Club 80-90 Forums

hmmm... we have a '86 T25 with rear lap belts and our kids are 1 and 5. the wee one is fine in his childseat for a good while and its the kind that is usable with a lap belt alone.

the problem is that the new laws require us to sit the older one on a booster and its crappy with just a lap belt and the low seatbacks in the camper. we have looked for an alternative rear car seat (like a babyseat) for her but she's not a tiny thing anymore! the best thing might be to have a 3 point belt in the back for her cos at the moment she's in the front in her booster chair thingy (it needs a 3point belt to function safely):roll:

i presume alot of other camper owners will have had the same problem esp since the new booster seat laws... whats the answer?

is it easy to fit rear 3 point belts in a T25 autosleeper conv.? there are currently 2 lap belts in ours. any advice for this campervan newbie most appreciated!

CrankyBugs

i'm not sure the new leislation applies to lap belts!!??

have a look at the wiki for seat belt info and just about anything else you might need to know! welcome to the 80-90 forums

I too was under the impression that the new legislation does not apply to lapbelts.

However, lap belts are pants as we all know - and fitting three point seat belts would be great - if its possible.

I have toyed with the idea of fitting four point harnesses - but they would get in the way of the rock and roll bed so i need a better solution.

The westies do three point belts well apparently - perhaps someone can comment...

I have been researching this for my Westy. JK 3 point belts fit but you can apparently only get one in the back of a Westy as there is nowhere to fit it on the furniture side. Not sure what the furniture is like in yours.

Maybe someone has found a way around the furniture side issue that doesn't involve butchering the thing.

Hi,

could kwik fit do the three point belt atleast to one side of a westy?

Or is a self fit thing don't really fancy that.

claggy

im pretty sure its something that we will all have to find an answer to if we carry kids in the back. has anyone fitted 3 point belts themselves yet? i guess it might mean cutting a hole in the furniture and using belt extenders but ive never done it myself. any further advice welcome as i have my dad coming to stay and he can do it as a project to keep him out of trouble!

I managed to fit a 3-point rear seat belt to my '85 Carthago Camper. It had factory mountings, which made life easier as I didn't have to get any welding done.

I bought the seat belt from Just Campers, no extra extenders required. You get a full set of instructions included in the pack. Although the pictures are grainy they are straightforward to follow.

I did need to remove a couple of the side panels to get to the brackets (and also part of the rear section of my bed to get to the panels!), but in this case it sounds like all you need to do is sort out the back. The lap-belts will already give you the brackets you need around the seat, so that's 1/2 the job done already.

NB: I don't believe the rear seat belts from JK are exactly for the VW T25, as there were a couple of metal plates that I didn't need. Don't panic if you've got a few bits left over. I've tested my seat belt as much as I can & it works fine.

I also had to peel back a bit of my the headlining round the back to find the bracket near the window, but that was easily stuck back into place with some carpet-glue spray I had.

You may find some insulation in the Van's cavities when you remove the panels. I found 1/2 a ton of that fire retardent fibreglassy stuff. Best use some rubber gloves to dig it out as it itches like hell afterwards!

It took me an afternoon of fiddling to get the seat belt in. Someone competent may manage it in a couple of hours, including the time it takes to remove the panels & bed section & put it back again.

Regardless of law or not, I feel more comfortable knowing my daughter's baby seat has more than just the lap-belt across the bottom keeping it locked in place.

As for the other side with the cupboards in, I feel it may be impossible to add another 3-point seat belt. It needs to be bolted to the vehicle for it to actually do anything, so unless you dig a hole through your cupboards, the lap-belt will have to remain where it is.

If anyone can prove me wrong, please let me know, as I'd love to have a spare 3-pointer on my back seat.

thanks swampy.

We had a 3 point belt fitted on the passenger side and a lap in the middle.As the kids are now bigger 6+4 we also want to sort another 3 point belt on the Furniture side.We do have mounting points but in the cuboard.I was thinking of fixing a bar between the middle and rear fixing points and the welding/bolting a plate for the belt to be secured onto.This would mean a bar across the window but may mean its possible without the removal of furniture.Anyone think this may be safe or not??.
As it happens I still dont like how high they sit on boosters with our low seat backs.

Martin

I believe for it to be a legal seat belt (I've only gathered this) the seat belt must be bolted by it's usual fittings to the chassis or main body of the vehicle. Therefore as long as you're welding a mount to a strong part of the Van, bodywork-wise, then I think you've cracked it.

Before I discovered that I had the factory mounting points I spoke to a chap who'd done a couple of conversions in other vehicles. He was muttering something about getting a metal plate & welding it behind two internal beams instead of in front, so that if there was a collision, the mounting plate would be pressed against the body of the Van, instead of being pulled away from it, making it a more robust mount. (Hope that makes sense). If you can strip where you fancy welding & find a few supports you can weld against then I personally reckon that's safe enough.

Of course, the best person to speak to is anyone that's an MOT tester. If you prep the area you intend to use & show them your plan & where you plan to mount the seat belt, I'm sure they would offer some free advice.

I'd love to know how you get on with that if you manage it & how it affects the Van cosmetically.

PS: I agree with you about the boosters. On rear seats such as ours, a booster does not make as much sense as ,say, fitting one on a standard high-backed car seat. The Law's the Law, I suppose.