Original seatbelt with Rock & Roll bed

[BobTheBongo]

Hello

Recently joined the Bongo club and looking forward to getting out in it!

The van I've got is a 97 with a side conversion which has a rock and roll bed (unknown provenance) with lap belts. The nearside rear belt is still in place so I'm wondering if it'd be possible to get a proper buckle added (anchored properly - perhaps to the seat rail?) and use that with the original seatbelt rather than the lap belt?

Has anyone done similar, costs, recommendations?

Thanks!

[g8dhe]

Welcome aboard!

Can't say I've seen that arrangement of just lap belts. Normally on conversions both rear seatbelts are used. Offside by passing the belt thru the wardrobe area and out of slots or moving the belt to the outside of the wardrobe and having a structural support bolted to floor and ceiling inside the wardrobe to which it is bolted. Nearside needs no modifications. The receiver slots are then bolted to the frame of the bolted down R&R bed and brought out thru a central hole.

[gilly99]

Hi, I looked into all this before my conversion. I have a side conversion with a similar, but hybrid arrangement, and using the original bench seats. The conversion keeps my factory seats - this being done by chopping out and discarding the central seat section from each bench, and then re-welding the frames to form new shorter two-seat benches - so all original mounting points are retained. The nearside belts are therefore factory inertia reels, coming from the side of the vehicle and clipping into the original mounting points on the modified seat frames. To save interfering with the side conversion, the offside belts are the old centre lap belts, mounted to the original points on the modified frame. This arrangement therefore relies on the original seat frame and points, but obviously with the welding of the modified frame becoming critical to re-establish the structural integrity. The key point is it was a professional camper conversion, and the vehicle is now classed as a motorhome with 6 seats on the V5 logbook.

This arrangement at least means the camper is a true six-seater, with all the original belt mounting points retained, albeit with two lap belts on the offside rear. I needed the Bongo for 3-5 passengers, and camping trips with at least x3 of us in total. Also kept the rear bench seat cushion profiles, as long hours as a belted passenger seemed more important to me than a few hours sleeping over the rear seats. You may have different needs, in which case a rock n roll bed may be perfect for you, eg with just x2 persons total, belted in the front of course.

The problem with some rock n roll beds is that the 'frame', if any, is not really designed to carry the loads of the seat belt mounting points, ie not crash tested or certified in any way, at least as far as I am aware. Sounds like yours has provided the belt clipping points, so all could be OK, and you just need to obtain a clip receiver for your existing inertia reel to clip into and ensure its mounted through the R+R bed and direct into the floor rail and you're then good to go for x2 nearside pax at least. Or you could maybe take the rock n roll bed apart, obtain a scrap bench seat and modify your frame to match the sizing and mounting point geometry, and if you could find the company who made the rock n roll bed, also ask their advice regarding the existing frame and mounting points. Put another way, is your vehicle registered as an 8-seater bus or a 6-seater motorhome conversion?