Baby Seat in an 88 Series IIa

[Apis Mellifera]

You could also get struck by lightning or attacked by a shark or choke to death on a sesame seed. You could also live your life thinking of and planning for every possibility, but then still die from the one thing you forgot about. You could never leave your house, but the reality is, you're still going to die. If a Suburban driven by someone else dictates how you live your life, then you probably should stay indoors. I choose not to limit myself nor cripple my children with the fear of the very unlikely. I don't even have a seatbelt for myself in the 88. I also commute to work regularly in an MGA and plan to drive a Bugeye or Lotus 7 everyday once they're finished. Those cars have no place in rush hour traffic, but I'll be the guy with the biggest smile driving to work in a car with no belts and wooden floors. That is assuming I don't die before then from eating a piece of bacon or listening to loud music. I do "unsafe" things like that because the fun far outweighs the risk. I guess I don't what to live in the Kingdom of Fear so I choose not to. [/rant]

[thixon]

Apis, you're not a bad father.

Terrys, if you're t-boned by a suburban, you're dead no matter what you drive.

[Cutter]

I've got a 109 3 door and have thought about how to do this as well. I would not chose to do it on a daily basis personally for convenience and economy in a series. I suppose safety is a concern, but the ****ogies with motorcycles (I ride one regularly, well less so now that I have a 7 month old) are a bit of a stretch- the danger with a motorcycle is that drivers just don't see you, and there is nothing between you and the world. A series might not add much to protection, but it adds a lot to your visual signature. In the end I believe you do what you can to be safe -helmet, leathers, seatbelts- and the rest of life is a crap shoot anyways... this is a personal choice regardless so I'll stop there.

I was thinking of putting the car seat in the passenger seat, but the wife maybe won't be so psyched riding in the back on the side benches for long trips, but she's not psyched in the series for long rides regardless I think. It is easy to get the baby in and out that way though. I like the fold up jeep bench, and I think the child will be most protected in that location if if is mounted forward in the bed, but its not so easy to get to from either side. my first idea was bolting down a seat belt mount to the floor (reinforced) so its as minimal as possible for now, as I don't expect to haul the kid around much in it, but as they get older the bench seems like a good option.

[scott]

Agree apis ain't a bad dad, that is unless he's driving his kids in a series to his meth lab were he parks 'em in front of a tv while he works.

****ogies (it funny that that gets censored) with the bike don't work. Bikes move fast potatoehead pulls out in front of or otherwise fails to yeild bike loses. Roves move slow, if some one accidently pulls out in front of you the driver would have time to stop get out of his car check tire pressurer get back in and get out of the way of a scream'n iia

[Tim Smith]

I think the safety decision is being well marked out here but I have to say, I can't get my puppy to ride in my truck without getting sick within a couple of miles. In the Volvo he's fine though. Maybe that says something about the ride but there's my two cents.

[Terrys]

Apis, It seems to me that you're completely missing the point. I wouldn't take my kids out in my TD, my Super 7 (not a clone either) the Moke or my 88, but would in just about anything else I had when they were small.Those simply are not kid friendly. The only thing I see that's even less so is people with little kids in their crotch on a bike. My youngest was 7 when I got my 110, and she sat in the middle of the back seat, and I was comfortable with that. I don't lay awake worrying about anything, but when I had my kids with me, they were my prime concern, not my $hit eating grin for my personal joy. Oh, Thixon, the Sub was doing less than 40

[Apis Mellifera]

Oh, I understand the point you're trying to make. You're saying that little kids of today are somehow different, more fragile, than the kids of 20 or 50 or 100 years ago. They can't possibly survive childhood unless a well-meaning adult looms over them, stripping all threat of danger and adventure out of their lives. The little kids of olden times, that whittled, rode horses, shot guns, and ran farm machinery somehow escaped certain death and eventually grew up to produce weaker, more sensitive children that thrive on coddling and smothering sanitation. Ok, that's overly dramatic, but I meant it to be. I think you're the one missing the point. Crude description notwithstanding, suggesting that having a smile on your face while driving your favorite car is somehow self-serving and mutually exclusive of your child's safety is just plain silly. Planet Earth is not very kid friendly, yet they wallow in the dirt, swim in the ocean, and are bombarded with all sorts of tiny organisms teeming on the toys that pass from child's mouth to floor to child's mouth. Children face far greater threats than statistically unlikely what-ifs; over protective parents, for example. Driving anything other than a vehicle with the latest safety equipment is more dangerous than necessary. Driving a 40 year old vehicle is downright lunacy. Regardless, the likelihood of meeting doom, whatever you drive, is incredibly small. Driving an older vehicle might be marginally more "dangerous" nowadays, but then again, so is going out in the sun. Bringing your kids along and letting them enjoy the car isn't, however, as reckless as giving an infant a loaded revolver with an inevitable negative outcome.

My MG Midget was totaled by a drunk driving a Subaru Justy. Impact was around 30mph. I don't see the relevance in speed or vehicles involved. People have survived free falling from an airplane. Now if every Series that wrecked at 40mph resulted in death, then you might have something there. Otherwise, it was an unfortunate accident that may or may not have happened under other circumstances or with other vehicles. The point made earlier was that, unless the Suburban impacted a vehicle with the same or greater mass, the smaller vehicle will generally lose every time.

I have a friend whose dad owned a collection of rare Porsche race cars. When he died, we were remembering him and his daughter remembered how great it was to be picked up from school in a 904, flat six snarling and stinking of oil and gasoline. Similarly, some of my earliest memories are those spent with my dad in an MGA. Kids love that stuff. I digress. To each his own. Lord willing, my kids will grow up teething on bakelite and won't cry for stitches when they get a hangnail.

[Mountain132]

I installed a new jeep seat with lap belts in the rear of my 88; the child seat was installed with the belt and lashed to brackets to the floor. I took my son around on side roads in GA when he was a few months old. the vibration and heat put him to sleep instantly.

Now that I've completely disassembled the vehicle for rebuild and and found so many faults I'm surprised we didn't die just sitting in the driveway.

By the time I get it back together my son will be driving and I'll be using a walker and this discussion will transition into determining when one becomes too frail to ride in an 88.

[scott]

... and I'll be using a walker and this discussion will transition into determining when one becomes too frail to ride in an 88.

ah returning to whence we came. but we can keep the beer, right?

[SalemRover]

This is how a kid should ride in a 109. You are all doing it wrong....

[LaneRover]

I think the safety decision is being well marked out here but I have to say, I can't get my puppy to ride in my truck without getting sick within a couple of miles. In the Volvo he's fine though. Maybe that says something about the ride but there's my two cents.

At least the puppy gets sick in the vehicle you can hose out

[LC_rover]

SalemRover... LoL

[Terrys]

Apis, I think you have the impression that I'm one of those who only took their kids out when the planets were aligned just so, had to check the wx, etc. Furthest from it. My point it that some cars are not safe for infants, whose skulls aren't yet fused, who don't have cognitive reaction, and are completely at the mercy of the physics surronding them. Once they were out of diapers, Games on in this house. My daughter started riding at 5, and has contiued that for 22 more years, her twin brother had one rule; be back by dark. He was ATVing all over the 2000 acres behind me on his ATV at 10 (only in the fields here on the farm before that) Both learned to hunt long before they were legal. I wasn't so keen on my daughter making her first (of many) parachute jumps at 16, but I wasn't going to stop her either. I'm even letting my 17yo go to OZ Fest this weekend. They all had their jobs growing up around here, cutting and stacking wood for the sugarhouse; taking one of the Land Rovers twice daily to collect sap, picking up drops and pressing them in the fall for cider (my daughter can fire the boiler and run the steam engine and press as well as I can) They did OK, and both have a survival suit as part of their kit, my son daily in the CG on C130 search and rescue, my daughter 3 months a year on Orions for the National Hurricane Center. My son took 4 weeks leave to pick up his GSPD bike in SLC and ride 6200 miles back to Kodiak via the Yukon and NW territory. I didn't raise them to be bubble babies, and they are far from it, but they don't throw caution to the wind, and neither did I when they didn't have the choice.

My point was, and still is, that infants don't belong in metal boxes when they're as fragile as an egg, yet to be hardboiled. If using that amount of parenting protection, for such a short period in their lives is over-protective in your eyes, well, that's you, but not me.

[scott]

Not to change the subject of child safety but terrys I gott say how jeslous I am. I've 2 19 and a 23 y/o and they are all non working wallet leaches. Sure 2 of 'em a in school but dang I couldn't get 'em to do chores to save ...

[stonefox]

I was thinking there might be a market for a child carseat adapter kit that would connect directly to the rear tire swing away.