The long length of the VW skinny inertia belts
must allow a frightening amount of stretch.

A friend of mine plowed a single seater airplane.
He had five point wide belts, and he still implanted his
teeth into the instruments- the belts were not
fastened very tight, but still stretched more than
you would think.

Has anyone installed four point belts with wide webbing?
My brother in law has a Humvee and strapped in a small
pro racing seat (the aluminum with super high sides) and
four point belts for his six year old. You can get a decent
seat for ~$200 and that should last until teen years.
Kids just love to get into these seats and belting up!
and there's no stigma of being in a 'kiddie' booster seat.

I'm considering doing the same for my son.

Any thoughts about is this a good idea or not???
And has anyone improved the stock belts?

couple of sites- look at the cheap $200 seats:

http://rlms.com/html/seats.html
http://www.gmpperformance.com/products/interior_parts/seats/tenzo.htm

Paul '87 westy

> Date:    Tue, 9 Apr 2002 21:07:09 +1200
> From:    Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
> Subject: Re: Vanagon crash safety/Projectzwo bull bars
>
> It's not about MASS. It's about RIGIDITY vs controlled crumpling
> rates. An iron anvil doesn't crumple easily, so gives ZERO protection
> in a head-on.
>
> The body of a car (passenger variety; of course vans, SUVs etc are
> cars, car being a contraction of carriage) is designed to ABSORB
> collision speed by progressively crumpling in a controlled way,
> bringing the vehicle to a more "gentle" (relative term, that!) halt.
> Of course head-on accidents usually occur at a higher combined speed
> than the crush zones of any vehicle can hope to cope with, so if you
> have a decent head-on you're almostr certainly dead, no matter what
> you drive, including Incursions.
>
> The VW T3 has no engine and only a short body length in front of the
> driver, so it must trade crushability for rigidity. The chassis and
> body metal is designed to maximize rigidity and bending resistance,
> with a small crush built-in. These vehicles have proven themselves
> well in frontal (and rear-end) accidents; they are extremely strong,
> and use the other vehicle as a crush zone. However, as with a tank
> like a LandCruiser, a vehicle lacking crushzones will transfer the
> full brunt of impact to its occupants, hence the danger. The vehicle
> itself may survive... but the passengers may be nowhere near as
> well-off. Say, strained through their seatbelts while having their
> skulls shattered against the dash (despite being belted in).