Club 80-90 Forums

I need to get a seatbelt put in the back of my van and as it used to be a transporter van it looks like this will have to be a lap belt. I currently have a home made (not by me) wooden rock and roll bed in the van. I've just taken the van to the village garage and the guy there (who has his own Camper) pulled a face and said no way could he fit even a lap belt to what was basicly 2 sheets of plywood with a curtain pole holding it up.

He's told me to buy a proper metal 3/4 rock and roll bed and he says that they would normally come with a seatbelt fixing on them and then all he needs to do is drill something into the floor. But looking at the JustKampers and Bluebird websites there is no mention of seatbelts. Is it something I need to buy seperate? I don't want to fork out good money for a new bed only to find I still can't fit a seatbelt on it.

you're right, the bluebird and jk ones don't come with seatbelts. I removed a wooden one from my van as i felt it safer to have a metal one in. I opted for the bluebird one and then got steve shaw at gasure to fit my retractable 3 point seatbelt and lapbelt. plenty of people have seatbelts fitted using wooden bed/seats though. Sure someone with more knowledge will be around soon. Brickwerks sell seatbelt kits for t25's too. None of these kits fit to the actual seat but to points on your van. My van was a panelvan so we just had to use strengthening plates. like i said though i didn't do it myself, paid steve to do it so i knew it was done right. i hae a 3 point and a lapbelt installed at the wardrobe side.
hope that helps,
kathy

If it is possible to have a lap belt fitted on a wooden seat then that would save me a fortune. Does anyone know of someone closer to me than Gasure who would be able to fit one for me if I bought the kit?

Kathy - how did you manage to get a 3 point belt fitted? Where my seat is the only upright bit of metal is infront of the seat, so garage bloke said it would either need a lapbelt or to move the seat forward. I'm not prepared to move the seat forward. Is he wrong and tehre is a way of fitting one or is your seat further forward than mine.

In all my excitement I totally forgot I posetd a thread asking about seatbelts and wooden beds a couple of weeks ago ebfore I got the van.

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... l#p7367672" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So people on that thread said it is possible to have belts put on a wooden bed and there are pics to prove it. But if the garage I use have said they won't do it I need someone who will 'cos I can't. So any recommendations would be great. Thanks.

The belts HAVE to be fixed to the van and if points do not exist then reinforcement bars have to be fitted. There is no way any MoT tester would pass belts fixed to a bed, wood or otherwise.

My belts slip through between the bum bit and the back bit of the rear seat/bed but are fixed to the van.....

i don't think there's much chance of the mot man going in the back of the van, iirc they (the vans) are to old to have a requirement for seatbelts and as such are not a testable item.

also look at the brickwerks seat belt stuff

The garage bloke was on about fixing the seatbelts to the floor not the actual bed/seat. But he reckoned that the seat been wooden wouldn't be safe in an accident and that there was a risk of the seat collapsing and the seatbelt then not being of any use.

When you take your van for MOT put the rear seat in the bed position and they'll definately not bother looking then, as Disco say's they don't normally even go in the back at all, this doesn't of course mean that you want unsafe seatbelts for your loved ones.

WE have a steel framed Bluebird RnR bed which is bolted through the floor and firewall, the lap belts I fitted are bolted to a steel bracket which is in turn bolted (using M12 high tensile bolts) through the rear sloping firewall with steel plates on the back. I kind of agree on the wooden framed bed in a crash scenario, you just have to do what YOU feel is right for you and your's.

I know our belts are going no-where though, they were fitted by I.T. Hulley Overengineering Limited

Ian

binka wrote:Kathy - how did you manage to get a 3 point belt fitted? Where my seat is the only upright bit of metal is infront of the seat, so garage bloke said it would either need a lapbelt or to move the seat forward. I'm not prepared to move the seat forward. Is he wrong and tehre is a way of fitting one or is your seat further forward than mine.

Its a long belt and fits on the back side section behind the window - where the air grill things are on the outside. I can take some pics if you want?

Please, that would be very good. Then I can show garage bloke what to do!