Rear seat belts

[Fozzie]

I know this topic is covered (kind of) in the Wiki, and has been done to death in the forums, but I'm still struggling, because:
1. the Wiki doesn't really answer my point, and
2. many of the forum postings refer to the old boards and to pictures which have now expired.

For anyone else wondering where the mount points are here's a really useful pic (of full mounts, as on the Caravelle) I found whilst trawling round the net:

seatbeltpoints.gif

Now... I want rear seat belts in our Authomes Karisma. It's a Caravelle base, so all the mount points are there. Trouble is the buckle mount is on the sloping engine bulkhead, which is sited midway (front to back) under the seat base on the RnR bed. The Justkampers solution is to provide a long swan neck (picture below, shown purple) to snake back round the seat base (shown green) then forward again to meet up with the seatbelt.

seatbeltpoints_edited.gif

In the event of a head-on crash the projected body would stress that snake loop, EITHER cutting the loop, OR ripping the seat base. Either way it doesn't seem completely safe to me. Or am I wrong?

Or is there another way to do this?

[kathyshack]

my rock n roll bed seems to sit further forward than the green one you have drawn, more like where the one above sits...

[Fozzie]

my rock n roll bed seems to sit further forward than the green one you have drawn, more like where the one above sits...

If that's true of everyone else then I'm working with a design peculiarity of the Autohomes... curses...

[DavidPallister]

For some reason autohomes mounted their (IMHO crap - i've got one) r'n'r bed further back than standard (its also wider than standard 3/4 width also). It gives more interior space when in seat form.
I've bought belts from JK to fit in mine, but haven't got round to fitting them yet. The ones they supplied me have the adjustable webbing strap, so I am planning to mount it to the flat beneath the back of the seat infront of the engine lid, rather than the angled part, probably with a long angle iron running the width of the van under the floor to spread the load

Dave

[Fozzie]

Ah, Autohomes "feature" then.

I am planning to mount it to the flat beneath the back of the seat... with a long angle iron running the width of the van under the floor to spread the load

Interestingly a previous owner has tried to fit belts in ours. The buckle does indeed go from the original mount and the webbing snakes as described - but it's all too short to fit round a body, so it wasn't terribly well thought through. That said we can carry three on the seat so I think I'm thinking of fitting two lap-and-diagonal and one lap belt in the middle.

You sound like you're a bit ahead of us Dave - do let me know it all worked (or not as the case may be!)

[DavidPallister]

It might be some time before i'm in a position to fit the belts as the van is completely stripped inside at the moment, all of the furniture was, shall we say, a tad knackered so needed to come out for a revamp (which i'm only part way through), and there's loads of work needed on the van itself.
As I just can't seem to find the time at the moment (what with a 9 month old and coming off shifts) I somehow doubt it'll be ready before summer

Dave