Community Forums

Oklahoma MR C · 06-14-2006, 11:36 AM

So if the gang (all over 21) wants to go get chicken and beer, How many can I haul in MY class A? as long as I stay below the rated weight? AND Some will just have to sit! on floor and on the rear bed???? so whats ya think!

Oklahoma MR C · 06-14-2006, 11:36 AM

So if the gang (all over 21) wants to go get chicken and beer, How many can I haul in MY class A? as long as I stay below the rated weight? AND Some will just have to sit! on floor and on the rear bed???? so whats ya think!

rebelsbeach · 06-14-2006, 12:01 PM

A lot would depend on the rig type and the number of seat belts....There are eight seat belts in my rig...

Maybe let us know what type of rig?

Oklahoma MR C · 06-14-2006, 12:19 PM

Its a 38 foot Damon Intruder (379)on a Workhorse W-22 chassis.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-16-2006, 11:00 AM

Im most states you must have a seat belt for every passenger in the vehicle.

If you don't care about seat belt laws, then as many as the GVWR allows.

Lug_Nut · 06-18-2006, 05:21 AM

Something I don't understand. If you need a seat belt for each person in a motorcoach, how come you don't in a commercial bus? It seems to me it would be more important to provide seat belts in a vehicle used for paying passengers than it would be in a privately owned coach.

chasfm11 · 06-18-2006, 07:28 AM

I agree with you Lug Nut and will take it one step further. We allow small school children to ride in buses every day without seat belts, too.

I'm as safety conscious as the next guy and prefer to have passengers belted in. I always make sure that passengers are seated and restrained in heavy traffic where sudden moves and stops are the norm. Otherwise, I believe that, using reasonable caution, movement inside is OK and that I don't have to make a fetish out of the seat belts. I try to treat the coach in a manner similar to the airplane guidelines.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-18-2006, 12:12 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">how come you don't in a commercial bus? It seems to me it would be more important to provide seat belts in a vehicle used for paying passengers than it would be in a privately owned coach. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

School busses and other passenger busses are specifically exempted from the seat belt laws. I've seen/heard lots of mumbo-jumbo about why they aren't necessary in that application but don't believe a word of it. The reason behind the reason is they didn't want to burden the school systems with the expense of 40-60 sets of seat belts in every bus. Pure self-interest on the part of the state & federal governments. They couldn't exempt school busses wihtout also exemtpoing passenger busses, so the bus industry got afree ride.

omnc954 · 06-18-2006, 02:17 PM

the theory in school bus as to why no seat belts are the seats are padded and so close to one another that in an accident the children are protected on account they can not be thrown very far before the seat in front of them stop there motion..... dont quite agree with this but that is the reason we were told by our school district drivers.......

bsinmich · 06-18-2006, 04:09 PM

My other RV is a school bus. School bus seats are 39" wide. For high school we try not to put 3 in a seat but the state law says we can. Elementary students sometimes try to get 4 in a seat (illegal) because they have smaller bottoms and want to be with a friend. The methods some of the kids use to pick on others would just give them some additional weapons with the buckles of unused seat belts. If you look at safety records you will find that school buses are the safest form of transportation in our country. Take a ride in one sometime and you will then know how a sardine feels in a can. There just isn't room for them to fly around if they are properly seated. In the past I also drove 45' Van Hool tour coaches and they also have everything close enough together that there just isn't room to be tossed around in an accident. Body damage to passengers is very rare in coaches. When a plane hits an airpocket things can get very difficult in a plane. Thank goodness we don't have chuckholes that big on our roads.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-19-2006, 11:59 AM

The seats in my Tracker are close together too, but I don't get to use that excuse. My guess is that few cars have rear seats large enough to let passengers be thrown around, yet all cars are required to have three seats belts in the rear if it has a bench seat.

I'll grant you that school buses are driven very safely and have few accidents, but cannot concede that the passengers in a school bus are "safe" if there is an accident.

Houndog · 06-23-2006, 01:29 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Oklahoma MR C:
So if the gang (all over 21) wants to go get chicken and beer, How many can I haul in MY class A? as long as I stay below the rated weight? AND Some will just have to sit! on floor and on the rear bed???? so whats ya think! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I say depends on how strict the law enforcement is..Go for it...