Adding seat belts to a class A?

pigman1 wrote:
Although your ideas are great, their execution is where you run into problems. Securing the belts to the floor with large through bolts and large washers is about as good as it gets in that position. When seat belts first became available the Air Force Base I was stationed at required all cars be fitted with belts using that system. It worked but the difference in that system for your car and your idea in the RV is the structure of the seat. Car seats are MUCH stronger than the typical RV dinette. Just about all I've seen are made of 1/8" plywood with 1x1 soft pine structure held together by staples. In a crash the forward facing seat will collapse due to the downward force generated by the individual belted in. If the seat could be reinforced properly, it would go a long way to help. The rear facing part of the dinette would probably collapse and roll as the same flimsy structure broke up.

All that said, seat belts in the rear of an RV are simply there to make the buyer feel good, and as a selling point. There are no Federal Safety Standards for their use, installation or testing as there are for front seat belts and belts in other vehicles. Does this mean they are useless? I'd say no, but recognise what they are and why they are there. They probably serve to hold active children in position rather than allow them to be all over the RV. In a minor crash, they may well help to prevent injuries from being thrown about. msturtz's comments above are particularly relevant in large vehicle crashes, but seat belts in the rear of an RV in a catastrophic crash are at best problematical. Do what you need to do and what you think will be best for your family, but just understand what you are doing and don't think just installing a seat belt is giving you the protection currently available in other vehicles.

I was a licensed safety engineer and set up the child passenger safety program in Delaware before retirement.

Yes, I was really disappointed at how poorly constructed the seats were in the dinette that the OEM installed. As you mentioned they are just stapled together. In a very bad crash, the dinette seats won't stay together. The seatbelt is really intended to keep the person seated rather than being tossed forward or backward. As to the dinette table itself, I had to reinforce mine because the OEM just screwed the metal frame to the wall. It came out while we were driving. I installed threaded inserts inside the wall and then used larger screws to attach the table structure to the wall. It is very secure now. I could reinforce the dinette seats if I wanted to put the effort into it but I believe it is the law of decreasing returns. If it is that bad of a crash I have bigger problems than the dinette seats collapsing. Even school kids, as well as transit passengers, don't need to be belted into their seats on buses under the law which also applies to motorhomes. I'm a fan of seatbelts just to keep people restrained. On semi trucks the person sleeping in the bunk doesn't need to be belted but we have a netting to prevent them from being tossed around in the even of a collision.