Club 80-90 Forums

Our baby seat faces backwards and requires a 3-point seat belt as the diagonal goes round the back of the seat. I have lap belts in the rear seat of my T25 - no good.
So - is it legal to put the baby seat in the front passenger seat? (my partner reckons not)
Any other advice very welcome cos we wanna go away in our under0used van!!!
Thanks
Dom.

No there is no issue as far as I'm aware with putting the rear facing baby seat in the front seat we did it for years. Just try not to be distracted by gurgling etc when you are driving!

it is illegal to use baby seats in the front of cars with airbags only. we had summer in front of our van.

We have used a rear facing baby seat in the front with no problems.

It seems that is the law - you can put a rear facing seat in the front if there's no air bag (also, so it seems, if you can deactivate the bag).I just looked on the net and found this:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q= ... arch&meta=

sorry, I could have done that first without asking on the forum but I was too busy - ok lazy - and anyway its nice to chat!!!

Thanks all.
Dom.

If you contact the ' in car safety centre 'at Milton keynes and speak to John Lions or whoever replaced him if he is no longer there, they will be able to give you details of an adapter belt thing for use with lap belts that enables you to use a stage 1 seat on a lap belt safely and legally.
What John doesn't know about child car safety you could write on the back of a very small stamp.
We used an adapter in our MK11 consul when our middle child was small to avoid fitting non original belts,
The above can supply bits or are always willing to give masses of advise even if you are obviously fishing for info and not buying.
I haven't used them for a few years as the youngest is now 8 but they have been around for many years so no reason to think they will be any different now.
Hope this is of help.
Annette

There are slightly different rules for vans and motorhomes.

Yes you can run the rear-facing seat in the front. It was a question I had when my son was born but I discovered that where rear seat belts are not adequate you can fit in the front. This ruling does not apply to cars and your partner is correct there, but vans and campers are fifferent. Its online somewhere. My four year old has since migrated to a booster seat but still sits up front. The seat belt is far safer for him than a lap belt and that is the reasoning behind the laws on this - that the child is adequately protected.

That said, I've since built a rear-facing buddy seat behind the passenger seat with a lap belt and i'm happy that this would be fine too but theres no way I'd put him in a lap belt facing forward.

Thanks Annette. I called the in-car safety centre at Milton Keynes but they couldn't think of anything they could do to help. They advised me to speak to Quick Fit, seat belt specialists in London. All they suggested was fitting a 3 point sear belt in the rear of my van for about £200.
No-one seemed to know of any adaptor (like the one you used in your Consul).
Any more ideas anyone?
At the moment we're stuck with putting the baby in the front seat while my partner rides in the back when she'd rather be up front with me for the long trips.

Maxi cosi cabriofix with easy fix base is the best solution for the lap belt.

Alternatively, buy the seat belt kit from brickwerks - dead easy to fit (i had to drill one hole at the back) and comes with all you need for £70.

Ringo