Child seat location in 93 Mini Winnie??

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Wa_mermayd

Wa_mermayd

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Posts
108
Location
Tucson Arizona
Hi All -

I am running into a logistic problem and am having trouble finding facts.  We have an 15 month old and are going to be fulltiming it in a month.  We start renovating our RV next week, changing it from a vehicle that sleeps 8 into our home.  But - where should the baby seat go?

We don't have any seats with seat belts behind the cab.  So right now, we have the seat mounted in the passenger front facing front since per Britax instructions, the seat should be forward facing.  The main issue with kids in the front is air bags.  Our model does not have passenger side air bags, so no worries there.  We (my husband and I) feel that our baby will be much safer in the cab of the RV vrs the body.  You know, steel vrs wood.  But we can't find anything that says one way or another where the baby seat should go and what the relevant laws are.

Any help would be appreciated.  Just to recap, here is how we have it now.
Dad driving
Baby in Britax cadillac carseat facing forward
Mom in back on 'sofa' (no seatbelt)

Thanks!
Paula
 
Our '01 Coachmen has seat belts at the dinette (4) and on the couch (3). My DW keeps petitioning for another set on another seat towards the back of the RV, but we won't go there...

You could install seat belts on the couch like ours. The pass between the seat and back and are bolted to the floor. The dinette is the same, but the belts pass through holes in the wood part of the seat (under the cushions) and bolt to the floor.

As far as a child seat is concerned, your current plan is probably best unless you can mount a third front facing seat and add seat belts. Being a mini-winnie, there probably isn't enough room.

Joe
 
I have a 93 minnie also (428RQ) and the 'kitchen' table has 4 seatbelt sets under it - factory installed.  My little guy sits in his seat facing front on the aisle side so I can see him in the mirror.
 
Sounds like you're doing the best/safest option for now, although...  how old is your baby and what does he/she weigh?

You might want to look in to adding a seatbelt for you in the back.  There are others that have added belts and written about it... the key is making sure they are anchored securely to a solid base of some kind or the actual frame if possible, and not drilled through just the weak sub-floor.

Legal requirements on RV passengers are vague and differ from state to state.  Most places, the only occupants required to be belted are the driver and front passenger... certainly not the safest but generally the only legal requirement.  RV's are manufactured in so many different configurations that it's almost impossible to find one exactly like the other.  They fall into a "gray area" of law, most of them being too heavy to be considered automobiles but also not falling under commercial vehicle (i.e. semi truck) requirements since they are used privately.
 
Thanks All -

Having just gutted the RV to repair water damage, we feel the safest place for our son is in the front passenger seat.  The cab is a steel frame.  The body of the rig is luan, thin insulation, luan and fylon skin.  There is a thin metal 'cage' inside the body but it certainly wouldn't do much if the body was hit by pretty much anything.  Xander has a Britax car seat with side impact support, a full body and support for up to 65lbs.  It was super expensive but we spent tons of time in our car before buying the RV so we felt it was a sound investment.  I have found conflicting information about this setup.  State laws state that a car seat cannot be installed in the front passenger seat if there is an airbag installed.  Our 93 winnie does not have an airbag in the passenger dash. 

He loves his view.  When driving he is sitting next to dad behind the wheel and he talks and laughs as he looks around.  I don't think its a perfect solution but we definitely feel its the safest.

Thanks for your comments!

Paula
 
Wa_mermayd said:
I have found conflicting information about this setup.  State laws state that a car seat cannot be installed in the front passenger seat if there is an airbag installed.  Our 93 winnie does not have an airbag in the passenger dash.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're fine then!  And most of the airbag restrictions with carseats aren't necessarily legal, but certainly best practice.  Almost all late model vehicles now have the ability to disable the front passenger airbag as needed, or have "smart" airbag systems that automatically detect when there is a lighter weight (i.e. a child or small adult) in the seat and will adjust the airbag functioning appropriately.  I'd be interested to know how motorhomes WITH passenger airbags, if there is such a thing, compare to the auto market on smart airbag functioning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 947 (members: 28, guests: 919)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,960
Posts
1,388,237
Members
137,712
Latest member
number1RVuser
Back
Top Bottom