Seat choices and safety

[carcrafter22]

I finally picked up our new family excursion vehicle, its a 1996 ambulance with 118,000 miles and in perfect condition.

We are currently gutting it so we can start fresh and make the layout we want (when we finally decide on one). We'd like to be able to seat 3 people (sometimes my wife or myself might ride with the girls) in the back sometimes and our 2 girls (ages 5 and 12) all the time.

We are not picky how they sit, either along the back wall left to right or along the passenger side wall front to back.


1. Is it safe to have the kids sitting along the passenger side wall while driving or do they need to be facing forwards and sitting along the back wall?

2. Do you guys think lap belt will be fine or do we need to incorporate 3 point belts? 3 points would be way more work and not acheive what we want really but safety is paramount.


We were looking at sofa beds from places like discount van outfitters but they just seem like over priced futon beds.


With all these questions keep in mind we dont drive like maniacs and have never been in an accident (yes I know first time for everything). We do want this safe but I'm not paranoid about safety just want my girls safe and not going to reinvent the wheel here.

Thanks for the help guys.
Randy

 

[Sheep Shagger]

1) Big No. Either forward or rear facing not side facing.
2) No (ish). I did it for many miles, but was never happy with it, so upgraded to full 3 point seat belts. Lap belt in forward or rear facing seat is still far better than side facing though.

 

[dsw4x4]

I agree no facing side ways I have seen rvs that do that but I cannot imagine it is 50 state legal. You can find some really nice seats that have the three points built into them. Lets see some picture of your new rig?
Derek

 

[saveitforsunrise]

go for some chevy truck seats, the ext cab trucks have seat belts built in, not sure about other models, and there comfy:smiley_drive:

 

[dsw4x4]

Dodge and ford also did this in the late 90s on the extra cab models.

 

[Sheep Shagger]

You can also mount the 3point seat belts from a passenger van in a cargo van, all the mounting points are there.

 

[carcrafter22]

That would be nice if I had a cargo van but I have an ambulance. We decided to make a steel frame frome 1x1 square tube. I used 14 ga on the non structural parts and used 11ga on the structural parts. We made a simple L shape so the rear will be seating facing forward and along the passenger wall will be sitting while parked. We plan to use 6" memory foam for the base and 4" for the backs. There will be an insert that hides under the passenger side bench we can pull out and lay in place to turn the whole thing into a large bed.

I'll get some pics up asap.