Advice on seat belts for side facing seats

kiki

Hi there,
I am looking to get seatbelts / restraint system installed in a 2005 Pilot motorhome (integrated type)

Anyone here got advice on where to / what to look for etc.

The van at present only has seatbelts installed in front seats. Now there in one extra in the family we need to have some way of restraining a child seat ?

I'm told that seatbelts were not required for sidefaing seats, howver this does strike me as unsafe...

Any help appreciated.

Kiki

peasant

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news ...


Up until the first of January this year, there was no need to fit seatbelts to side facing seats and since then, EU directive somethingoranother has made it illegal to fit seatbelts there and have these seats thus recognised as "official" seats for passengers.
Since then (in new vehicles) passengers may only be accomodated in either rear or front facing seats with proper seatbelts. Older vans may still be fitted with belts or even be used without them.

While neither of this really concerns you (and you are free to fit an aftermarket seatbelt fixture to your van, if you can find one) the reason why I mention it is:

Sidefacing seats in a camper are by far the worst place to be in in the case of an accident. Without a seatbelt you just get thrown through the vehicle, with a lap belt you'll probaly break your hip or spine, while a three point belt might strangle you. In all cases there is the threat of massive injury, because even with a belt your upper body will still be propelled sideways with great momentum.

Fitting a baby seat there may be slightly better, as the seat may protect the body from sideways movement, but that would very much depend on the design of the seat.

Is there any way you could fit the baby seat in either a front or rear facing position? Possibly turn it around on the bench and fit a steel underconstruction that will hold it in place?

jmg1414

Hello there

I too am looking to transport two small children who must have car seats in a motorhome...I am looking to purchase a descent sized van soon..not new about ten years old....I see a lot with a dinette in the front but no 3 position seatbelts....anybody have a m/home with seat belts for childrens seats?


I am looking at maybe a Hymer ...Is this an impossible mission?...

peasant

see also this post:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055077527
near the end

this is the kind of thing you need to retrofit

champer

Does anyone know of a dealer etc in the Dublin area that will change my 2 lap belts to 3 point ones to hold baby seat ?

Any help appreciated :-)

C

TigerTim

JMG1414,

My 1998 Hymer 644 has two 3 point belts & two lap belts in the dinette. May be the type you are looking for. We use one of the lap straps to restrain the baby seat & the other 2 kids use the 3 point belts. Not ideal but not too many options. In my last camper I fitted 2 rally type harnesses for the older 2 as there were only 2 lap straps. Just pray we don't have a serious accident.

Had my oldest girl in the lap strap seat yesterday when coming back from the Sunday drive & she discovered that even with it tied reasonably tightly she could shuffle sideways along the seat & get her feet standing in the aisle. The anchor points are quite wide apart (seemed to be designed for larger adults) so for a small body there can be a lot of lateral movement.

Maybe things have improved with more modern campers, but previously there didn't seem to be much thought put into restraining the kids.

Not sure how you could restrain a child seat in a sideways facing bench seat unless as mentioned in a previous posting, you could face the seat forward, maybe at the furthest back part of the bench & create some anchor points there.

T.