfortable on the ride to a glider launching spot.

Steven said he founded the company with only $16,000, and by the time the first LA Times article was published in 1985, he had already sold around 3,000 of the devices. However, thanks to the seatbelt law, he expected sales to skyrocket. The 2nd Seat, as the product was called, was never designed as a solution to the seatbelt law, but it was sort of a loophole, as people could continue to ride in truck beds legally so long as the truck had a 2nd Seat.

According to the company, each 2nd Seat’s steel bars were telescoping, so the seat was a universal fit. 2nd Seats for compact trucks were $209, while 2nd Seats for full-size trucks were $229. They were manufactured in Taiwan because, as Steven claimed to the press, making them in America would have cost as much as the company charged for the devices. Steven apparently envisioned people turning their pickup trucks into family cars, as the hammock was good for two teens or adults. Add in a bench seat in the truck, and that’s potentially five people who could be belted into a pickup truck.

In 1986, the LA Times wrote another article about the 2nd Seat, and in that update, Steven said he sold about $350,000 worth of the seats, and he expected sales to increase tenfold thanks to the seatbelt law and the seat’s availability in the JCPenney catalogue in the United States and Canada. To facilitate this growth, Steven mortgaged his home and pumped $250,000 into the company.

There was also a marketing blitz, with the 2nd Seat appearing in car publications, farming trade journals, and more. Reportedly, Car and Driver said: “[T]his portable rumble seat really caught our fancy.” Sadly, I could not find an archived version of the review. What I did find is a set of interpretations by NHTSA that suggested that the 2nd Seat complied with the fire resistance, structural, and safety restraint standards of the era.

What’s unclear is what happened to the 2nd Seat, the Fryford Corporation, and the men who created the device. From the business records I have been able to search, it’s pretty clear that the venture is not around anymore. However, I couldn’t ascertain when the business ceased or why.

It also appears that there aren’t too many of the 2nd Seats surviving into the modern day. I only discovered the product when I found one randomly for sale on Facebook. I found another, only briefly mentioned in a post on Reddit. But aside from that, there’s a whole lot of nothing out there about the 2nd Seat.

But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. If you want to mount a seat or two into your truck bed, there are lots of aftermarket companies that do this today. Pretty much none of those seats are hammocks, either. The Subaru enthusiasts among you are probably also yelling about the BRAT. Good memory! Though that little truck had rear seats just so it could slide by the Chicken Tax.

If, for whatever reason, you’re interested in owning a 2nd Seat, there’s one for sale in Wisconsin right now for $40. Apparently, it’s still in new condition after sitting for 40 years.

Everything about the 2nd Seat was wild to me when I discovered it. This is a product that was initially meant to just make truck bed rides easier, but suddenly became the solution for however many people wanted to turn their trucks into family cars without running afoul of the law. Nowadays, you don’t need shenanigans like this because pickup trucks have more or less replaced the family cars of old. But if you ever thought you wanted a hammock with a seatbelt, apparently, that was a thing!

Top graphic images: Fryford Corporation; JCPenney; DepositPhotos.com