Seat Belt Anchor

[popsuscdds]

Question: We have a 2000 Safari Trek 2830. The jack knife sofa has cut outs for seat belts but there are no seat belts. I would like to install seat belts. Is it safe to drill thru the floor to install seat belt anchors. Is there any risk of hitting anything within the floor?
Thanks
Milt

[GaryKD]

Hi popsuscdds,
I do not know your coach. There is always a chance of hitting something. However, all you can do is be as careful as possible and recheck where you are going to drill. I have installed seat belts in my coach, successfully. I double checked everything before drilling.

[Diplomat Don]

Milt....Have you pulled the sofa apart and looked carefully under it. A lot of times the seatbelts are left laying on the floor. If not, see if you can feel around for any large bolts that may already be in place and covered with carpet.

If none of that works, the best way is to do some measuring and drill the holes from the bottom. You'll have easier access and it will be easier to see where to drill. Big bolts and big body washers for installation.

Depending on how handy you are and what tools you have, you may want to use a piece of square tubing the length of the sofa, bolt it down at both ends under the sofa and weld some bolts to it for the seat belts.

[alvinc]

Is the sofa located in a slide out? If so you have to account for this as well.

With a slide out, there can be no protrusions on the bottom side because it needs to slide over the interior floor.

Be sure to use large plates to spread the force on the floor. Mine has 6x6 1/8" inch backing plates. The bolt is actually integrated into the plate.

[1ciderdog]

Joyce/Milt
Have you asked this question on TrekTracks? Maybe someone on that Trek site has a good answer.
http://www.nwtfc.com/forum/active.asp
Bob

[popsuscdds]

Thank you!
Our MH has no slide outs. I found no evidence that there were ever any seat belts anchored under the jack knife sofa or barrel chairs on the coach. There are two cut outs on the jack knife sofa for a seat belt for one person. Nothing on the floor- top or bottom. Our coach was built during the last model year for Safari before it was taken over by Monaco. They must have been in a hurry to get it out the door. A couple of other things were kinda corny also indicating a hasty departure from the factory. All in all the coach is well equipped and pretty well fabricated.
I was trying to attach a dog training harness which attaches to the female portion of a seat belt. Our pooch tho three years old has never been in an automobile or MH. So we use the harness in the back seat of our automobile to keep the dog from jumping up every time a car passes.
It worked real well. I wanted to do the same thing in the MH. A portion of the jack knife sofa frame is easily reached from above and behind the back. I attached only half of the seat belt to the frame. This is enough to hold the pooch in the sofa. It could never be used by a homo sapiens because only half of the seat belt is there. Most people are horrified at the prospect of attaching a seat belt to the frame of a sofa, but this is only the female half. I drove the MH 30 miles today and the pooch stayed put the whole time. I haven't heard from Trek Trax as yet.
Thanks for all the help
Have fun !
Milt.