Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 08:52:53 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: Child seat teathers?
In-Reply-To: <02d801c0ecc4$b5664ee0$ea4f0441@bllvu1.wa.home.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
At 12:05 AM -0700 6/4/01, Mark Sheflo wrote:
>Has anyone rigged up or is there a factory retrofit that is available for
>child seat tethers in the back seat of a Westy? Mind you, not just one
>child seat, but two (twins). I'll take any advise you can give me!
Mark,
Kudos to you for being concerned about proper anchoring of your kids'
car seats. I see far too many people who just throw their little
ones into untethered seats and fly down the highway. Sadly, occupant
restraints in the rear seat of a westy are not very good, whether for
kids or adults. I'll eventually put in 3-point harnesses in the back
seat. (BTW, if anyone has figured out how to install a 3-point
harness in for the left side (cabinet closet side) rear bench seat in
a westy, please drop me a line).
OK, my solution for child seat tethers in a westy:
The traditional approach involves drilling a hole in the car and
bolting an anchor plate through the hole. I don't like drilling
holes in my bus, and when drilling one has to be sure the hole is
drilled into a structurally strong point of the vehicle, not just
through sheet metal.
Rather than drilling, I had a thick plate welded on to the rear deck,
just forward of the rear hatch striker plate. It is positioned
carefully so that the door can close, the engine cover can be
removed, and the rear westy mat lies in the right place and a
sleeping person won't clock their head on it.
Drilled a hole through the plate's exposed tongue for the tether
strap to attach to. Drilled two, actually, one for each car seat (I
have two young kids).
It is very very solid.
With the hatch closed, it sits about 1/2 inch forward of the forward
(interior) face of the rear door. No scrunching of cushions.
Doesn't even rise up above the top edge of the cushion, either. The
cushion *is* mooshed down a bit by the strap at the very rear edge of
the cushion, but it's no biggie, and doesn't hurt anything. The
tether strap runs forward at an angle of, oh, about 25 degrees from
the horizontal. The only way the strap tension would loosen on this
arrangement (except for failure of the plate, the strap, or the car
seat frame) is if the vehicle were significantly shortened between
where the plate is attached and where the kids sit.
To arrest the forward moment of the top portion of the car seat when
rapidly decelerating, the best way to do that is with the strap well
behind the top of the car seat at a shallow angle. Otherwise, any
stretch or give in the strap or attachment points will get the seat
rotating forwards, putting tremendous compression on the bench seat
bottom--could it be possible the car seat could travel clean trough
the bench seat bottom cushion? I don't know, wouldn't want to find
out, but giving it a lever like that may be a good start.
Local welder guy made and installed my plate in exchange for a home
made chocolate cake.
Hope this helps!
Drive safe, and happy camping!
T.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
SPEED KILLS! {. .| clatter!
Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~
