Child Seats In Convertable? With tether straps?

[Cdn318iVertGuy]

Hello everyone,

I have a couple of girls that would love to go for a drive in Daddy's convertible.

Does anyone have child seats with tethers installed in their 3 series convertible?

[poohlikeshunny]

Hey man, I have 2 boys, 1 yr old and 3 yrs old. For them I use a standard toddler seat for 20lbs+ and just strap them in using the shoulder belts. I have no tether anchors, but they are pretty firm once you get the seatbelt to lock. My little on used to hate it when he was facing backward in the infant seat, but now that he is big enough to face forward like his big brother, top down action is the only way to go!

[ponchiz318]

Trayson will be here shortly with his setup....:D

[poohlikeshunny]

Yeah, I actually wanna hear about trayson's eetup too...i've seen his boy in the backseat and it looked like a basic setup...which is actually what inspired me last year to see if my kids' seats would fit...lo and behold they fit great and the boys love it!


paging trayson....

[jeewing]

My wife said absolutely not. She will be filing if I do. But then again the boy's only two months.

[Paul NJ]

how do you get the rear seat belt to "lock"

[ponchiz318]

I'm guessing that you pull it all the way out and let it retract, making the clicking sound. That's how every other seatbelt is....

[pwlorraine]

I don't think US child seats use tethers - or at least they didn't 14 years ago. I'd check with the dealer for a tether mount or adapter - called a "Child Safety Kit" and available to be mounted. This has to be a common question. I'm also guessing you need to lift out the rear bench seat bottom to install the tether. Can you use non-tether mounted seats in Canada?

Previous discussion on topic:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43946

Peter

[poohlikeshunny]

to paulnj, yeah, you just pull the seat belt out until it stops, and when it retracts, you hear it clicking or "grinding" itself on the way back in. When you try to pull it out when it is in this state, it will not slacken unless you let the seatbelt go all the way back in and pull it all the way out again...hope that helps!!!

[Paul NJ]

oh ok thats the way I do it, I just wasnt sure that it was the same thing ;)

[poohlikeshunny]

lol...yup!! cool to know other people have taken their kids out in vert!

[trayson]

I'm guessing that you pull it all the way out and let it retract, making the clicking sound. That's how every other seatbelt is....

Yes, that is how you have the seat belts lock, it's written in the owner's manual.

There's no problem with installing a carseat in the back using the rear seatbelts. The key of course is having a carseat that's got a narrow enough base to fit nicely between the bolsters of the rear bucket style seat. Mine is an Evenflo Chase and is available for very inexpensize at Walmart:
http://www.evenflo.com/images/products/def3293682.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:void(0))

Edit: Now, that I think about it, I'm guessing that you might be wondering about the UPPER tethers available on some carseats?? I've never used them. with my carseat wedged in with my latch retrofit (see below), I can't really see the carseat "rolling forward" which seams the concept that upper tethers are trying to prevent... I suppose if you really wanted to put in an upper tether, that you could do one of two things. 1) make an anchor behind the rear seatback towards the top of the seat and attach a piece of climbing webbing (like I've described below for lower LATCH mounts). or 2) make a "lasso" out of webbing and loop it around the rear headrest posts... I don't know how bomber it'd be; but it's something I suppose one could explore. I do believe that most carseats now a days are made to accomodate cars with upper tethers, lower LATCH tethers, as well as good old fashioned seatbelts with no tethers. Funny, I remember sitting in the back of mom & dad's station wagon with no seatbelts when I was a kid and somehow I lived... Go figure.

What I've done is retrofitten a "LATCH" style system into my vert. basically, I used "L" brackets that I had laying around from old lap belts. Then I looped some rock climbing runners and used those as the attachment points for the clips of the carseat to hook into.

I like the LATCH style attachment because I can get it WAY tighter than using the seatbelt to hold the carseat in.
I did a complete writeup about it here:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14914300&postcount=13

I've also retrofitted an airbag cutoff switch into my car, so I can turn the passenger front airbag off or on with a key. Legality of such a move will vary from state to state; and my ex-wife and her attorney have thrown a sh** fit about it, even though I am complying with both WA and OR law by doing this. Again, that's up to your own personal judgement. Yes, the passenger seat has an "occupancy sensor", but I wanted something a bit more positive than that.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Here are some threads where I've commented before:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1131729&highlight=carseat

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1119196&highlight=carseat

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=937836&highlight=carseat

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=882940&highlight=carseat

[ponchiz318]

Took him a while, but there he is...:D

[trayson]

Took him a while, but there he is...:D

I was busy snowboarding all weekend. A guy's gotta have his priorities!

[Brashland]

I'm trying to figure out how this will work with a rear facing infant seat. Baby comes in mid June and I'm not sure I can even fit an infant seat in my car. It's hard enough fitting a decent sized box into the back seat, I can't imagine how this will work with an infant carrier.

[trayson]

I'm trying to figure out how this will work with a rear facing infant seat. Baby comes in mid June and I'm not sure I can even fit an infant seat in my car. It's hard enough fitting a decent sized box into the back seat, I can't imagine how this will work with an infant carrier.

Go into a babies r us and try carseats in the car. They let you take them out and try it. this is what we did with our Jeep Liberty when our son was born. Turst me, the ability to have the carseat take up even 2" less space is HUGE. For an infant, get one with a base that the "carrier" snaps into. For us, we got a "travel system" that had a stroller that the carrier snapped into as well. But that travel system stroller was HUGE, and impractical for an E36 vert for sure. But being able to have the baby sleeping in the carrier and just snap them into the base is a HUGE convenience.

Doing a smidge of searching online, I read that this is one of the more compact ones...
Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP
Again, with our cars, you're not only going to be worrying about something that's compact lengthwise, but widthwise for the rear bucket seats...

Don't worry about the idea of getting one of those car seats that "does everything". I got a different car seat once I could justify making him forward facing. the tricky part is honestly when they're a smidge too tall (long) to be in the infant carrier, but they're also too young (under a year) to be forward facing. That's that "no man's land time" and it's kind of frustrating. If you're lucky, you can have him in the carrier until he's a year and then switch to a forward facing seat (like my Evenflo that I posted above).

Make sure you put a towel under the seat to save your leather too! LOL

But honestly, you're gonna have to go to a place where you can try the various carseats in your car and see what will actually fit. I won't be of that much help on something that works since my son was almost 2 when I got my first E36 vert.

[Cdn318iVertGuy]

I don't think US child seats use tethers - or at least they didn't 14 years ago. I'd check with the dealer for a tether mount or adapter - called a "Child Safety Kit" and available to be mounted. This has to be a common question. I'm also guessing you need to lift out the rear bench seat bottom to install the tether. Can you use non-tether mounted seats in Canada?

Previous discussion on topic:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43946

Peter
Hello peter,

We are required in Canada to use upper tethers with car seats until the child is 40 lbs. at which time we can switch to a simple booster seat using the seat belt.

Steve


Hey man, I have 2 boys, 1 yr old and 3 yrs old. For them I use a standard toddler seat for 20lbs+ and just strap them in using the shoulder belts. I have no tether anchors, but they are pretty firm once you get the seatbelt to lock. My little on used to hate it when he was facing backward in the infant seat, but now that he is big enough to face forward like his big brother, top down action is the only way to go!
Hey Pooh...

We have all kinds of laws up here to "protect us from hurting ourselves" - one of them is that we needto use upper tethers on our forward facing child seats.

Steve

[trayson]

Hello peter,

We are required in Canada to use upper tethers with car seats until the child is 40 lbs. at which time we can switch to a simple booster seat using the seat belt.

Steve


Hey Pooh...

We have all kinds of laws up here to "protect us from hurting ourselves" - one of them is that we needto use upper tethers on our forward facing child seats.

Steve

Understandable, but what are you supposed to do in cars that are older and don't come with upper tether mounting points???? I mean, if someone was rolling a 1965 mustang, what would they expect you to do??? Tethers on carseats weren't even invented back then.

[Cdn318iVertGuy]

Understandable, but what are you supposed to do in cars that are older and don't come with upper tether mounting points???? I mean, if someone was rolling a 1965 mustang, what would they expect you to do??? Tethers on carseats weren't even invented back then.
Good question - I think I will try to find out!

I have a picture of myself going home from the hospital with my Mom holding me in the front seat of the family car without a seat belt or any kind of car seat anywhere to be found. And I'm not that old (at least I don't think I am).

I get the child car seat idea - not sure tethering should be required though - good thing we have all those laws - I don't know how we could have survived without them - oh ya we did :)

[poohlikeshunny]

Hello peter,

We are required in Canada to use upper tethers with car seats until the child is 40 lbs. at which time we can switch to a simple booster seat using the seat belt.

Steve


Hey Pooh...

We have all kinds of laws up here to "protect us from hurting ourselves" - one of them is that we needto use upper tethers on our forward facing child seats.

Steve

oh man...I can understand it...but like trayson said...not every car had anchors for tethers...then what???

[pwlorraine]

oh man...I can understand it...but like trayson said...not every car had anchors for tethers...then what???

Not every car had tether anchors but the e36 supposedly has a retrofit kit available from the dealer in Canada.

Peter


Hello peter,

We have all kinds of laws up here to "protect us from hurting ourselves" - one of them is that we needto use upper tethers on our forward facing child seats.

Steve

I grew up in Toronto. At schools here in Niskayuna (mid NY state) kids aren't allowed to pick up snow in their hands at school because of the concern they might make a snow ball. I kid you not.

The Transport Canada web site is clear - if your car doesn't have a tether mount, take it to the dealer to have one put in. Doesn't look like any grandfathering.

I think if you connected the upper tether mount to the pop-up roll bars you could make a cheap ejector seat. But I doubt Transport Canada would view that as a safety enhancement.

Peter

[Cdn318iVertGuy]

Not every car had tether anchors but the e36 supposedly has a retrofit kit available from the dealer in Canada.

Peter



I grew up in Toronto. At schools here in Niskayuna (mid NY state) kids aren't allowed to pick up snow in their hands at school because of the concern they might make a snow ball. I kid you not.

The Transport Canada web site is clear - if your car doesn't have a tether mount, take it to the dealer to have one put in. Doesn't look like any grandfathering.

I think if you connected the upper tether mount to the pop-up roll bars you could make a cheap ejector seat. But I doubt Transport Canada would view that as a safety enhancement.

Peter
Peter,

Do you happen to know when the mounts (or at least a designated location to screw them in) became law here in Canada?

I have a manual for my car on order but I have not recieved it yet - so I am not sure if there is a place to attach the tether or not.

Good to know your kids are safe from snow :)

Steve

[trayson]

You know, I would do is make your own mount. here's a picture of my 1996 328i vert with the rear seat removed. Obviously, my 328i didn't come with factory headrests...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_V5P5_vRRjmE/RvHzfRanSBI/AAAAAAAAAGg/LqiWc6O1cFE/s800/DSCF0121.JPG

Drill a hole in the metal. Attach a mounting point for a piece of webbing to attach...


Seat belt hardware:
http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:8SQSEorhQiUq8M:http://www.djsafety.com/main%2520page_files/PRODUCTS/SeatBeltHardware/600305_lg.jpg

Rock Climbing Hardware:
http://media.rei.com/media/471508Lrg.jpg

And then make yourself a loop of webbing for your tether strap to attach to using rock climbing webbing so that it's plenty strong:
http://media.rei.com/media/200304.jpg

I would put that up against any "retrofit kit" out there. You'd be into it under $20 and maybe 30 minutes at most...

[Cdn318iVertGuy]

You know, I would do is make your own mount. here's a picture of my 1996 328i vert with the rear seat removed. Obviously, my 328i didn't come with factory headrests...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_V5P5_vRRjmE/RvHzfRanSBI/AAAAAAAAAGg/LqiWc6O1cFE/s800/DSCF0121.JPG

Drill a hole in the metal. Attach a mounting point for a piece of webbing to attach...


Seat belt hardware:
http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:8SQSEorhQiUq8M:http://www.djsafety.com/main%2520page_files/PRODUCTS/SeatBeltHardware/600305_lg.jpg

Rock Climbing Hardware:
http://media.rei.com/media/471508Lrg.jpg

And then make yourself a loop of webbing for your tether strap to attach to using rock climbing webbing so that it's plenty strong:
http://media.rei.com/media/200304.jpg

I would put that up against any "retrofit kit" out there. You'd be into it under $20 and maybe 30 minutes at most...
Trayson,

Great pic - thanks.

Interesting idea - I don't see the attachments in the picture - is this a before picture or am I just missing something?

I have the headrests and the 'pop up roll bars' so it may confuse things; however, it looks like there is a bunch of extra space back there?

Steve

[trayson]

^^^^^^^^

Since I live in the states, I've never bothered with upper tethers.

Yeah, definitely more hardware in there w/ the headrests & rollover. (I have that in my M3). But I didn't have a pic of that handy...