How many can legally ride in a Leisure Travel Unity Flex?

[FlyFishinRVr]

Title pretty much sums it up. Like the floor plan of the Flex but I don't see seat belts on the seats in the lounge or in the back. To me that says only 2 can legally ride in it. Maybe belts can be added? Not sure what the laws are about that.....

[Old-Biscuit]

IIRC..........

DOT regs indicate that a seat belt be available for every passenger.


Aftermarket seat belts can be added........provided you can find 'anchor' points

https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/

[FlyFishinRVr]

Thanks. That's what I figured.

Can a Flex owner confirm there are no belts on the seats in the lounge or in the back? I don't have one nearby to check out and as bad as this may sound I don't trust what a dealer says.....

[sebtown]

28 states only require that front seat passengers have seat belts. In those states I suppose you can carry as many passengers in the back as will fit. California is not one of those 28 so if you are headed to California all passengers must be belted.

[FlyFishinRVr]

Good to know seb, thanks. Unfortunately I live in CA so I need to comply with their laws.

I guess if the Flex doesn't have belts for the rear seats I can just add some. I would think I could find a suitable anchor point below the couch in the back.

[alvo]

Originally Posted by sebtown

if you are headed to California all passengers must be belted.

Also depends on the age of the vehicle. For instance school busses here are required to have seat belts, but only if the busses were built in something like the last ten years. A lot of our busses are older and don't have them.

[suza]

Originally Posted by sebtown

28 states only require that front seat passengers have seat belts. In those states I suppose you can carry as many passengers in the back as will fit. California is not one of those 28 so if you are headed to California all passengers must be belted.

Does anyone know about Oregon's seat belt regulations as they apply to motor homes?

[wanderso]

In Oregon (where I live), passengers of motorhomes are required to occupy any of the FORWARD FACING seat belts as long as a seat belt is available. If there is not one available, you would not be breaking the law to have additional passengers that do not have a seat belt available. Let's take my 2008 Winnebago view as an example. It has:

2 forward facing seat belts (driver and passenger front seats)
3 side-facing seat belts on the couch
2 rear facing seat belts on the dinette.

Therefore, as I understand it, with my family of 4, each of who are over age 8 and over 4 feet 9 inches, according to Oregon law, only 2 persons need to be in seat belts.

That said, as a practice, we still keep all of us in seat belts while we are traveling, even though my perception is that the rear facing lap belts on the cheesy press board dinette seat back and the side facing belts on the couch are likely only good enough to find the bodies in a roll over crash, but are better than nothing in most other accidents, but there most certainly will be injuries.

As an aside, I contacted Winnebago about the option to upgrade our dinette to the dinette setup that is in a Winnebago Trend (steel construction, high back seat, 3 point harness). The trend has to comply to more stringent crash standards due to its lower weight causing it to meet certain crash standards. As expected, they give no recommendation.

Exact quote from Winnebago:

We have not performed this modification so we would not have any specific recommendations, nor could we guarantee the results.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us at 1-800-537-1885.

Thanks,
(name redacted)

Oregon Law states as follows:

MOTOR HOMES
Motor homes are considered passenger vehicles under Oregon law and as such, adult belt and child seat requirements apply also to motor homes --- but only to forward-facing vehicle seating positions(those meeting federal safety standards for seat belt anchorages). Therefore, occupants should utilize all forward-facing belted positions before using side or rear-facing positions.

ADULT BELT LAW
Oregon law requires that all motor vehicle operators and passengers be properly secured with a safety belt or safety harness, unless all safety-belt equipped seating positions are occupied by other persons. This applies to passenger cars, pick up trucks, motorhomes, and fee-based people transport carrying fifteen or fewer persons. Limited exemptions are allowed under ORS 811.215. Vehicle owners are required to maintain belt systems in working order.


https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/Pages...hild_Seat_Laws

and
http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/811.215

Finally - here is a good presentation from California's Department of Public Health about RVs and recommendations for those with children riding along.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/i...une18_2015.pdf

[cjscotty]

It's a shame because we really like the Flex. I contacted LTV about it and they said it's only meant to sleep 2 so they do not. This is ridiculous to me as many of us use our RV, at least we do, for day trips and travel with a grandchild or my niece on occasion, etc. We currently own a B, but had a B+ in the past and looking to go back up to that size. My B Era has seat belts for 7. Our older Trail-Lite B+ had seat belts for 7 also. I need at least seat belts for 4. You could easily sleep another on the back sofa in the Flex, although I do wish it would extend more like the Serenity one does. I also wish it had a back window like the Serenity version, but we like the Murphy bed with the back corner sofa set up. Would NEVER take another passenger without seat belts.

[frankdamp]

If you want to add seat-belts yourself, please try to find a motor-vehicle structures engineer, or someone with similar knowledge, to discuss it. The forces caused by a seated and belted passenger in a wreck are formidable and a great deal of structural modification may be necessary before the belts rip out of the structure in even a mild crash. A 6g decel puts six times the passenger's weight into wherever the belts are anchored and many bad crashes are way more g-force than that.

[harryn]

I spoke with a sprinter up fitter from LA at a local RV show. He told me that many companies try to push their setups into the overt 10K lb class so that the seat belt laws are more relaxed. He didn't really buy into that idea, but it was something that he and his customers dealt with.

You really don't want your kids and grand kids sitting at an RV table if there is even a modest accident. 6 G is one thing, but I am talking about even 10 - 20 mph.

I am struggling with the same challenge, finding a layout that provides safe seating for passengers, but also the benefits of an RV setup. Some people will use a 3 wide bench in the second row and mount it on a forward / backward slide.

[cjscotty]

I think the best idea is to contact LTV about it and let them know we want more seat belts. This is not hard to do, I went to their main site leisurevans.com and there is a contact e-mail there and they wrote me back. But enough people have to do it. I would need at least 2 more seat belts to purchase. I would definitely be, like other's here, concerned that the seat belts were done correctly in case of an accident and would worry about doing it aftermarket. If enough people contact LTV, then they will know that their buyers want this.

[FlyFishinRVr]

OP here.

Thanks for the replies thus far. I agree the proper path is to reach out to LTV and request more/better/safer seating for others that may ride in these vehicles, but given the time it will likely take for them to engineer and implement a solution, it likely removes them from my short list. These guys just don't seem to design these rigs with families in mind, which is a shame.

At this point my options are to go even smaller and look at class B's (vs the LTVs et al in the B+ camp), which I find quite ironic. I can get a RoadTrek class B that is smaller yet seats 7 legally and safely with all forward facing seat belts, 4 of which are 3 point, and sleeps 4! Same with the Airstream if I could figure out a way to make the RoadTrek folding beds work in it.

I think the B+ manufacturers are missing part of the market...... [emoji853]

[l1v3fr33ord1]

FlyFishinRVr-

Have you considered a Class C motorhome? Our former coach had berths and seatbelts for six.