Question Advice Installing Car Seats in 15 Passenger

Hi All,

I have a good friend who does foster care and I'm trying to figure out who to best install car seats in her van. The van does not have latch. Anyone have experience with this? They have 2 four year olds, 2 three year olds and a 1 year old. I would like to see them be as safe as possible. Thanks!!

AndiJoy
Mom to Little Man, age 2.
FF in First Years True Fit

Seatbelt installs are just as safe as LATCH. LATCH was only designed to be easier and more standard, not safer. 15 passenger vans have very low seatbacks so you will need hbb versus no back boosters when the time comes. You should put the harnessed seats in the middle because there are lap only belts in each middle position.

Also a foster mom here, considering a 15 passenger van. I'm also interested in any responses.

I agree with the PP that seatbelt installs are just as safe, in fact we have to use them in order to get 3 across in our vehicles.

Are the 3 year olds forward facing? What carseats do they currently have? I've heard the benches are fairly narrow, so you probably could only get 2 seats per bench. So I'd do the most mature 4 year old in the 3rd rear seat, a 4 and 3 year old in the 2nd rear seat, and a 3 year old and 1 year old in the 1st rear seat. I'd put the rearfacing 1 year old behind the driver for easier access for the others. If any of the others are rearfacing, I'd put them on the drivers side as well.

I used to install seats twice a week in 15 passenger van where I worked. The only 3 across situations that wouldn't work involved a regent. In other words, width was not a problem from my stand point. We have a GMC with the extended wheel base if that makes a difference.

We just test drove a 2008 extended Chevy express with my 6 kiddos. Three across was fairly difficult, due to the stupid cupholder placement on the drivers side. I didn't get to try too many combinations (it was late and the kids were restless), but I think the marathon is the only seat that would fit well there. The seats were almost sitting on the buckles in some cases, but I wanted to get the test drive done and get out of there.

We did get the following to work, but definitely not optimal:

Driver/Middle/Passenger
MA/Nautilus/radian
MA/TB/Air Booster

The nautilus was NOT going to fit into the drivers side - and DH brought the marathons last (hence why they were NOT tried in the drivers side, but it appeared they would clear the cupholder bulge.

I also didn't like how my 7 YO (who is normally still harnessed in a nautilus) fit without a booster. His head was already above the seatbacks. It's so frustrating that headrests are not an option.

Now if only we can find one in our price range including trade-in value (this one is about $4K above what we wanted to pay). I missed out on 3 vans last week - they all sold right before we went out looking.