Question about RVing.

"Luc - The Acadian Oppo" (luc5) 09/06/2016 at 15:19 • Filed to: None

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Most RV’s are setup to accommodate 4-6 people but to my knowledge only the driver and passenger seat have seat belts and whatnot. Does that mean that the other passengers just sit wherever in the back willy nilly? How would that work if you have a very young child under a year old? Would mama sits in the back and hold him? Even with the safety concerns aside is that even legal?

LongbowMkII > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:22

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Likely depends on state/province tbh

lone_liberal > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:24

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The couches have seat belts.

Ash78, voting early and often > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:25

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I have seen many of the smaller RVs with lap belts in the back, like in the dinette area. Technically nobody in the back of an RV has to be secured, to my knowledge from talking to friends who do it a lot (however, you cannot ride inside a travel trailer, only a powered RV). Even if you have to rig something up, you should be able to find a chassis bolt somewhere that can have a loop inserted (for attaching LATCH/ISOFIX or at least some webbing). I actually had to retrofit my 2001 car using 2002 parts for LATCH, but thankfully they were ready-made.

Die-Trying > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:27

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it is tied to the weight rating of the vehicle........ i dont remember exactly,but 1 ton and above doesnt require seatbelts............

*edit, that was the OLD law.......new law is that everyone in the front seat must be buckled, and that anyone under 17 has to wear them regardless of where they are at......

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:32

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Depending on locale. In my US state, I think there’s some business of everybody wearing a seatbelt who has one to wear, but at the same time there are capacity limits to the specific vehicle - I think. So a car from the ‘60s that was only required to have seatbelts in the front is fine with people in the back, but in a ‘70s Suburban with the back seat out you wouldn’t be really supposed to sit in the back area, or in one with a rear seat, having somebody sitting behind the back seat. A question of “is this vehicle really meant to carry this many people”, to a degree.

In other words, up to the cop who pulled you over, at least initially, because the legitimacy of the seats as seats to be used while driving is somewhat up in the air.

FWIW, my dad’s motorhome came with belts for four: the two front seats and the two forward-facing seats at the table. We added more belts for the backward-facing seats at the table, naturally. Same construction, but arguably not “real” seats for driving in the same way as the forward-facing seats... but probably legitimized by adding belts. I think five people, one in the backward seats, while driving before we added belts would have been in the gray area.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:50

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Are you required to wear them on a highway bus?

smobgirl > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 15:51

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I don’t know the legal requirements then or now, but when my brother was ~3 months old or so we took a 5 week RV tour of the US and I don’t think we even brought a car seat with us. We cut a crib mattress in half and sandwiched it between the bench seats in the rear and I think he spent most of the trip laying on that. Granted, the RV was from 1976 so there really wasn't an appropriate seat to hold a car seat.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > lone_liberal 09/06/2016 at 15:58

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That may be true now but I doubt RV’s from the mid 70's have any seat belts in the back.

vicali > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 16:03

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Time fer some readin;
http://albertaseatbelts.ca/parents/car-se…

http://albertaseatbelts.ca/resources-legi…

lone_liberal > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 09/06/2016 at 16:11

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Back then nobody wore seat belts and child seats were both rare and ineffective so I doubt if anybody ever asked about it. My family used to ride in a standard cab pickup. There are 6 of us. We squeezed 4 across the bench seat and then had two on laps. The big pain was that it was a stick shift and reverse had the shifter back against the seat. To use one of those RVs with today’s sensibilities you would have to retro-fit belts. I believe there are kits made for that, though I have no idea what kind of standard they meet.