The long length of the VW skinny inertia belts must allow a frightening amount of stretch.

A friend of mine plowed a single seater airplane. He had five point wide belts, and he still implanted his teeth into the instruments- the belts were not fastened very tight, but still stretched more than you would think.

Has anyone installed four point belts with wide webbing? My brother in law has a Humvee and strapped in a small pro racing seat (the aluminum with super high sides) and four point belts for his six year old. You can get a decent seat for ~$200 and that should last until teen years. Kids just love to get into these seats and belting up! and there's no stigma of being in a 'kiddie' booster seat.

I'm considering doing the same for my son.

Any thoughts about is this a good idea or not??? And has anyone improved the stock belts?

couple of sites- look at the cheap $200 seats:

http://rlms.com/html/seats.html http://www.gmpperformance.com/products/interior_parts/seats/tenzo.htm

Paul '87 westy

> Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 21:07:09 +1200 > From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ> > Subject: Re: Vanagon crash safety/Projectzwo bull bars > > It's not about MASS. It's about RIGIDITY vs controlled crumpling > rates. An iron anvil doesn't crumple easily, so gives ZERO protection > in a head-on. > > The body of a car (passenger variety; of course vans, SUVs etc are > cars, car being a contraction of carriage) is designed to ABSORB > collision speed by progressively crumpling in a controlled way, > bringing the vehicle to a more "gentle" (relative term, that!) halt. > Of course head-on accidents usually occur at a higher combined speed > than the crush zones of any vehicle can hope to cope with, so if you > have a decent head-on you're almostr certainly dead, no matter what > you drive, including Incursions. > > The VW T3 has no engine and only a short body length in front of the > driver, so it must trade crushability for rigidity. The chassis and > body metal is designed to maximize rigidity and bending resistance, > with a small crush built-in. These vehicles have proven themselves > well in frontal (and rear-end) accidents; they are extremely strong, > and use the other vehicle as a crush zone. However, as with a tank > like a LandCruiser, a vehicle lacking crushzones will transfer the > full brunt of impact to its occupants, hence the danger. The vehicle > itself may survive... but the passengers may be nowhere near as > well-off. Say, strained through their seatbelts while having their > skulls shattered against the dash (despite being belted in).