campervan, seatbelts and child car seats

[colleysmill]

We have a fairly old vw t25 which I have posted about before and I was just looking for a bit of info on how others manage the travelling bit with dc.

Our van has 6 seats and two seatbelts for the driver and front passenger. So far we have put ds in the front with carseat and the other adult in the back. So far not a problem (although I know others would feel this is not acceptable but perfectly legal as its never had belts in the back)

Dc2 is due later this year so we are starting look at seat belt options for the back - has anyone had back seatbelts fitted? we could easily fit a lap belt to the buddy seat behind the passenger seat but can't fit a 3 point belt due to the sliding door (& I'm not sure this would be sufficient to comply with the legal side once we start modifying it)

The other option is having 3 point belts along the very back but there aren't any seat belt points (it's an official conversion van) so I'm guessing this would need to be a professional job from a fitting pov but no idea of cost.

Third option I guess is leave it as it is and put baby in the front with adult and older child in the back (but tbh I don't consider this a proper option so it's already ruled out)

Dh is posting on a van forum but not to be outdone I thought I'd try mn and see if anyone had any experiences!!

Have only fitted a lapbelt before, in a sinilar situation . Dc was older though so not a problem.

We have a T4, originally there were no seatbelts in the back so we had 3 point belts fitted, they cost about £30 but we had them fitted for free, I'm not sure what that would have cost.

Dd2 is in a Britax first class in the front, dd2 is in her HBB in the back with one of us next to her. The seats at the back are too narrow for a car seat so dd2 will stay up front until she is big enough for a HBB.

3 point belts in the back were the only option as far as I was concerned, I wouldn't have been happy with lap belts.

We've had 3 point seat belts put in the back of a T25 Westfalia California. It had one lap belt and one 3 point seat belt in the back and (the lap belt was in place as the fixing point is where the wardrobe was). We had the new 3 point fitted in the back and 3 replacement seat belts and reels on the other seats and I think it cost about £400 in total and took about 4 hours. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks for the replies!

I think we could realistically only fit one 3 point belt due to cupboards down the one side and you won't get close enough to the bodywork for the belt to work. we don't have any mounting points either (conversion from a panel van) which makes me think it might involve a bit of welding too.

But at least it sounds possible!! Did it need a classic vw specialist to fit it or did a normal garage do it? We have used a local chap who only does old vdubs for some complicated work last year but he tends to be very busy & gets booked up in advance.

The problem with lap belts is that they don't fit booster seats. You will be able to find a baby seat and toddler seat that fit using a lap belt, if you look hard enough, but boosters are designed for 3 point belts and aren't safe to be used with a lap belt (I believe this is the case even for the smaller booster cushions although I don't see why).

Also bear in mind if any of the seats face backwards or sideways, these are usually not safe to put child seats on either.

Our 3 point was fitted to the wardrobe side and they cut a small hole in the cabinet and then bolted a mounting point to roof (at a point where it was double skin). The guys we used were Quickfit Safety belt Service in Stanmore. They've done lots of VW's over the years and did a great job. Worth a chat over the phone as a first point for advice, we weren't sure if we'd be able to do it but they sorted it out no problems.

All the seats are front facing as the buddy seat swivvles forwards for travelling and back round when you are parked up.

I haven't found many seats that do fit a lap belt, so it might be that we use that for an adult if we can fit one along the back bench with a 3 point one for ds.

All food for thought though

Leddee that's interesting. Our wardrobe is right in the very back behind the backseat with lower cupboards at elbow height along the right handside, is that a similar set up to your westie?

Problem is the interiors vary so greatly, one van is rarely the same as another

Yes that sounds pretty much the same as our layout. The guys were very helpful though - we decided to go with these rather than our usual VW van specialist as they'd done so many different types of vans and have seen all sorts of configurations. They talked through the various options on the phone (such as going in through the side or the top of the cabinet) but said that really they'd know when they actually saw the van and could assess the mounting points.

To be honest you wouldn't see where the seatbelt goes through the cabinet unless you were actually looking for it, it was a really neat job. Our additional cost was also replacing all of the existing 3 point belts with new reels, that wasn't essential but the seatbelt company weren't local to us so we thought we'd just get it all done at the same time. We muddled along before we got that 3 point fitted with DS in the front, DD in the back with the existing 3 pointers and whoever wasn't driving in the back with the lapbelt, but it has made a big difference to us with the flexibility having 3 point belts throughout.

Thanks Leddeeburdee, think we will definitely look at three pointers then in the back :)

Talk to this company they will fit more if required
www.securon.co.uk/