lap belts

bikerbrett

Guest
i ve looked on the search option but cant find details that are up to date are lap belts legal i know that they can cause injury these fitted to forward facing seats on a 1990 mh would think a big job to fit 3 pointer anyway big thank you
 
pre 2007 lap belt legal in middle of front seats in a m,home . there was no requrement for rear seat belts in a motorhome/ camper . so any was legal .there was no illegal. (i think its 2007 about then .without checking.)didnt matter if seats were side rear or front facing ,none required.
 
The only lap belts I have seen fitted to a MH were on the rearward facing seats on a dinette. I understand the same as VWalan in that pre 2007 MH's seat belts are not required by law on seats within the rear of the vehicle. That is not to say that using the vehicle thus is advisable.
 
have a look at .ukmotorhomes.net there is a good explantion of it all there. i never worried about the rear and did quite happily carry my kids and still would in a pre 07 camper . make them sit still . you could just use a seat belt as a restraint . bolted through the seat units . but you take responsibility . as an ex garage owner and camper builder i wouldnt fit them for a customer as i would be held responsible. personally i think too many people worry too much. could always ratchet strap them in hee hee .
 
There has been a thread on another forum about the same question and dealer gave the following answer

Sorry no can do without aproved fixing/anchor points in addition you could invalidate your insurance.

Rob
 
I have just paid Towtal £400 to fit two side facing lapbelts ( we have a U shaped lounge). They are not type approved and are legally classified as body restraints not seatbelts so there is no hassle with MOTs, insurance etc.
I had them fitted because the main thing in the event of a crash is to keep the passengers within the vehicle, everything after that is diminishing returns in my opinion.
 
I had a 56 reg Elddis Autoquest and it had 2 lap belts fitted (from new) in the rear lounge area, they were side facing and legal (at that time). Now it is illegal to fit lap belts anywhere in the van.
 
a very big thank you for your replies i sure the belts were fitted when converted seen them in a van i was looking at
 
seatbelts are not required in the older vans true as in the case of our van we had ,and yes you can carry a child in the back wether its safe or not . but you cannot carry a child by law under the age of three if you do not have full belts ie lap and diag ones fitted ,not even lap belts on rear facing seats are acceptable as a child seat needs lap and diag belts , that is the only reason i had to part with our van, two babies under 3 ( grandsons may i add i havent been on the viagra) i checked with the police and other authorities so even if a newer van has lap belts you still canot carry an under three
 
Front seat lap belt

What about lap belts fitted to the middle seat in the front of a van, mine is 2001 and I'm sure I rode in a 2004 the same!
 
lap belts are legal in the front middle or in the back .of early vans . as for the mountings there isnt really a standard to work to .the mot just wants the tester to have a good pull on them. i use to build special vehicles there is no specification to work to . any thing you hear about supports plates etc is really only the persons interpretation. you can fit seat belts through wooden boxes etc . they dont have to be to a chassis mount. even self tapping screws suffice . but there is responsibility thats where garages etc decline to fit after market belts. common senses required to fit them but who wants to leave themselves open to litigation if something goes wrong. if i had to i would fit them myself but not for others who might want to sue me after wards . its the world we live in now.
 
I think the problem is side facing lap belts, because in a crash / sudden stop, incredible force is put on the vulnerable lower abdomen and leg-pelvic joints, which then in turn causes major and often irreversible damage to the person wearing them...

al
 
I, like a previous poster have a u-shaped lounge (2003). I have considered where I might carry an extra passenger should the situation arise, and thought that the only feasible place is on the side settee with the passenger seated against the kitchen worktop area. This would mean that in the event of a front end collision, their body would be constrained up to shoulder height by the furniture. Their head however would be on constrained but this is also the case in almost any non air bag seat belt arrangement, so whiplash injuries could be expected.
 
mandrake said:
seatbelts are not required in the older vans true as in the case of our van we had ,and yes you can carry a child in the back wether its safe or not . but you cannot carry a child by law under the age of three if you do not have full belts ie lap and diag ones fitted ,not even lap belts on rear facing seats are acceptable as a child seat needs lap and diag belts , that is the only reason i had to part with our van, two babies under 3 ( grandsons may i add i havent been on the viagra) i checked with the police and other authorities so even if a newer van has lap belts you still canot carry an under three
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Just a note - some child seats can use either 3-point seat belts or lap belts to secure the seat. We have one of these seats (Britax I think) for the grandchildren, up to 4 years, and found the info on the fitting instructions that came with the seat.
 
bevdrew said:
Just a note - some child seats can use either 3-point seat belts or lap belts to secure the seat. We have one of these seats (Britax I think) for the grandchildren, up to 4 years, and found the info on the fitting instructions that came with the seat.
Click to expand...

Hi Bev,

I believe the law has tightened up in the last few years and that info may be out of date.

No doubt that any changes will have come from our masters in Brussels. :(
 
seat belts

hi there folks just wandering i have a 1992 camper can i carry passengers in the back
 
vwalan said:
as for the mountings there isnt really a standard to work to .the mot just wants the tester to have a good pull on them. i use to build special vehicles there is no specification to work to . any thing you hear about supports plates etc is really only the persons interpretation. you can fit seat belts through wooden boxes etc . they dont have to be to a chassis mount. even self tapping screws suffice . but there is responsibility thats where garages etc decline to fit after market belts. common senses required to fit them but who wants to leave themselves open to litigation if something goes wrong. if i had to i would fit them myself but not for others who might want to sue me after wards . its the world we live in now.
Click to expand...

Worldwide there are plenty of standards for lap belts dating back to the 1970s, but by the late 1990s they had been pretty well surpassed by requiring seatbelts on all seating positions. Germany had standards by (I think) 1979, Australia in the early 1970s, Sweden even earlier. In Australia we have seatbelts mandated in coaches and buses which travel beyond 80kms of their garage bases. This is a link to the 1973 design standard in Australia http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/motor/design/pdf/05A.pdf it requires a 5000 pound load to "snap" test the belts and anchorage points. As the industry gained experience with belts the standards were improved. Any competent vehicle engineer can do the calcs required for anchorage points - its just a problem in retro fitting.
 
be nice if every garage had facility to do this sort of test. but it hasnt. we can only work on the mot standard. man pulling on strap. there isnt a definative standard . belts can be fixed to seats . seats arent exactly fixed very secure to floor . etc. there seems to be a belief that they must be fixed to a chassis but its not true. i was merely pointing out that the required fixings are vague. must say as most of us live in uk i would never dream of building to an australian standard . nothing wrong with it though. just would never look for it. there was a bs. standard but when challenged it really didnt tell us much and is no longer relavant any way.cheers alan.
ps seat belts werent rquired in the back of m,homes till oct 07 so nobody really bothered to build in factory seat belt fixings . vw did if the vehicle was mini bus based . but they were hard to get to in a converted camper.
 
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My Transit Autosleeper Flair has 2 lap straps on the rear forward facing seats. Put in at conversion as they are mentioned in the owners manual. They aren't obvious because they're hidden in the underseat boxes.
 
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