Date:         Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:58:51 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Adding a baby seat to my Westfalia
Comments: To: Jeff Palmer <jpalmer@mts.net>
In-Reply-To:  <1CB4F185-E47C-42FB-BE6A-B6D256925EB6@mts.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> Thanks Ron.  I think you have the same part number twice.
> The 3 point belt for the drivers side should be
> http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=253857815D

Woops. Sorry. Yes.

> So at best I can only have a 3 seater Westfalia with 3 point belts?
> How did the factory do it?

VW never recommended putting a three-point belt on the driver side rear,
even though the correct mount for one is present inside the wardrobe
cabinet.  I'd suspect this is because they were worried about people not
aligning the hole through the cabinet properly (thereby affecting
functionality/safety/lawsuits) and/or people questioning why you had to cut
holes in your camper cabinet in the first place to put in a 3 point belt.

> I don't suppose any single or double 'middle' seats can be
> adapted with 3 point belts in a Westfalia?

I can't speak for double middle seats, as I have not tried that
configuration myself.  I did not see an surefire way to add a 3-point belt
to the rear-facing jumpseat I added to my '87 Westy. I considered mounting a
stock front-seat 3-point belt backweads with the upper part mounted below
the front seatbelt mount, but was unsure if the tensioner would function
properly in the event of an accident. As I was uninclined to crash-test my
Vanagon to test this, nor willing to risk learning the hard way that it
didn't work, I decided to stick with the stock lap belt for my jumpseat.
Better to have a known good (factory-spec) lap belt than a non-stock 3-point
belt that could prove at the worst of times to be unsafe.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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