seat belt attachment

[Rosie]

Anyone have a pic of how you attached your seat belt to the back bulkhead? I am installing a static over the shoulder belt. The top shoulder part I will attach to the top of the vehicle, (was advised not to attach to the back bulkhead because of safety reasons.) But the lap part of the belt will have to attach somehow to the back bulkhead...just not sure how.
A pic would be worth a thousand words!! :)
Thanks!

[daveb]

there are a variety of factory brackets. that would be the best approach if you can get them. call our hosts...


Anyone have a pic of how you attached your seat belt to the back bulkhead? I am installing a static over the shoulder belt. The top shoulder part I will attach to the top of the vehicle, (was advised not to attach to the back bulkhead because of safety reasons.) But the lap part of the belt will have to attach somehow to the back bulkhead...just not sure how.
A pic would be worth a thousand words!! :)
Thanks!

[Rosie]

If anyone cares, there is a metal plate that I got from Rovers North for the attachment of these seatbelt lap parts. It attaches to the back of the rear bulkhead. You have to bend the lap belt part at the bolt attachment place to make it work.
I would send the super pic I got from Rob but I cannot send anymore pics on this forum. I guess I used up my quota. :(

[Blueboy]

pic or not, good thing is you now have a working seatbelt.

trust you are enjoying your Rover.


Jaime

[Rosie]

Jaime, believe it or not, I just got it registered on Wednesday this week, and I won't have it inspected until this coming Monday! Slow....
So, not so much driving, more just tinkering with little stuff and getting ready for the inspection.
You guys probably know a lot about that thing called "time". Getting enough time to fix things is difficult sometimes.
But the tires are on, and the seat belts, the horn fixed, wipers fixed, the mirror attached, fourth jump seat attached... still have a steering prob, but I am hoping the guys who do my inspection will be able to help out, and then have to get an alignment....but lots of running it up and down the road illegally :eek:

[Jim-ME]

Rosie,
I ended up removing my static shoulder/seat belts in favor of just plain static lap belts because I was concerned about how they were mounted to the rear bulkhead and come up across your shoulder. I ended up taking a piece of angle iron and mounting the buckle to that. I then reinforced the angle iron with a piece of flat steel under the tub behind the seats thru the lip between the upright piece of the bulkhead and the seat box. I seems to work well but I'll refrain from saying that it is the best setup but it is better than nothing at all. It's hard to retro fit older vehicles to what we have become used to in more modern vehicles. I've decided to drive more defensively that with a vehicle equped with air bags etc. and hope that I never need them.
Jim

[Rosie]

Jim, I was also told that the attachment of the shoulder belt at to the rear bulkhead was dangerous. Don't know why...but I attached the static shoulder part to a brace they sell at Rovers North and attached the brace to the top of the vehicle. I thought about using the lap belts but have gotten so used to shoulder belts and they are safer than lap belts.

[LaneRover]

With the belt attached to the rear bulkhead you can 'compress' your spine in an accident because the attachment point is well below your shoulder.

[Jim-ME]

Since I run a softtop all the time and couldn't use the hardtop bracket that I should have I decided that just a lap belt was safer than the alternative.
Jim

[Leslie]

My 88" has a trop-top on it w/ the upper bracket; I've got retractable belts, w/ the retractor mounted on the side-capping rail, just under the side window (I don't have rear seats in mine, so it's not in the way of seats). Have to admit, there's a bit of a hitch in the retractor easily letting belt out, you have to reach back and ease it out when first getting situated (well, I have a clip on the driver's, so that it's about out where it needs to be), but, it reels it back in and holds it well. By having it mounted there, a bit back further and higher than the other, it should be better-situated in an incident.

[Rosie]

The problem with these static shoulder belts is where to put them when you get out of the vehicle. They are a pain because they just hang around and end up dropping down and getting in the way of closing the door. Well, maybe I am just too lazy and used to the modern kind. Probably should have put in the retractables just to get them out of the way.

[SafeAirOne]

The problem with these static shoulder belts is where to put them when you get out of the vehicle. They are a pain because they just hang around and end up dropping down and getting in the way of closing the door.

I have gotten to the point where I just automatically "flick" the static belt in there so it hooks around the latch part when I'm getting out. I've gotten pretty good at it really. Of course it might be harder for smaller people who do not require as much belt slack as I do...

[StX_Rovers]

The problem with these static shoulder belts is where to put them when you get out of the vehicle. They are a pain because they just hang around and end up dropping down and getting in the way of closing the door. Well, maybe I am just too lazy and used to the modern kind. Probably should have put in the retractables just to get them out of the way.
We deliberately did not get the retractable shoulder belts as I have been in too many cars where after the retractable mechanism gets old they do not work reliably. As even plastic will rust down here we went with static belts on all of our cars. If you spend the extra coin and get the Rover static belts, the black plastic cover for the bolt that goes into the bracket on the hardtop has a slot and a clip inside it to hang the end of the belt when you get out, it works beautifully. I also recommend just buying the anchor piece that bolts to the hardtop for the shoulder belt. I just look at everything you would hit before you even got to the windscreen and want shoulder and lap belts.

[ScottT]

I used a bar from an International Scout to create the upper mounting point for the belts. Using grade 8 bolts, it works well for what it is intended but isn't a roll bar. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/2788797780_07bd474c57_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2788797758_5afe6aea8e_o.jpg