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Childseat Tech Help Requested Please

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by No Doubt, Apr 17, 2006.

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  1. No Doubt

    No Doubt Seven Time F1 World Champ

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    #1 No Doubt, Apr 17, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Since my OM says that childseats are kosher for 348's (no airbags), I've got a seat on top of a chammy for my daughter.

    But...It seems difficult to keep proper tension from the lap belt. I can manually tighten it before each drive and it will stay tight until the drive ends, but by the next day it will have slack in it (see close up picture below).

    Any words of wisdom for improving the safety of this childseat in this particular installation?
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  2. Ricambi America

    Ricambi America F1 World Champ
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    #2 Ricambi America, Apr 17, 2006
    Interesting question... My son is 8 months old, and I was thinking about forward facing seats too. However, during lunch today I was reading the current issue of "Parenting" magazine, and they cite a growing chorus of experts who think front facing -- even at 1 year old -- is too early for many kids. In most crashes, they think the neck support from a rear facing seat (not just the orientation, but the angles too) is better for small kids. A convertible seat that holds your child rear-facing until 18 months might be a safer (but less fun) solution.

    I'm looking for the front-facing seats too, but I might just put the whole thing on hold while I do some more reseach.

    Food for thought....
     
  3. No Doubt

    No Doubt Seven Time F1 World Champ

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    #3 No Doubt, Apr 17, 2006
    I agree. My 7 month old son is riding in a rear-facing seat, and not in the 348 at all.

    But my 4 year old daughter digs riding with the top down in the Spider.
     
  4. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #4 285ferrari, Apr 17, 2006
    No doubt---send me a PM---I am a certified child safety seat technician and have installed well over 1000 seats in the last 8 years.
     
  5. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #5 BT, Apr 18, 2006
    Some seatbelts have a feature that if you fully extend the belt then it will ratchet back in. It is designed for the use you metnion. Try that and see if the belt stays tight. The only way to make the belt extend again is to release it and fully retarct it.
    BT
     
  6. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #6 donv, Apr 18, 2006
    I think that became (or was always) a requirement at some point?

     
  7. No Doubt

    No Doubt Seven Time F1 World Champ

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    #7 No Doubt, Apr 18, 2006
    Thanks, guys!
     
  8. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #8 BT, Apr 18, 2006
    Geez, my spelling is retarded!
    BT
     
  9. Miltonian

    Miltonian F1 Veteran

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    #9 Miltonian, Apr 18, 2006
    I have no experience with child seats, but personally, I think I would be uneasy using the inertia reel lap belt as the primary means of securing the child seat.

    Couldn't you purchase a generic manually adjustable lap belt, and temporarily bolt the brackets down under the rear of the seat track? Then you could pull that belt out when you needed to secure the child seat, and manually adjust it to the desired tension, and tuck it back behind the seat when it was not needed.

    I don't know if this would work, but it seems reasonable, and wouldn't involve modifying any of the standard belt system.
     
  10. smg2

    smg2 F1 World Champ
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    #10 smg2, Apr 18, 2006
    my older son uses the britax booster seat so it has no belt of its own. the little new one is in the britax convertable seat that has latch and also placement for the cars belt. it has two locking clamps on eithier side of the seat that locks the belts in place so the only 'slack' point would be from the clamp to return holster of the cars belt system. our older cars use an inertia mechanisim that locks up on de-acceleration (ELR) not the ratchiting of other new cars.
    http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/childps/csr2001/csrhtml/lockingClip.html

    looks to be normal, the clips mentioned here are for cars without any locking belts.

    hope that helps
     
  11. smg2

    smg2 F1 World Champ
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    #11 smg2, Apr 18, 2006
  12. No Doubt

    No Doubt Seven Time F1 World Champ

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    #12 No Doubt, Apr 18, 2006

    Good link. It also shows what to do if the only way to secure the seat tightly is to pull the lap belt out fully extended and then use a special heavy-duty belt-shortening clip.
     

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