shoulder belt in the middle?

[daddysgirl]

is it possible to put a shoulder belt in the middle of the seat? also can i add shoulder belts if my truck is designed for only lap belts? i'm trying to make it safe for my 4 year old to ride in.

[Calfdemon]

The shoulder belts are easily done and many here have done them. I know that Robroy has a thread on here somewhere where he did his. I ended up ordering my belts from the same company and installing them the same way and am very happy.

As for the shoulder belt in the middle.... You have no where to mount the shoulder part to. I supposed you could do some sort of harness belt like a racecar, but anything other than a lap belt in the middle is going to take some thinking and modification. For the shoulder belt, you need to be able to mount the top of the shoulder strap brace to a solid wall. Our trucks have small holes on each post for this purpose. If you look, you will see either a hole, or a plug covering a hole on the posts either behind or over the shoulder of the driver and passenger (year of truck depends on where the hole is located).

[fordman]

in all of the trucks we cover on this site. there are provisions for shoulder belts for the driver and passenger. a middle shoulder belt i am not sure could be done. it would have to have a top mounting point. and there isnt any. i doubt there would be a custom belt to hook up over to the drivers side mounting point.

[daddysgirl]

yeah i read robroys thread and it was very informative but i didn't see about shoulders in the middle. For my sons age and weight catagory he is supposed to have a shoulder belt to be able to ride in the truck. he can get away with a booster and a lap belt but the highback carseat with a shoulder belt makes me feel safer. maybe when i install the shoulder belts on the outside i could put him at the door? i can just see hubby in the middle busting his nose on that hard dashboard . although i'm pretty sure whoever we hit would be hurting more than us...american steel

[fordman]

here is an idea. i dont know how good it will work. but a over the seat belt may work as a shoulder belt. just get a long belt and bolt it to the floor in the normal place and run it over the top of the seat to buckle in. it would probably have to be out of a car with a bucket seat.

[dolinick]

You need a crew cab.

[chet]

doing as fordman suggested is not a very good idea. if in a roll over it can crush the spine. A lap belt was fine for many years for kids why not now? or do as I do and the kid (5 now) sits on the side and my wife sits in the middle!

[Aussie_1970]

If he is a little fella you could do what I did and get one of those kids size over the shoulder harnesses.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-H-Harnes ... 5d2e4f1b00

Almost like a race harness but kid size. They are quite long and I bolted mine thru the floor behind the middle of the seat and into the frame. Very secure and probably safer than my ol frayed seat belt

Works great, but child's shoulders must be lower than either the height of the bench seat or booster seat if they need one

cheers

[daddysgirl]

sorry it took me so long to reply i had log in issues. I looked at the truck finally and it does have the belt plugs for shoulder belts at the driver and passenger ut not in the center. any ideas for after market belt retailers? what about buying used how do i tell if they are good?

[fireguywtc]

A lot of the newer trucks have split bench seats that have a center seat with a shoulder belt. You can try and adapt those newer seats in your old truck. It is the most feasable way I can think of.

Here is an example. I would check ebay and craigslist for the whole setup. Maybe some junkyards too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FORD-SUP ... 4aaefde0b4

[3 Speed]

sorry it took me so long to reply i had log in issues. I looked at the truck finally and it does have the belt plugs for shoulder belts at the driver and passenger ut not in the center. any ideas for after market belt retailers? what about buying used how do i tell if they are good?

I would go with seatbeltpros.com. I found them on this site (RobRoy and others), ordered what I wanted, worked out great. Only thing I had to find was the right kind of "shoulder bolt" to use in the pre-drilled holes for the top of the shoulder belts. Found what I needed at a local industrial fittings house.

I also ordered a center lap belt, though like you I would prefer shoulder belts for everyone. New Dodge regular cabs do it, and Toyota has for a while. I just cannot figure where one could safely mount the top bolt.

For the money, I would get new belts and not take a chance on old or dirty or frayed or rotted belts and hardware from the bone yard.

Get 'er done!

[mr_josh]

You could try to put some sort of cross tube from B-pillar to B-pillar and then mount the shoulder belt to that (so that the upper shoulder belt mount is at shoulder level), but I'm not so sure how you'd manage to really secure the tube.

[red403]

Take a look at a 2008 ford f150 reg cab, it looks like the middle seat belt is mounted to the back of the truck. If you could find something like that it might be mounted to the floor.