Seat Belts for Child Seats

[BlueDarlin]

Hi! I have a 2 year old and would like to drive him around in my 68 C10 once he gets a little bigger. I currently have some 3-point seat belts that I bought from LMC a few years ago. They work great, but donÂ’t have the feature of staying locked after you pull them all the way out. Does anyone know of seat belts that have this feature?

IÂ’ve seen one example on YouTube of someone welding in Latch points to the cab sheet metal, but IÂ’m not confident about the safety of this even though it looks very convenient. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas about this?

Thanks!

[zicc1835]

Originally Posted by BlueDarlin

Hi! I have a 2 year old and would like to drive him around in my 68 C10 once he gets a little bigger. I currently have some 3-point seat belts that I bought from LMC a few years ago. They work great, but donÂ’t have the feature of staying locked after you pull them all the way out. Does anyone know of seat belts that have this feature?

IÂ’ve seen one example on YouTube of someone welding in Latch points to the cab sheet metal, but IÂ’m not confident about the safety of this even though it looks very convenient. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas about this?

Thanks!

as soon as I get mine out of hibernation im going to serif mine stay locked I have a couple grand kids I want to ride with mine are not LMC

[BlueDarlin]

Let me know what you find out!

I’m interested to see if the Morris, Seat Belts Plus, or Holley belts lock. Does anyone have experience with those?

[TKCR]

You’ll have to find belts that are late 90’s and beyond to have that feature. That’s the ALR, and it wasn’t a thing until the 90’s.
The new aftermarket belts don’t have it either.
The Squarebody belts, which is what I’m most familiar with, those will lock when the brakes are hit. The counterbalance swings and locks the spool. This is just the ELR function, which is most of the old school seatbelts.

[BlueDarlin]

Thanks for the info! I’m going to spend a little more time looking into belts that will fit that have the ALR function.

I’m wondering now though if the combination of welding in a latch points to the cab body (combined with the non ALR belt) would be safe.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by BlueDarlin

Thanks for the info! I’m going to spend a little more time looking into belts that will fit that have the ALR function.

I’m wondering now though if the combination of welding in a latch points to the cab body (combined with the non ALR belt) would be safe.

“Technically” speaking, it’s unlawful to modify seatbelts. But it’s your truck, you do whatever you like.

[BlueDarlin]

As it turns out, this may be a much easier problem to solve than expected. Car seat locking clips were made for this exact purpose. Some car seats even come with them.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by BlueDarlin

As it turns out, this may be a much easier problem to solve than expected. Car seat locking clips were made for this exact purpose. Some car seats even come with them.

Yes, I believe they do.

[BlueDarlin]

I appreciate everyone’s input! I ordered some seat belt locking clips to give them a try. That way there’s no modifications needed.

[Lee H]

Late to the party. I used clips like these when my grandchildren were in car seats.

https://www.seatsafe.com.au/product/...-assembly-kit/

[BlueDarlin]

Thanks for the link! From my research, for forward facing seats, I’ll still need to use anchor tether points for the top tether, so this may be a good solution.

[TKCR]

I have actually seen belts that have the clip on one end, that teather to those anchors. When I first saw them on eBay I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Now I understand, that they were used for child seats. And these were belts much like our original straps & buckles for our trucks. That’s how I saw them, they just showed up in one of my searches for seatbelts on eBay. I’m always searching for belts for parts, since I restore them.

Update:
I went back and looked thru my “recently viewed” items on eBay and found it. Here’s a couple pictures of it.

[TKCR]

Just out of curiosity I started searching for car seat for the vintage cars & trucks, and came across this. Just sharing. Thought it was interesting

https://clickamericana.com/topics/fa...car-seats-1973

https://www.chop.edu/centers-program...ids/what-latch

[BlueDarlin]

Originally Posted by Lee H

Late to the party. I used clips like these when my grandchildren were in car seats.

https://www.seatsafe.com.au/product/...-assembly-kit/

Do you happen to have any pictures of how this was installed in your truck?

[BlueDarlin]

Originally Posted by TKCR

Just out of curiosity I started searching for car seat for the vintage cars & trucks, and came across this. Just sharing. Thought it was interesting

https://clickamericana.com/topics/fa...car-seats-1973

https://www.chop.edu/centers-program...ids/what-latch

Thanks for the links! Those are a very interesting read

[EagleChief]

I didn't check any of the links posted, but thought I'd share my small example of experience.

When we got our truck, my son wanted to ride in it all the time. He claimed, at 4 yrs old, that it was his truck. He still claims it at almost nine. Anyway, it has lap belts in it that I used for his seat the couple of times he road in it. The lap belts would lock and be hard to get undone when needed. I have no idea what they are out of though, as the seat is not original to the truck, either. No more than what he road in the truck, and just to the store a couple of blocks away, it didn't seem like that much of a risk to use them.