Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:36:05 -0800
Reply-To: Ian Connelly <iconic@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ian Connelly <iconic@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: 86 Vanagon, shoulder belts for rear bench seat (for sale)
In-Reply-To: <CAHtJhYNmrxb55hBvdBNmT3NwNP5P0JVn41oPeW6ToGwAKrv-Bw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Mark,
Oops, you're right - in my haste to send the email, I goofed on the link. I
actually have the rear seat shoulder
belts<http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=3218>,
not the jumpseat belts (which require a different receiver, you're right).
Both childseats are now in the middle bench, using the lap belts; I have
one infant seat for my 1.5 yr old (facing backward) and one kidseat for my
4.5 yr old facing forward. My goal in getting the new shoulder belts was to
put in a booster seat for my older kid and move my younger to the bigger,
forward-facing sheet.
Thanks, everyone for the good advice (and for the pictures, Ben!). i'm
going to install them myself, I guess.
Cheers,
Ian
On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 11:16 PM, Mark Tuovinen <aksyncronaut@gmail.com>wrote:
> Ian,
>
> The link you provided says they are for use on rear facing jump seats. If
> that is your intent and to use them for child safety seats then you should
> rethink your plan. If you are going to put your kids on the back seat then
> its ok as long as the belts you have are being sold for use in that
> location which these do not seem to be. You should never use a child car
> seat in a rear facing seat, I can't recall the specifics behind this right
> now but the NHTSA has a week long 40 hour course for child safety seat
> installation and this is addressed in the course. The issue has to do with
> how the belts operate and how the seats are designed to sit in a vehicle
> plus the physics involved in a crash, Young children should be rear facing
> in the US until 1 yr and 20lbs minimum(your state may say longer) in europe
> I believe they do it for 2 yrs but that is still in forward facing seats
> never rear facing unless the manufacturer sold the vehicle and a seat
> designed for it. My wife knows more on this as she has taken the course
> more than once but she is in Seattle right now. Return them and get the
> belts for use on the rear seat, they are easy to install and your children
> will be safer there. You should be able to find new belts from an online
> vendor or pull some from a 1988 or newer that came from VW with them. VW
> even sold a kit to upgrade to rear shoulder belts at one time but I doubt
> they are available anymore and the one I picked up as NOS on ebay once did
> not have the lower bracket in it.
>
> Mark in AK
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Ian Connelly <iconic@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm a Vanagon newbie (86 GL with an awesome huge sliding sunroof!), and
>> I've been on the list lurking and learning for a few years now. I recently
>> bought some shoulder belts from GoWesty. I've got two kids in carseats and
>> modern carseats are not considered safe with lap belts.
>>
>> http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=3443
>>
>>
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