seatbelt installs in minivan captains chair

laudymama

New member
Posting a lot lately but really trying to narrow things down in our search! Whatever van we end up with, the plan is to move the 2nd row captains chair toward the center- make sense? So my question is this....obviously I can only use the latch for up to so many lbs. so what happens when I need to use the seatbelt for that seat? Depending on the van, is the seatbelt attached to the body of the car or the seat itself? How does this affect carseat installs when moving the captain seat toward center? It's hard to tell in the pictures how the seatbelts are. We are looking at Siennas, Odysseys, and now may have tossed the town & country into the mix if that makes any difference based on make. I know I am probably over analyzing everything:eek: but I just don't want any surprises or regrets down the road!
 
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Pixels

New member
Most vans have the belt attached to the frame of the vehicle, not the seat itself. When you install with the belt and the seat is moved over, the belt will be stretched across the aisle you've created by moving the seat over. If you have kids accessing the third row, they might not mind crawling through, or they might. It is something to consider and look at while you are shopping, as various vehicles will have different geometry.
 

Phineasmama

New member
Keep in mind that you can always have the two littlest kids in the 2nd row captains chairs, and by the time you have three your oldest *should* be able to buckle/unbuckle by themselves. That's what I'm doing with our new van, DD1 can get back there by herself very easily. And even if I need to climb back there to help her with something it's not a big deal!
 

MommyShannon

New member
My solution is I keep having babies so I keep the baby's seat LATCHed there. That may not be the best solution for everyone though and is going to backfire eventually. My oldest is 6 and boostered and able to put her belt into the guide herself. I have considered trying her there if needed. Since mine range from 6 to due in July, I think I will be able to juggle them around ok. The other thing I've considered is leaving the aisle between the seats and have a FF seat they can easily walk in front of then to the back. That only works if the rear kids don't need help buckling.
 

Pixels

New member
Keep in mind that you can always have the two littlest kids in the 2nd row captains chairs, and by the time you have three your oldest *should* be able to buckle/unbuckle by themselves. That's what I'm doing with our new van, DD1 can get back there by herself very easily. And even if I need to climb back there to help her with something it's not a big deal!

That totally depends on the child and on the spacing of the children. I'm about to have three, and my eldest will be four when the new baby comes. She is nowhere near strong enough to buckle or unbuckle herself. I will have to climb into the third row every.single.time to help her once we have three.

And how easy it is for an adult to get back there to help a child also depends on the adult and the vehicle. Once the belt is stretched across, it can be near impossible sometimes.

Then again, by the time the youngest is 40 pounds and needs a belt install, the eldest should be easily buckling and unbuckling on her own.
 

bella_1818

New member
I've read on here but not personally verified that the owners manual for the 2012 Sienna requires that the captains chairs be all the way back if using a child safety seat in the captains chair. Might be something you want to look into if you aren't planning to keep the chairs all the way back.
 

daniele_ut

New member
You mentioned Town and Country in your post, so I thought I'd mention that the captains chairs do not move at all in the T&C. They are fixed in one spot.
 

Phineasmama

New member
That totally depends on the child and on the spacing of the children. I'm about to have three, and my eldest will be four when the new baby comes. She is nowhere near strong enough to buckle or unbuckle herself. I will have to climb into the third row every.single.time to help her once we have three.

And how easy it is for an adult to get back there to help a child also depends on the adult and the vehicle. Once the belt is stretched across, it can be near impossible sometimes.

Then again, by the time the youngest is 40 pounds and needs a belt install, the eldest should be easily buckling and unbuckling on her own.

Well I guess I was kind of going off her siggy. It says her oldest is 2y 3m and no mention of being pregnant- yet. I already had my second baby by the time my first was 2 years old. Now I have 3. So unless she has two babies literally back to back then it just might work.

I wasn't talking about having the captains chairs next to each other either, I meant just leave them in the regular position and if the oldest child is old enough to buckle his/her own seat you're golden. You don't need to slide the seat over and there is no issue with the seat belt being stretched across the floor.

So no, maybe it wouldn't work for every single person in the world but I thought it was something the OP might want to consider :)
 

MommyShannon

New member
Pixels said:
That totally depends on the child and on the spacing of the children. I'm about to have three, and my eldest will be four when the new baby comes. She is nowhere near strong enough to buckle or unbuckle herself. I will have to climb into the third row every.single.time to help her once we have three.

And how easy it is for an adult to get back there to help a child also depends on the adult and the vehicle. Once the belt is stretched across, it can be near impossible sometimes.

Then again, by the time the youngest is 40 pounds and needs a belt install, the eldest should be easily buckling and unbuckling on her own.

In our Ody with the seat moved center, it's not bad to buckle a FF child in the outboard spot behind the aisle. Obviously, not much help with 3 RF, but that seems tricky in any scenario. DS will probably still need some help when the baby comes so I will move him there I think.

Another option if you don't have a full van is folding down the 40% seat and climbing in through the back. I'd be ok climbing into the Ody that way to buckle one.
 

laudymama

New member
Thanks for all the tips! We went to buy an '08 Sienna tonight that was fully loaded for an amazing price and literally an hour earlier they sold it to wholesale:( I had called to make sure it was still there too just about the time it must have been getting put on the truck. We're pretty upset. We finally made a decision and now we're back to square 1 with no options out there! Just in case anyone finds this thread later and is curious I can now state that the seatbelt IS attached to the 2nd row passenger outboard seat in the Sienna. It is attached to the car body in the Odyssey. We looked at a town & country and did find that the seats don't move as the pp said.
 

laudymama

New member
Most vans have the belt attached to the frame of the vehicle, not the seat itself. When you install with the belt and the seat is moved over, the belt will be stretched across the aisle you've created by moving the seat over. If you have kids accessing the third row, they might not mind crawling through, or they might. It is something to consider and look at while you are shopping, as various vehicles will have different geometry.

But you CAN install a RF or FF seat with the seatbelt stretched from the frame? Just wanted to make sure I am clear that it's ok :)
 

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