Hello! This might be a bit of a ramble with no real point but anyway...
I've been working on my bus for about 18 months and it's gotten to the point where I need to look into putting the interior in. Which should be the fun part really.
When I took the old interior out there were two lap belts in the back, mounted in the 4 mounting points in the rear bulkhead in front of the fuel tank. I didn't think this looked quite right at the time but I was planning on switching them for 3 pointers anyway so I didn't think anything of it and just binned them. Now I've gone to look into fitting 3 pointers I can't see a safe way to do it.
I know there's a mounting point under the windows, one for each belt on each side of the rear bulkhead (with two in the middle for a lap belt) and there should be one on each wheel well, but this was the state of the wheel well points when I dug the old interior out.
That's been welded up neat and tidy now but considering there's a repair panel in place I don't really fancy the chances of it holding in the event of a nasty shunt if I get another anchor plate welded there. The other mounting points, though in perfect condition, are obviously a little lacking in the safety department too considering the bus is nearing its 5th decade and that sort of safety wasn't particularly advanced back then.
I guess the point is I'm thinking that rather than fitting some safe looking 3 point seat belts, that are probably anything but safe, I should eschew them entirely and just never have passengers in the back. I know the front seat belts have similar issues but considering the crumple zone in the front is generally the driver I don't expect the belts to make much of a difference in a bad crash and they're there to satisfy the law more than anything.
Has anyone else just not bothered and limited themselves to two occupiable seats or am I being a bit excessive? I'm not sure I am.
Cheers,
Jamie
I've been working on my bus for about 18 months and it's gotten to the point where I need to look into putting the interior in. Which should be the fun part really.
When I took the old interior out there were two lap belts in the back, mounted in the 4 mounting points in the rear bulkhead in front of the fuel tank. I didn't think this looked quite right at the time but I was planning on switching them for 3 pointers anyway so I didn't think anything of it and just binned them. Now I've gone to look into fitting 3 pointers I can't see a safe way to do it.
I know there's a mounting point under the windows, one for each belt on each side of the rear bulkhead (with two in the middle for a lap belt) and there should be one on each wheel well, but this was the state of the wheel well points when I dug the old interior out.
That's been welded up neat and tidy now but considering there's a repair panel in place I don't really fancy the chances of it holding in the event of a nasty shunt if I get another anchor plate welded there. The other mounting points, though in perfect condition, are obviously a little lacking in the safety department too considering the bus is nearing its 5th decade and that sort of safety wasn't particularly advanced back then.
I guess the point is I'm thinking that rather than fitting some safe looking 3 point seat belts, that are probably anything but safe, I should eschew them entirely and just never have passengers in the back. I know the front seat belts have similar issues but considering the crumple zone in the front is generally the driver I don't expect the belts to make much of a difference in a bad crash and they're there to satisfy the law more than anything.
Has anyone else just not bothered and limited themselves to two occupiable seats or am I being a bit excessive? I'm not sure I am.
Cheers,
Jamie
