Sofa seat belts

[Joel Weiss]

We have a 2000 Patriot Thunder Princeton model with a jackknife sofa on the driver's side slide.  Does anyone have any experience in attaching seat belts for use on the sofa?  We're interested in taking grandchildren along occasionally and would like to have seating locations that were reasonably safe even if they aren't certified as seating positions while in motion.

[John Fearnow]

Joel....We have a 2002 thunder also with the jackknife sofa on drivers side.  We found two sets of seat belts installed on the floor behind the drawer under the sofa.  There are slots in the crease of the sofa to pass the belts through.  You can find them best by opening the couch into the bed position.  You need a hook on a handle type tool to get the belts trough the slots at least if you are doing it by yourself unless you have really long arms. The outside belt on each set comes up around the end of the couch   Hope you find you have the same set up.

John Fearnow
2002 Patriot-Thunder

[Joel Weiss]

Thanks for the info; we have the "slits" in the sofa but the belts do not appear to have been installed.  Can you see where your belts are anchored?  I assume they are going through the floor and most likely have a steel plate of some sort underneath.  

[Marty and Suzie Schenck]

Our 2002 Patriot Thunder did not come with seat belts. It has the slit in the seats but no belts. There were also stickers on the windows stating these seats are not for use while vehicle is in motion. I have had other motorhomes with side facing seats that did have belts, don't know why Beaver decided not to use them. If you decide to put them in, behind the drawer under the couch there are 2 triangle brackets there that look strong enough to hold seat belt hardware. Marty

[Joel Weiss]

Marty-
Thanks for the info.  The issue with the seat belts is typically that the manufacturer doesn't want to do the testing necessary to prove the seats are safe for travel; when the seating positions are on a slide the legal risks are greater.  When we had our Class C the manufacturer would sell us a seat belt "kit" for our sofa but would not even give us instructions for how to mount it, nor would any dealer help us install it. LOL

We put them in ourselves then and plan to do that on this coach.  I figure that the belts will safely hold my grandchildren in place; they will be safer with them on then they would be if they were running loose while we are driving.

Joel

[MarcRodstein]

On my 2003 Monterey there are metal brackets behind the sofa that run from the sidewall of the slideout to the floor. I installed seatbelts attached to those metal brackets.

[John Fearnow]

I was able to look at the attachments for our belts today.  They are fastened down with a nut on a bolt that I assume comes from below the floor but I didn't determine exactly how the bolt is mounted.  The attachment points are virtually against the outside wall of the slideout.  good luck.

John Fearnow
2002 Patriot Thunder