Community Forums

jerr · 07-24-2011, 06:23 AM

my motorhome has only 2 seatbelts installed in it . It has seating for six more . Is it legal for anyone to travel in those seats without seatbelts ? . The unit is a 40 ft. safari 2000

Dave and Jaime · 07-24-2011, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerr

my motorhome has only 2 seatbelts installed in it . It has seating for six more . Is it legal for anyone to travel in those seats without seatbelts ? . The unit is a 40 ft. safari 2000

Yes and No. It all depends on the state. See the summary table at Seatbelt Laws Some states have exemptions from seat belt laws for RV's so that it would be "legal" to have passengers in the back without seatbelts (e.g. Florida and Oklahoma). Probably not a good idea, though, as the passengers become flying objects in the event of a sudden stop (RV's are not exempt from the laws of physics). A number of states have an exemption for "vehicles not required to be equipped with seatbelts." Not sure if RV's are "required" to be equipped with seatbelts. But, in most states, it would probably be illegal to have passengers traveling without a seatbelt.

ga traveler · 07-24-2011, 07:19 AM

Check under the sofa. I believe you will find seatbelts tucked in the back. If you have a dinette, most dinettes have seatbelts on the forward facing seats.

Gary RVRoamer · 07-24-2011, 09:48 AM

You likely have at least two more seat belts and maybe 4 more, as ga traveler described.

Most states exempt motorhome passengers behind the driving area from requiring seat belts. Note that school buses don't have them either.

Cat320 · 07-24-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ga traveler

Check under the sofa. I believe you will find seatbelts tucked in the back.

That's where mine are.

Clay L · 07-24-2011, 03:21 PM

My Winnebago has two seat belts for the passengers and one on each captains chair. The passenger belts are on the couch. There aren't any on the dinette.

When I asked why there are so few, a Winnebago customer service guy told me they install seat belts for the number of people the rig is designed to sleep.
One sleeper on the couch, one on the dinette, and two in the bed. So we have four altogether.

I won't let anyone ride without a seatbelt. I walked away from a private (company) airplane crash that totaled the aircraft and I am convinced the seat belt saved me.

1ciderdog · 07-24-2011, 04:27 PM

Seat belts on mine are the same as above: front seats and two behind the sofa. The wall next to the dinette seats has lables saying "this seat not intended for occupancy when the vehicle is in motion" (Must be the company attorney's statement just in case)
Safe travels
Bob

RetiredBob · 07-24-2011, 05:40 PM

In addition to the two cockpit chairs, I have three belts on the sofa and one on the recliner.

TGMarrs · 07-24-2011, 06:42 PM

The seatbelt laws in most states read that every seatbelt in the vehicle must be used, and it is not a violation for a passenger to not have a seatbelt if all the seatbelts are in use. Some states, such as Wyoming, take it a little further and say that children must be seatbelted before adults, so all belts other than the driver must be filled with the kids first, then adults get the leftover belts. It is not a violation to have unseatbelted children as long as children occupy all the open seatbelts in the vehicle.

This makes sense, because a state would be very hesitant to pass a law that makes it illegal for a family of 6 to own anything other than a large SUV or minivan...

Ann n Gene · 07-24-2011, 06:50 PM

My 2007 Travel Supreme 45ft. Alante only had 2 seat belts, one for the driver and one for the copilot. I always thought it strange that there were not more. My new coach has 8 seat belts in it!!! One extreme to the other I guess.

frankdamp · 07-25-2011, 09:55 AM

The safety "nannies" have gone too far, as is often the case. When our four kids were young (3 through 10), we had a 1970 Mercury Colony Park wagon. SOP on long trips was all the middle and rear seats folded into the floor and all four of them on sleeping bags with their toys.

Never had a wreck, and the "kids" are now late 30's and 40's and absolutely paranoid about seat belts for their kids.

Frankly, I think MH seat belts are a joke, even the front seats in our "A" are only lap belts and are attached to the seat frames. The weak link is the seat fore/aft adjustment system which sure wouldn't hold together in a high "g" decel.

The barrel chair (behind the front passenger) is the only reasonable belt and it's bolted to the floor. The belts on the sofa are anchored to a longitudinal steel tube that's part of the sofa structure, in the slide-out.

Before my retirement, I was invloved in FAA certification of VIP airplane seating. Having seen what the test dummies that were sitting on a side-facing sofa looked like after a 16g decel, I thnk being dead would be preferable to living with the injuries. A longitudinal deceleration of 16g is a pretty harsh test. I don't know what deceleration rates would be typical in an RV crash.