Retro fitting of seat belts in habitable area (1 Viewer)

[Whitehawk]

Hi all
Has any one had rear seat belts retro fitted on rear seats and was it a success.
A bit disappointed when you buy a four berth MH, you expect to be able
carry four people safely. Any feed back would be much appreciated.

 

[davidbaldam]

It can be done and quite successfully the best best would be to "Google" the question for your area and see what comes up and I'm sure someone will be along later to tell you how to do it.

 

[DBK]

I think you can fit seat belts fairly easily but mounting them so they can take the forces which might result after a head-on collision is something different. I wouldn't do it myself although I did as a nipper with an old mini and looking back on what I did I'm just glad I never had a crash. I can only suggest contacting the manufacturer of your MH and see what they say. It may be there are specialised companies who do this sort of work and someone can recommend them but doing it yourself with a few bolts and big washers would be very risky unless you really knew what you were doing.

There was some work done a year or so ago by a UK manufacturer on what happens when a MH hits something - fridges coming loose and going through the front windscreen was the least of it. Rear seats also came lose IIRC.

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[Wildbill]

it's a mine Feld you will get so many differing opinion.
good luck.
bill

 

[Mikeco]

Assuming that they are forward facing then the easiest way would be to replace the existing seat with something like a double mini- bus seat which has seat belts built in. All you have to do then is bolt the seat down through the floor with spreader plates underneath and this will pass the MOT and therefore insurance requirements.
The one I bought was a new Ford Transit seat and it was around £300.

Mike

 

[jonandshell]

Bolting through the floor of a coach built won't be sufficient.
Manufacturers have plates which clamp around the chassis rails to retain travel seats.

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[Mikeco]

Bolting through the floor of a coach built won't be sufficient.
Manufacturers have plates which clamp around the chassis rails to retain travel seats.

So thats where the spreader plates or metal sections have to go.

Mike

 

[TheDentons]

Are you trying to fit them to the seats behind the cab seats as the layout of your van is similar to ours

 

[Puddleduck]

The only advice I will give you is don't even think about doing it yourself.

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[peterc10]

For seat belts to work you will need to make sure that the seat backs are high enough and stiff enough to support the head and neck in an accident. Ours in our Adria are, and have seat belts fitted. Those belts are bolted to a metal frame at the back of the seats (almost as high as the seat backs), which is in turn bolted through the floor to the chassis.

 

[Mikeco]

This is a Ford Transit mini-bus seat with the seat belts hidden as we don't use them very often, the seat itself is quite heavy as the metal framing does go up to head rest height. They are very comfortable as a travel seat as they are not upright as most of the usual ones are.

 

[mitzimad]

ive actually seen photos of bailey motorhomes crash testing the tests were done at 50kph in the first test the seats disapeared through the floor after modifications to the floors they re tested this time the seat actually poped the welds on the so called tested frame in the thiurd it all stayed together but the fridge came through the cab obviously they have modified everything and now use the results to promote their vans true or not i was told they are the only company to have ever shown the results of any testing

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[Wildman]

The "G" forces involved in a crash situation don't bear thinking about, however ANY belt is better than none at all if the seat is going to come loose it will anyway. The best advice is to find a van with sufficient belted seats for your needs as provided by a reputable manufacturer. That way you have peace of mind and no insurance problems.

 

[Whitehawk]

Thank you all,
Some good advice out there. I sent the email to Autotrail technical
to get there advice. I we let you know how I get on.

Thanks again

 

[Puddleduck]

A bit disappointed when you buy a four berth MH, you expect to be able
carry four people safely.

It's something I get very cross about as well. One reason for not enough travel seats for number of berths appears to be payload issues.

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[Reallyretired]

My last two motorhomes have had the same number of seat belts as berths, but older ones I've had in the past have not. One seven berth, which could seat 12 only had 2 seat belts.

 

[musson]

Hi i had this with my first MH swift belero 2007,ended up changing van (dealer gave me about the same as i paid for it against different van) the reason is my wife was sat on the back bench seat went round corner ended up on mh floor hurt her back (grandson was in passenger seat) be very carefull if you are fitting the belts yourselve and never fit them to side facing seats.