Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 17:43:00 -0400
Reply-To: Michael Townsend <townsend@RTP.ERICSSON.SE>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Townsend <townsend@RTP.ERICSSON.SE>
Subject: Re: Infant seats and Vanagons...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Your 88 Wolfsburg is fine! I bought a 90 Carat (same seatbelt configuration
as yours) precisely because it had headrests for all rear passengers as well
as shoulder belts for the outboard passengers, no airbags, and real front
seat belts. It is my wife's schoolbus, and is routinely used to carry
infants, toddlers, and young children with various child seats. I am
constantly rearranging rear-facing infant seats, child seats, 5-point
booster seats, and passive 3-point booster seats to keep up with our family
and our friend's as the kids grow.
The answer you seek is the metal "H" clip or "locking clip" that is provided
with all child seats. (Check the manual for your car seat -- if you have
lost the clip, the manufacturer might replace it for you. Sometimes you can
find aftermarket clips in stores). Whenever the vehicle's buckle freely
travels along the strap, as they do in most cars, you must apply the H clip
to clamp the "lap" portion and "shoulder" portion together (behind the
buckle) such that the lap belt is now permanently tight, regardless of the
status of the inertial reels on the shoulder section. In our 97 Passat, and
most newer cars, the inertial reels in the shoulder section can be engaged
permanently for child seat use (like the lap only belts on the theater seats
and most old American rear seat lap belts). The Vanagons are old enough
that they don't have this feature, and the locking clips are required. The
lap belt in the center of the bench seat has a small plastic slider that can
be pushed up behind the buckle that performs this same function, however I
sometimes feel safer with the "real" metal locking clip. The trick is to
put your knee in the seat to compress the upholstery, tighten the belt
approptiately, hold the belts together in this position, unlatch the buckle
so that you can comfortably install the locking clip, put your weight back
on the carseat and buckle the belt again. This is the technique used on
"permanently mounted" carseats such as the base portion of infant seats with
removable bases or forward facing childseats. If you have a seat that
requires the vehicle belt to be unlatched everytime to get the baby our,
then this can get tiring. At least you won't have to remeasure and install
the H clip, though.
I use the rear-facing theater seats with regular forward-facing childseats
(so they end up facing the rear). I would not recommend using a rear-facing
infant seat in the rear-facing theater seat because the infant seat's hooks
are designed to pull in the direction of the feet, not the other way.
Therefore, you would have limited protection from the infant seat from
rotating upwards because the belt is pulling in the same direction as the
seat is going in a typical frontal crash. I would think the seat could
slide upwards significantly due to the long distance between the buckle and
anchor point. (Those long steel cables with the buckles are $90 each from
the dealership -- I chose to replace both of mine due to wear and abuse from
the DPO.) Also, the rear-facing infant seat is long enough such that its
base would stick off the edge of the seat because the head of the seat would
interfere with the seat back.
When your son is old enough to use a forward-facing carseat, I'll let you
know how I rigged up a tether strap. These are required in Europe and
Canada, but not in the USA. They help prevent the top of the carseat from
rotating forward in a crash. I also recommend (for all carseats) that
foamy/rubbery shelf liner to set the seat on. This greatly increases the
coefficient of friction between the carseat and the vehicle's seats, which
prevents sideways sliding and tipping during those power slides and bootleg
turns.
Carseat installation is very important to me, and I will be glad to take
digital pictures, talk to you on the phone, or anything else if it might be
helpful to you and your family.
Stay Safe,
Michael Townsend
Durham NC
(919) 472-7656 (8am - 6 pm EDT)
townsend@rtp.ericsson.se
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Bosch <arbosch@RA.ROCKWELL.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Wednesday, August 18, 1999 4:16 PM
Subject: Infant seats and Vanagons...
>In the normal course of marital negotiations, my wife has advised me that
my bus
>is not a suitable vehicle for family outings and trips because the seat
belts on
>the rear seat do not snug down enough for an infant seat. As I argued this
>outlook - foolish, I know - I remembered back to that day in May when we
brought
>my new-born, Matt, and his mother back from the hospital. I recall the lap
belt
>did not, in fact, work all that well when used with an infant carrier /
seat.
>Only way to find out was to take the seat, sans infant, and try again.
Sure
>enough, glaring safety issue here.
>
>Tonight, I'm going to swap the seat belts from the jump seats with the
>adjustable rear seat belts, put the infant carrier on the jump seat, and
see if
>this works. The jump seat can be used as it already faces rearward - a
legal
>and common sense requirement.
>
>In the mean time, I'd be interested to hear from others on how they secured
an
>infant seat in their bus - jump seats or rear seats.
>
>TIA
>
>Alan Bosch
>& Phred ('88 Wolfsburg)
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