Cabin : Club Location : London Posts : 5 Join date : 2010-01-15
Subject: Babies in a Brazilian Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:45 pm
Hi there
I've got a 03 Brazilian with a full-width rock n roll rear seat. Me and my wife are expecting a baby in January and she is worried about a baby seat on the back seat as it has a tendency to fly forward a bit if you break suddenly. Anyone have any experience of this or recommendations. Is there a way of safely fixing the seat for children/babies riding in the back?
David
TimV Admin
Cabin : Flight 001 Location : Brighton, East Sussex U.K. Posts : 14334 Join date : 2009-09-27
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:47 pm
First off - congratulations!!
Secondly, in the first year you'll be wanting to use a rear facing child seat won't you? So I'd have that seat up front on the passenger seat that already has the 3-way inertia belt. That way you know it's held down firmly and if just one of you is out with your 2 babies (child and bus) then that is imo the best way of dealing with the situation.
When it comes to using a forward facing seat you're going to need an inertia 3 point belt fitted in the back. There has been some discussion elsewhere on the site about where the top fixing bolt should go. Volkswagen fit proper seat belt anchoring points for the lap belts in the floor of the Bay but there's no substantial point for the top of a 3 point belt. My Bay has an aftermarket inertia reel fitted to the side behind the backrest of the rnr but after the discussion about it recently I don't think it's fitted securely enough and I'm probably going to return that belt to being a lap belt using the original VW points. You'll need to get someone to weld in a proper seat belt fixing point to take an inertia reel. I suggest you contact a T2 specialist near to you who may have fitted belts into a Classic Bay and has some idea of the options.
Do let us know how you get on as this is an issue that will come up again and again.
Tim
________________________________________________________________________________ Max SportsKombi - The Bay Racer @brazilianvwbay
TimV Admin
Cabin : Flight 001 Location : Brighton, East Sussex U.K. Posts : 14334 Join date : 2009-09-27
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Wed Jul 07, 2010 4:08 pm
With regard to the use of a rear facing baby seat on the front I only speak from experience. None of the cars I owned when my son was a baby had airbags and I think it's when they do that both car and baby seat manufacturers start getting nervous. Personally - again just my opinion - when I see parent's anxiously looking backwards to see if their child is ok - rather than looking forward at the road - it's very dangerous. But I'm not going to get into a debate over it as it's a personal choice and you should do what you feel is best.
________________________________________________________________________________ Max SportsKombi - The Bay Racer @brazilianvwbay
davidhart
Cabin : Club Location : London Posts : 5 Join date : 2010-01-15
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:02 pm
Wow. Thanks all. Very useful stuff and food for thought. Looks like I need to do some further research.
Thanks again.
Daymo
Cabin : Economy Posts : 12 Join date : 2010-08-03
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:14 pm
Here's something for you to consider on the subject of baby seats...
We bought a Recaro seat for babyface. The reason was it looked the best on the market AND if you buy this seat it does the kid right up to 11 years old from a 9KG.
Ours was about £140 from searching on the net but its really well made and has sides to protect the baby from smashed glass in event of an accident. Its also very easy to swap between vehicles which we do regularly.
Hope this helps.
davidhart
Cabin : Club Location : London Posts : 5 Join date : 2010-01-15
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:59 am
Cheers, Daymo.
My wife's trying to persuade me that we need to get rid of the van for the baby. But I think we'll both regret it if we do. I think I'll buy a second vehicle (even though i swore I wouldn't).. so something that swaps easily between the two will be a good idea.
Thanks, again.
David
Daymo
Cabin : Economy Posts : 12 Join date : 2010-08-03
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:06 pm
When my girl was born we had the T4 camper. She was only 11 weeks when we took her on the first camping trip. We got some funny looks on the site but the baby was fine and we were nice and warm at night in the bus.
Then we took her to Vanfest, etc! Well it was hard work and we had to behave more than normal (!) but we still were able to get out and do things, which was really important.
I thought we would have to sell the van too, but it turned out great for all the clobber you carry for them. We could put the pram in without putting it down all the time which was also handy. It's not easy for the first year but after that taking her camping in the bus was excellent as she loves being out doors, running around mad. Like a muppet I sold my bus, but you live and learn. She's 2 now and I am looking for another bus..... Best of luck when the "wee one" comes.
davidhart
Cabin : Club Location : London Posts : 5 Join date : 2010-01-15
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:09 pm
11 weeks old and going camping - i like your style! As ours is due in January, 11 weeks might be a bit chilly, but come May, June it would be perfect ;-)
Mick
Cabin : Club Location : East Lancs Posts : 67 Join date : 2010-05-25
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:32 pm
Guest wrote:
davidhart wrote:
Hi there
I've got a 03 Brazilian with a full-width rock n roll rear seat. Me and my wife are expecting a baby in January and she is worried about a baby seat on the back seat as it has a tendency to fly forward a bit if you break suddenly. Anyone have any experience of this or recommendations. Is there a way of safely fixing the seat for children/babies riding in the back?
David
Hi mate, congratulations! We have a nearly 5 month old and it is fab being a parent :0)
I looked at the baby seat thing in depth and took ages choosing the right ones. We have a 3/4 RNR bed with 2 lap belts fitted (fixing points underneath the bed) and a normal 3 way inertia belt fitted. The 3 point belt was fitted when we bought our bus and it has been checked and tested as we were worried about safety and it is fine. When the bus comes back from the garage, I can take some photo's and show you the set up if you need it? As far as the seat coming forward when breaking, have never noticed any movement at all in the seat or baby seat if we have suddenly slammed the anchors on.
Anyway, when we have had Daisy in the bus, we have used a maxi cosi car seat (rear facing only) which has a base that can be fitted using lap belts:
It is an excellent piece of kit, expensive but the best solution for the bus and easy to fit into any car in 2 mins. We also have another car seat for when she is bigger, a Britax first class:
You can use the Britax forward and rear facing from birth to 4 years old, thats why we bought it. BUT!! we looked at at least 30 car seats at a baby show, tried them in the bus, and if you have the same width rear seat as we do in the bus, which I suspect you do, a lot of them will not fit on there rearward facing due to their design and the design of the seats for the RNR bed. The Britax one we have will only fit forward facing, but, we bought it specifically for that as it has the best reviews and can be used for years.
Tim mentioned above about using the passenger seat. You will find that this is not recommended at all by most car seat manufacturers. They only recommend that baby car seats are used behind the drivers or the passengers seats for safety reasons. A lot of it is governed by their weight and neck development. Britax recommend that the baby is 13kg before you start to use the seat forward facing, but, as long as they have good head control, you can use it from 9kg onwards which is the UK official recommendation according to the safety people we talked to at the baby show.
Another consideration we have just had to figure out is that in Europe, they recommend that children stay rear facing up to a year old regardless of weight etc. Apparently it is not the law, but you are likely to get pulled over for spot checks if they think the child looks to small to be forward facing and the fine is €1000.
If you want a recommendation from personal use, buy a maxi-cosi to use in the bus with a lap belt and use it in your car as well. If you then want to use a seat forward facing that has the best reviews and will last until they are 4 (or a certain weight which I forget) buy a Britax first class. We have not used the britax in our car, a Peugeot 207, as it is too small. We knew this and that is why we are buying as bigger car, not just because of the seat, but baby logistics in general!
Hope this helps. It is a bit of a minefield and we took ages sorting it all out. Best try as many in your bus as possible (Halfords put heaps in ours to try) and then you can make a considered decision.
All the best and congrats again, life is never going to be the same again, it's going to be better :0) Denni
PS, don't know where you are in the country, but worth while going to: http://www.thebabyshow.co.uk/earls-court
This is a long shot but I have followed the above advice and purchased a maxi-cosi cabriofix with base but the base doesn't work with the lap belts in the back of my 2007 bus. I'm hoping your 'Guest' status is now member status and you may see this, I'll also PM you if that is possible.
I could do with knowing if your seat base was the Isofix version or the non-Isofix version, maxi-cosi do both and the one I have is the Isofix and will only work with 3 point belts.
Of course, advice welcome from anyone else who may have experienced the baby-carrying challenge.
Many thanks.
TimV Admin
Cabin : Flight 001 Location : Brighton, East Sussex U.K. Posts : 14334 Join date : 2009-09-27
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:30 pm
Hi Mick
The guest who you've quoted is Denni, who is no longer a member on the site or a Kombi owner. It's not possible to contact someone unless they are currently registered.
He is still a member of the Brazilian VW Bay Fan Zone Facebook group so you may be able to contact him that way.
________________________________________________________________________________ Max SportsKombi - The Bay Racer @brazilianvwbay
Mick
Cabin : Club Location : East Lancs Posts : 67 Join date : 2010-05-25
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:14 pm
Thanks Tim, hoped you'd have a solution.
I'll get onto Facebook.
Any other lap-belt car seat options gratefully received, guys.
Thanks again.
NorthPoles
Cabin : Club Location : York Posts : 252 Join date : 2012-02-08
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:51 pm
First - congratulations! Our son is 2.5 at the moment and absolutely adores the camper! First time we went with him for a trip in Brazilian he was 10 months old. (the camper was rented, we got ours the following year)
At that time we had a Gracco rear facing seat ( I will come back with the model later, can't remember right now) and the problem we had was, that the "leg" which supports the seat underneath for extra stabilization wasn't long enough to get to the floor so we had to stuck something underneath otherwise it was quite wobbly, the seat belt was long enough otherwise.
Luckily by the time we got our own camper he started using front facing seat ( Britax) and it is much better!
Don't get rid of the camper!!! I am a mum - I know what I'm talking about!
Full width bed is great for babies - plenty of room, ours still sleep with us there - he is not a cuddly one though so normally he is just pushing us aside
Rudi402
Cabin : Club Location : York Posts : 4 Join date : 2012-03-19
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:00 pm
davidhart wrote:
My wife's trying to persuade me that we need to get rid of the van for the baby.
David
Hi there, Don't give up so easy! Baby was an exact reason for which we bought our camper! We couldn't camp in a damp tent anymore! Your baby will love it - tried and tested with our little one. And guess what the first word would be...
Cheers
Mick
Cabin : Club Location : East Lancs Posts : 67 Join date : 2010-05-25
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:19 pm
Thanks NorthPoles,
My current issue is that the recommended base will not fit correctly with our bus's lapbelts as the design of the belt means the two ends need to be connected more or less in the middle of the seat which means the connecting bits are within the belt channel inside the base so the seat will not connect safely to the base. Even then, the belt is not tight enough to provide the safety and security needed. This is all because only one side of the lap-belt is adjustable so there is no way of sliding all the belt through the base whilst tightening to secure the base........erm, I think I said that twice, more or less, but twice better than not at all, I guess.....hmmmm
I will try it in the front passenger seat, which I would like to avoid, and have a go at rousing Denni on facebook.
Did you use a base with the Graco, or just belts? I'd be interested to hear your experience.
Many thanks.
michel_bonn
Cabin : Club Location : Germany, near Cologne- Bonn Posts : 946 Join date : 2011-08-31
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:41 am
herzlichen Glückwunsch, congratulation from me
i you want i can show you photos from my babychairs in the van. i have 2 chairs. 2 chairsfrom maxi cosi- with isofix, in the touran. i have maxi cosi preorifix because it is for "bigger" childs. smaler childs it is better to take Römer chairs. for my older child i have maxi cosi too. with iso fix. the left chair is for older child and the right is a base where you can put a maxi cosi chair in it with cklicksystem.
sorry, i have make the photos yesterday for you, the cars are not clean. :-) the two chairs are good for the two cars. the isofix you can use for modern cars. without it you can use it in the bus. i have ask the german tüv for the best way to take the children with the bus. they said to me, that is a correctly way to make it good for it. i hope that was the riht answer for the question you have, or? i have take the chairs in the cars to show you about
Last edited by michel_bonn on Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:06 pm; edited 2 times in total
NorthPoles
Cabin : Club Location : York Posts : 252 Join date : 2012-02-08
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:12 am
@Mick - we did not use lapbelts - I wasn't even aware that you can use them with any child seat at all - that's why when we were ordering Rudi we ordered 2 3-point seat belts at the back. We only used our Gracco seat with a rented van, so obviously had to cope with what we had. The model we used at the time was Gracco Logico S, no isofix base. We had to use the base, it was secured with the belt - can't remember details now, but I remember the belt (van model Danbury 2010) was long enough but only just. And the main thing was that the leg was too short so it took us a lot of fiddling with the whole system before everything was stable enough. So I wouldn't recommend that model.
Now - when Rudi the van was already in making we changed the seat to Brittax Duo Plus. This time remembering the whole problem with the leg we have chosen the seat without it. We swap it between Astra and Rudi on regular basis. In Astra we use isofix (more stable), in Rudi it is secured with seatbelt. We are quite happy with it.
David is in the lucky position that he has plenty of time to chose the right seat and try it in the van before he buys it.
Happyhouse
Cabin : Exec 007 Location : New Forest, Hampshire Posts : 256 Join date : 2011-10-02
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:54 pm
Mick We have a Britax Eclipse Billy Seat available from Argos 376/6413 this fits very secure and tight with the lap belt and the rest of our seats now have 3 point inertia belts fitted.
Happyhouse
Cabin : Exec 007 Location : New Forest, Hampshire Posts : 256 Join date : 2011-10-02
Subject: Re: Babies in a Brazilian Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:30 pm
hi just to clarify, this seat is designed specifically for use with a lap belt, and works very successfully. if your lap belt secures at the centre then this may not work for you. our lap belt fastens at the side of the body by the hip. you may need to change the lap belt that you have.