Seat Belt Extender Question

I have an annoyance when the rear seats of the car are down in a 2 down – 1 up fashion that I then when buckling in a booster seat user I can’t easily access the buckle anymore as its underneath the seat thats down.

I thought this was slightly dangerous so went to buy a seat belt extender, but see these are lawfully only allowed for large people who don’t fit into standard sized built in seat builts.

WWSTWD? Shall I pick one up and use it? or is there an alternative solution?

Clip the belt in in advance and get the user to slide into the seat around the belt, then pull it tight?

I know what you mean, but how often do you have the seat back down – most cars have this annoyance. I’d just put up with the inconvenience, rather than risk if for a child.

There isn’t a standard buckle, which means whatever you buy may approximately fit your car. This approximate fit might be fine, or might fail when a large force is applied. I wouldn’t.

Put the booster chair on the front passenger seat?

I would be very wary of any after-market safety “solutions” which didn’t come from the vehicle manufacturer. Might work, probably will in fact, might catapult your child through the windscreen in a collision. Do you feel lucky?

You may be adding convenience but there’s no way that you’re reducing danger. Even if you find something of a decent quality, extra parts == more things that can fail.

Also,

Is it an older kid using an adult seatbelt for direct restraint in a booster, or is the problem actually the chair?

We have three (my partner is a childminder). One is an ISOfix which is a piece of piss to install and remove, it takes like three seconds. The other two aren’t and they’re both a pain in the bollocks to fit, various seatbelt origami contortions to pass through this and under that and over the other and it still doesn’t feel particularly secure (and why is it always pissing with rain?). I said to my partner, “which child do you like the least?”

What are you putting the seats down for? (I guess a bike) Can it be carried outside of the car instead? Unless it’s strapped down inside it’s going to cause as much of a hazard to the occupants as any seatbelt extender.

Unless it’s strapped down inside it’s going to cause as much of a hazard to the occupants as any seatbelt extender.

I don’t agree with that at all – any car i’ve been in that’s in “3 seat mode” (rear seat half down) has the bike wedged so firmly in place that it’ll move at most a few inches forwards in an accident. No need to strap it down imo

When buying child car seats an issue we had in one car was what the fitter in the shop described as ‘buckle crunch’. This is where the buckle catch sits above the seat on a stalk causing the buckle to ‘crunch’ into the plastic body of the seat. With a seatbelt extender you are likely to cause either this, or the body of the buckle pushing against the child or the bifurcation in the belt being too far up preventing it working properly as a 3 point belt.

In short my instinct is sorry but it’s just an annoying fiddle to do the seatbelt up.

I don’t agree with that at all – any car i’ve been in that’s in “3 seat mode” (rear seat half down) has the bike wedged so firmly in place that it’ll move at most a few inches forwards in an accident. No need to strap it down imo

If your car is travelling at 40 mph then the bike inside it is also travelling at 40 mph. In a crash, you’re relying on your wedging to decelerate the bike from 40 mph. Seats, interior panels and body panels are all designed to move to disperse the forces of a impact. What was wedged may no longer be wedged because of this.
Running a couple of straps through the luggage loops and around the bike can mitigate the risk, or even better carry the bike outside of the car.

There isn’t a standard buckle, which means whatever you buy may approximately fit your car. This approximate fit might be fine, or might fail when a large force is applied. I wouldn’t.

It’s worse than that, you’ve got the extender tongue going to to the receiver, the proper tongue going into the receiver of the extender, and unknown quantity in the whole stitching and material of the extender itself.

Loads of failure points.

Plus, depending on the booster design, the new receiver may be resting on hard bits that you don’t want it to.

What was wedged may no longer be wedged because of this.

I’ve seen post crash photos (and videos) of the interiors of cars which started out with “well wedged” stuff in the boot.

I strap stuff down now. Only needs a luggage strap or a couple of decent bungee cords for light stuff.

I’ve seen post crash photos (and videos) of the interiors of cars which started out with “well wedged” stuff in the boot.

Even stuff bolted down . theres a reason i have a both a bulkhead and no rear travelling seats in my camper.