Looking at buying an inexpensive camper…

Spotted this, but has anyone any idea about feasibility of adding an extra seatbelt in the back? There’s only 1 there just now…

I wouldnt put seat belts on that seat. You can easily change the single front seat to a double (4 bolts). The build looks quite home made so doubt the seat is crash tested.

if its a crash tested/approved rock and roll bed, then underneath the seat in the storage box there should be anchor points or a bar to which you can bolt approved lap belts.

Also check that the 98-onwards front seats fit the earlier model pre 97 van if you do go down the putting a double front in as i seem to remember there are a few subtle differences. Have a good check of the wheel arches and round the windscreen as this is where they tend to rust

How inexpensive? That interior looks quite “individual”. A lot of ifs I’m afraid. If it’s a crash tested bed then it will have lap mountings. If it’s a Caravelle (or similar) she’ll then it will have top mountings. In this case you buy a long belt and attach.

Of course, anything’s possible, you could have mounting points retrofitted but it won’t be easy.

Would need seating for 4, so it may well be that although a double seat in the front could be a useful future addition, I’d still need to do something with the bed. I see that new beds can be bought with 3 point belts built in for around £500, so that is also a possibility.

Yes the build is ‘individual’, it’ll be something to work on over the winter.

The other option to look at is to put a quick release caravelle single seat by the sliding door on mushroom bolts and a double passenger in the front. The rear can use the 3 point seat belt mountings for the belt just behing the sliding door. Have a look on the T4 forum

I work in a test lab where we used to test seat belt anchorage installations. Lets just say I wouldn’t strap my kids to the seat in your pictures, even if extra / full belts were retro-fitted…..

A proper, safe, M1 tested, 3 point belted seat will be somewhere around £2000. Google RIB and Scotseats as 2 examples.

I’ve looked at some of the seats on ebay etc and the wording is very misleading. If the seat design hasn’t been tested to M1 loads and installed in a manner that could pass the M1 test then it is of dubious legality (i.e. if it came to a claim for an injured passenger your insurance company would probably say it wasn’t fit to be a passenger seat and you aren’t covered).

I don’t care if a company has sold / installed hundreds of seats, if it hasn’t been tested (or real life crashed with some very heavy passengers) then they have ZERO experience or evidence.

Get on the t4 forum. Crash tested seats/ belts etc is a minefield.

http://bebb.co.uk/images/user/Product%20Testing.pdf

Looks a recipe for disaster, see the link above by beeb

I read “bed seatbelts” and thought the thread was going to be about some kinky bedroom hardware.

My rock n roll bed in my T5 has 3 point seat belts (not fitted by me!!). They are bolted to 20mm thin wall square section tube that is not triangulated or reinforced. They would not hold anything except a teddy in position in a serious crash. But I treat them as better than nothing, as I very very rarely put anyone in the back of the van whilst driving.i certainly would remove them prior to selling and get the new owner to fit them himself so he could see how weak they would be.

check on the vw T4 forums/archives if there are mounting points for lap belts or 3 point seatbelts in the van. in our T25 which started life as a panel van they were shaped/part of the interior body panels so all we had to do was drill out the dimples in the middle and fix through with big **** off plates/nuts on the back for peace of mind

also i’d want to check that seat itself is crash tested/fitted properly. the last thing you want is the belts to hold and the seat itself to come off the floor in a serious crash 🙁

I have a RIB Rock n Roll seat bed for sale at the moment if you’re interest. £1549 with sliders, integrated headrests and place cloth.
It comes with a plate kit (for T5) to bolt it to the chassis.