Club 80-90 Forums

We are proud owners of a new to us (1988) Autosleeper T25. We bought her at Dubfest 2012 and are collecting her on Saturday.

The only thing troubling us is the safest way to transport our two children in the back.

The rock n roll bed is original fit and comes with lap belts. I have asked around at the Dubfest trade stands and the consensus seemed to be that we would need to fit a crash tested rock and roll bed or find a company that would somehow fit a second belt on the side of the cupboards. Mounting seems to be a real issue with this second option.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the safest way of engineering this modification? Rock and Roll beds seem expensive although if that is what I need to buy then so be it.

Words of wisdom would be massively appreciated.

We are in Staffordshire.

How old are your children? I take my 2 year old granddaughters out in the van now, after purchasing a couple of Britax Eclipse car seats. They are designed to be used with lap belts. I must say that fitted with lapbelts the seats are almost immoveable, compared to their own seats in their own car.

hi there, ive also just been looking to solve the same problem and i found this old thread where they had two 3 point belts fitted without having to cut holes everywhere , not a bad price either

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 25&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
hope it helps and congrats with the new van

Hi, thanks for your posts. The children are two and four yrs old. I seem to be going round in circles a little. I think it seems the cleanest option would be to fit a crash tested bed then one company told me the best ones don't fit a T25 anyway. Thanks for the link hugomonkey will check this out. While an woman the britax seat might be an option for the two year old - will check that one out as well !

If the seatbelts are anchored to the van itself then personally I don't see any advantage in having a 'crash tested' R&R bed fitted..... As long as the bed is fitted to the van correctly and securely. I am more concerned that the seatbelts in place are capable of doing the job they are designed to do, after all it is the seatbelts that will be under the greatest stress in an accident.

The 'crash tested' (or not!) beds all seem to be for the T4 & T5 vehicles, where the seatbelts are integral to the seat itself, rather than separately mounted as in our T3's

Dave

Hi staffscampers, what model of Autosleeper do you have? I have a Trident which when I got it had a three point inertia belt on the off side which went through the wardrobe door! - not legal. There was also a three point inertia on the near side. I replaced the off side with a lap belt which is attached to the van and was no issue to fit. The near side item was tatty so I replaced that with a new three point. Again easy to fit and not attached to the bed. The reason I ask what Autosleeper you have is because the bed in mine is NOT one of the metal hinged ‘rock n roll’ but a fold out wooden system. Either way, the best idea is to mount to the van structure. If you need any pics, let me know. Ps. My belts have always passed the MOT which is the bottom line as to whether they’re suitable or not. Cheers.

Hi liliball. that sounds great. we have a trident so if you could send pictures that would be fabulous! our email address is philandhelen@ymail.com

We collect her this weekend. can't wait !!!!!!!!

As you mentioned you have two child in that case you need to adjust baby car seats behind the captain seat so when it is all about child then no margin of error three point seat belts are good but need to check out best baby car seat from where there is no chance of escaping also if you find more exciting things then here http://www.carseatvs.com/dofind" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; you will find best deal!!
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I contacted Quickfit SBS who sent me pictures of how they fitted 3 point belts to the rear seats. The seat on the side of the van is easy as there is a pillar to attach the belt to. The seat in the middle has the reel mounted on the roof near the tailgate.

I didn't go down this route, but I've used QuickFit SBS before to supply belts for a different classic car and they were very good.

Mark

I used the same company. I wasn't worried about the belt going through the cupboard as it pops open easily and I prefer to a lap belt. They did start to fit both belts from one anchor but I asked them to fit them separately