Center seat belt ?

[dhughins]

I already searched and not many people on here are talking about seat belts. I want to get a retractable belt for the center of my bench seat. I might try to use it for my sons carseat occasionally. I found some on www.seatbeltplanet.com that look like the best deal I've seen. Anybody got any input? I have old blue driver and passenger seal belts in the truck but I eventually want to change interior so I'm gonna buy a black center belt.
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[SS Tim]

Since you didn't link to a specific product it is hard to say yes about anything. However there are a couple of things to remember here.
The seat moves and a retractor needs free run to do its job and it can't do that through a seatback without a clearance slot.
More importantly a child seat needs a different style restraint than a person. There is no mention of a child holdout capability in the product descriptions. Not to say it isn't there but check first. The child holdout function makes the retractor a one-way ratchet after the belt is pulled out completely. This feature allows a seat to be cinched fairly tight to the seat. Without it the seat is not secure. You cannot depend on the seat/child mass to latch a retractor.
You would be much better off with a manual center seatbelt all the way around. As was stock/optional.
https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/seatb...ucts/23/view/3
It can easily slip through the seatback gap and be securely tightened down to snug the childseat tight allowing it to do its job.
Might even want to look into adding a top teather strap over the seatback to the center seatbelt floor mounts as well.

[425HP409]

I would use a standard seat belt that can be cinched up tight with an add on retractor
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[dhughins]

I honestly don't know much about seat belts. I was thinking all retractable seat belts would lock when pulled on quickly, and be safer than a standard seat belt. That is why I was looking at a retractable one. I'm not sure ill use it with the carseat just depends on how sturdy and safe it feels when I get it in there. I've been looking into possibly trading my truck for a four seater where the whole family could go to car show/cruise ins.


If I'm gonna go with a plain seat belt what length? Are any dealers better than others ? LMC Brothers, Bobs, Etc.....
Any board members sell seat belts?
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[SS Tim]

From a mechanical simplicity standpoint inertia reel seat belts are not safer than a standard belt they do fail. Problem is most people using a standard belt won't adjust it properly. An inertial reel allows people to wiggle about and still be restrained in the event of an accident but they are not perfect. In fact many modern systems now incorporate pre-tensioners to suck the occupants back into the seats during an accident taking all the looseness out before deploying the airbags.
This very freedom that people seek strapped in is what works against you with a childseat.
When you thread an inertial reel belt through a childseat it retracts but only loosely locating the seat. The seat is really free to move about the same as a person is. Now in the event of an accident the seat/child has to load the belt to get it to lock making it looser yet, not a good situation. Where as a standard belt, cinched down, or even a retractor with the child hold out feature allows the seat to be positively located and even pulled down into the seat padding for stability. Hope this clears things up for you.

[dhughins]

Thanks Tim. I didn't really think about the childseat not pulling on it when stopping. Makes more since to me. Now I'll have to look up what a "child hold out" is.
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[richards72chevy]

Im having the same problem.Im going to replace all my belts in my 72.Im replacing the center with a standard belt.I want to replace the driver and passenger with a 3 point seat belt from lmc but I heard they don't fit well and no one is for sure if they lock up in an accident.It seems like I cant get the passenger belt to cinch down tight enough on my 7 year old.My 3year old rides in the center.

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by dhughins

Thanks Tim. I didn't really think about the childseat not pulling on it when stopping. Makes more since to me. Now I'll have to look up what a "child hold out" is.

Like I hit upon in my first post, a child hold out function disables the "pay out" function and make the seat belt an "in only" ratchet until it hits a limit typically half of its smallest latched length. Then when the belt is unlatched and retracted to this limit it again becomes a normal retractor function.

So the drill on a child hold out seat belt is to pull it all the way out to the stop. You may hear a click. Then very slowly allow the retractor to take up some it should make a clicking fishing reel sound. At that point you can test it by trying to pull it back out, it should not. Then while holdng tension, latch the free end and slowly take up the slack even to the point of pushing the child seat firmly into place to allow the retractor to tighten as much as possible. This firmly anchors the seat and does not allow it to move.

[ole dollor]

when you pull the belt all the way out ,and then bring it back in to the child seat it locks in that position and the child seat won't move around. all of the new vehicles have it now i guess, the drivers seat does not lock untill you brake hard are hit a bump...

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by richards72chevy

Im having the same problem.Im going to replace all my belts in my 72.Im replacing the center with a standard belt.I want to replace the driver and passenger with a 3 point seat belt from lmc but I heard they don't fit well and no one is for sure if they lock up in an accident.It seems like I cant get the passenger belt to cinch down tight enough on my 7 year old.My 3year old rides in the center.

Can't give and information on LMC's offering but any inertia reel type system should lock up if you move forward fast or give the belt a sharp jerk coming out of the retractor. If it does not then I would have it looked at or test it further. A shoulder harness must rapidly latch or it becomes ineffective especially in three point systems that have a slider at the buckle to equalize.

On your existing setup I'm not understanding why you can't tighten it enough. With a heave ho you should be about cutting the kid in half. It sounds like your belts may be stiff from dirt and disuse. Try removing the belts and cleaning everything in addition to testing their abilty to smoothly adjust and retain a loaded adjustment. If the latch end is sliding on the belt under load you need to repair or replace the belt assembly.