Seat Belts/harnesses??

[ralph d. edelbach]

> Since owning my first Volvo in 1964, I've had three-point safety belts
> in my cars and used them religiously (required any passengers to do the
> same also). When I took my test ride in a GMCMH a while ago, I was
> wishing for a shoulder harness sitting in the front passenger seat.
> There is a lot of glass in front and without an airbag or shoulder
> harness, I felt very vulnerable. I know there are those folks who don't
> even bother wearing belts but that sort of behavior seems very
> irresponsible to me. They may feel they live a charmed life but a small
> accident could knock them out of the seat and have the motor home
> continues moving down the highway -- a rather lethal, large projectal
> -- without an operator. Bad thought.

Has anyone installed either a harness system or airbags in their MH and,
if so, how did you do it. I understand the frame/ribs for the body are
aluminum and probably wouldn't be strong enough to mount and support the
upper harness mounting bracket.

I'm still considering the used unit I found and am trying to touch all
the important bases. Any thoughts on this important safety issue will be
appreciated.

 

[m. gardner]

Hi Ralph,

You might want to consider installing an all belts to seat in your MH.
Several production vehicles have these types of seats including; Buick Park
Avenues, Chrysler Sebring convertable, Mercedes 500? convertable, BMW 850?
convertable, '98 Dodge ram, and I read that the '99 GMC 1500 will have it
too. But please be carefull if you decide to try this. These seats exert
considerably higher loads on the floorpan of the vehicle, often reaching
15,000-20,000 lbs
of compressive plus 15,000-20,000 lbs of pulling load on a 2 sq.ft. area on
the floor. So, as you can see, you might want to consider consulting an
engineer before proceeding.

Mike
- ----------
> From: Ralph Edelbach
> To: gmcmotorhome
> Subject: GMC: Seat Belts/harnesses??
> Date: December 10, 1997 7:54 AM
>
> > Since owning my first Volvo in 1964, I've had three-point safety belts
> > in my cars and used them religiously (required any passengers to do the
> > same also). When I took my test ride in a GMCMH a while ago, I was
> > wishing for a shoulder harness sitting in the front passenger seat.
> > There is a lot of glass in front and without an airbag or shoulder
> > harness, I felt very vulnerable. I know there are those folks who don't
> > even bother wearing belts but that sort of behavior seems very
> > irresponsible to me. They may feel they live a charmed life but a small
> > accident could knock them out of the seat and have the motor home
> > continues moving down the highway -- a rather lethal, large projectal
> > -- without an operator. Bad thought.
>
> Has anyone installed either a harness system or airbags in their MH and,
> if so, how did you do it. I understand the frame/ribs for the body are
> aluminum and probably wouldn't be strong enough to mount and support the
> upper harness mounting bracket.
>
> I'm still considering the used unit I found and am trying to touch all
> the important bases. Any thoughts on this important safety issue will be
> appreciated.
>
>