How To Put A Car Seat In An Rv

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Aaaahhhh. Summer travel fourth dimension, which includes family route trips and peradventure traveling with children in RVs. RV camping is a great manner for families to get away, relish the outdoors with the convenience of your own self-independent space.

From a child passenger safety perspective, the question falls to, are these kids using car seats? And if they are non, should they be?

At that place are three classes of RVs.

Class A are the largest blazon and await similar to buses. They are between 15,000 and 30,000 pounds and often accept living areas that extend out when parked. This slide-out portion is part of the reason the RV Consumer Group (RVCG) say the Class A RVs have more structural issues. The RVCG believes that close to l% of Class As will not sustain a collision at xx miles per 60 minutes without serious damage. There is no rear occupant crash testing required for Class A RVs.

Class B is more like a built-out conventional van. They typically weigh between 6,000 and viii,000 pounds so they have to come across federal seat belt standards (FMVSS 208) for the forepart but not for the rear seat occupants. Grade B RVs can crave lap belt merely seat belts in the back seating if it carries a chassis-mountain camper that weigh between 8,500 lbs and 10,000 lbs.

Class C RVs are more than like a moving truck. These counterbalance betwixt 10,000 and 12,000 pounds. And manufacturer build them on a van or truck chassis. Simply they come with the front cab from the vehicle manufacturer so the cab still has those safety features. Grade C besides take to meet federal seat chugalug standards for the forepart seating positions but not the rear.

Though these rear occupant seat belts are usually bolted to the floor, the concern is that the wooden seat construction on which the passenger or child is sitting will fail. And some rear seat belts in RVs are non even bolted to to the metal frame of the vehicle. Rather they attach to the plywood cabinets. During a crash the seat belts can be pulled out of the wood with the weight and crash energy of the occupant.

Any type of RV y'all rent or buy, remember driving a RV is a lot unlike than your passenger car. Take some time to safely practise before hitting the open route.

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When traveling with children in RVs, do they have to be restrained?

All states accept car seat laws to keep children properly restrained and safe while driving. RVs are no exception to this law. Laws vary from land to state. You need to follow the state automobile seat law for each state you are driving in with your RV.

States also accept varying laws for seat belt use for adults and older children. There are 22 states that say all occupants must wear a seat belt. And 26 states have seat belt requirements based on the age of the child. You'll want to look upwards the law for RV travel specifically for your state and the state'southward you'll be traveling to.

Legally required or not, it is recommended to properly restrain yourself in a seat belt and your child in a kid restraint in a forward-facing vehicle seat with a crash rated seat chugalug.

Many states require proper use for car seats. This means if a kid restraint is not installed in accordance with the manufacturer'south instructions on a forwards-facing vehicle seat with properly anchored seat belts, information technology is in consequence illegal to transport your kid in the vehicle.

Does size equal safety?

People may exist lulled into a false sense of security because of the size of an RV and how bigger vehicles tend to withstand crashes meliorate. Merely bigger is not necessarily safer with RVs.

For instance, the structural soundness of an RV may be questionable in a crash. One reason for this is considering of design features like galley slide-outs. Often the rear compartment is congenital on a wood or aluminum frame. A crash impact or rollover can beat out this frame. In Grade A RVs, the front end seat belts need to run across federal standards. Withal, the front compartment itself does not accept to meet any crash standards and may non be crash tested.

Some RVs do not take an adequate number of seat belts for the number of occupants. Some of those that practice accept rear occupant seat belts have at all-time lap-merely belts. Sometimes the seat belts are in side-facing or rear-facing seats, which should never be used to install a car seat.

The trouble is, of form, RVs get into crashes too.

At that place is bully risk in these crashes with the lack of proper means to restrain occupants, especially children, and lack of places to even put a automobile seat safely facing the right direction.

If a automobile seat is restrained in the rear compartment, a big chance is the wooden seat structure it's belted to and cabinets tin come apart during a crash, increasing the risk of injury or death. Then these structures — and kitchen equipment, and mounted TVs, and decorations, and… — go projectiles. At that place is serious injury chance to all the passengers.

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So how do you travel safely?

Safety experts discourage transporting children in RVs since it is essentially incommunicable to practise so with optimum safety. If you do plan to be traveling with children in RVs, here are some tips:

1. Properly buckle your children in a motorcar seat every time you lot are driving. In order to exercise this:

All-time

If you were planning to tow a car, consider driving it instead. This way your children are in their motorcar seats in this vehicle instead of in the RV.

Good

Use a towable RV (fifth wheel, trailer, truck camper) where children can ride properly restrained in the towing vehicle. Make sure the commuter is experienced with towing a trailer. There are inherent dangers in towing a trailer.
- Fifth wheels are large towable trailers that need to connect to heavy-duty trucks with a 5th wheel towing hitch inside the bed of the truck. These trailers are spacious and may include slideouts for more interior space. Parking and maneuvering 5th wheels can be a claiming.
- Other trailers include a popular-upwardly campers, a compact trailer with canvas tent-like pop out sides when you enhance the top, or travel trailers, hard walled trailers that come up in a variety of lengths and may have a storage area for your toys like snow mobiles or a 4-wheeler.

OK

Cheque in the cab of the RV for seating positions that are appropriate for installing auto seats.
- Smaller Class B and C RVs that are built on a regular van/truck chassis must encounter the same safety standards as passenger vehicles for the front end. They may be likely to have the features needed for auto seat installations.
- Peradventure they have or tin can install a custom seat or a captain's chair in the rear compartment (like the Galleria Class B Motorhomes) with a seat belt that meets standards. Just like you can't mix and friction match automobile seat parts between models or manufacturers, the manufacturer of the RV must order these these parts. Make sure whatever vehicle seat is used, it is facing forward so you can install the car seat properly.
- While we don't typically recommend the front end seat for children, in the example of an RV it may terminate up being the only condom seat belt to employ for a child restraint. (Of course information technology will only work for a rear-facing automobile seat if in that location is no airbag or a way to turn off the airbag.)
- Think, even when using proper seat belts, passengers are still at risk of cabinets, kitchen equipment and storage supplies becoming projectiles.

2. Make sure all other occupants remain properly buckled also.

Unrestrained occupants are a danger to other passengers. Much like all the other interior items that go projectiles in a crash.

Car Seat Options

A car seat requires a structurally sound seat belt in a forward facing vehicle seat. That means no side seats or seats facing the dorsum of the RV. Some forward-facing car seats require the apply of a tether strap also. If y'all accept such a auto seat, you need to make sure in that location is an advisable tether anchor available.

If lap-just seat belts are the only option in the back of an RV, yous will not exist able to utilize a booster seat for older children.

A RideSafer Travel Vest may be a viable option for keeping a child properly restrained in an RV. As with most things, the answer to if it will work for you is, it depends.

If there is a structurally sound lap-shoulder belt or structurally sound lap-only chugalug and a tether anchor in a forrad-facing vehicle seat with a high back, the RideSafer should work. (Structurally sound means the seat belt is bolted to the metal frame of the RV, has a at least half-dozen,000 lb system strength and an appropriate tether anchor strength, says RideSafer manufacturer.) If there is a adequate position that has a lap-only chugalug and in that location is a manner to affix an Energy Absorbing Tether Anchor Loop (EATAL) somewhere that anchors to the RV, the RideSafer should piece of work.

If the seat belts are not structurally sound and options "Good" or "Best" or even "OK" above are non really options for you. You'll have to make parental choices to do the all-time you can for your child's safe. Would a car seat in a not-really-structurally-audio seat belt be ameliorate than no car seat and just the seat chugalug? Maybe. Since at that place is no actually testing, nosotros can't say for sure.

Past Amie Durocher, Creative Manager at Safe Ride 4 Kids and certified CPS Tech since 2004

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Nosotros originally published this post in May 2022. We updated information technology for accuracy and comprehensiveness.