Grandma got a seat, now needs anchors

[dd9736]

Ok, my friend's mom just got a scenera for her grandkids (wahoo!!!) I love when grandparents care that much.
Anyway, she has a 97 Chevy Astro van, can I get information on which locations the tethers are approved for?

Also from the Canadian Techs, can I get a link with information, or just the information if that's handy to printout so she doesn't have to fight with the chevy dealer in town to get them installed for free?

[snowbird25ca]

Someone will pipe in with the LATCH manual here right away. I believe the Astro has the same setup as the 97 Venture though - the bolt that holds the seatbelt stalk for the 3rd row passenger outboard is used for the tether anchor for a 2nd row outboard seat and that's the only approved anchor in the van. Depending on seating location, she may end up using a 3rd row seatbelt as a tether anchor.

(There was a thread similar to this sometime in the last month in the technical forum I think, maybe try searching there for 1997 astro.)

[SusanMae]

The LATCH manual says to contact the deal for pre-01 vehicles.

I believe the service bulletin number she needs them to reference is 99-09-40-004.

Susan

[dd9736]

The LATCH manual says to contact the deal for pre-01 vehicles.

I believe the service bulletin number she needs them to reference is 99-09-40-004.

Susan

is this the us one, or the canadian one? i need the canadian info

[snowbird25ca]

I'm pm'ing a tech on here that has a 97 astro. I searched her posts and couldn't find specific information about the tether anchors. From what I found, it appears the montana, lumina, and venture vans are the same, but the astro isn't, so I'm not sure what the tether anchor instructions are for it.

Dealerships in Canada are usually pretty experienced and knowledgeable about adding tether anchors because they do it frequently. Has she tried calling the dealership?

[dd9736]

she just found out she needed them, when she asked me about tethering it (she was *gasp* reading the manual) when she didn't have anchors.

[Defrost]

Hi, I'm the tech who has a '97 Chevy Astro. :)

It's got two already installed - they're the cargo hooks behind the third row. Yes, I know... "Never ever use cargo hooks as tether anchors because they're not strong enough!" This is an exception to that rule. Here's a picture of what they look like:

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/alunatic_photos/IMG_1036.jpg

As you can see, the hooks themselves are metal, bolted to the floor with a heavy bolt, and if you look underneath the van, you can see it's bolted to a metal plate through the body of the vehicle (unlike most cargo hooks).

The vehicle manual does not have this information - it just says to contact the dealership about having them installed. I have done a bit of research on this, though, and they are approved TAs. The only thing you'll notice is that the hooks are a bit thick and you may have to fight a bit to get them on and off.

As far as tethering in the center row, I've seen pictures of tethering to the rear-row seatbelt-lower-attachment-points in other vehicles, and while those are accessible in this van, I don't know whether or not they are "approved." My van has a three-person bench seat. The only way I've tethered a seat in the center row was by tethering a carseat in the center seat to the rear-row's center lapbelt. (There have been other threads with pictures detailing how to do this; hopefully someone else can post those for you.)

Hope that helps!