Help with car seats in conversion vans (wheelchair accessible)

munchkin

Active member
I am trying to help my cousin out with her seats, 600 miles away and I am totally lost. Her youngest just turned one and will remain RF in her Marathon. The oldest is in a Frontier in mom/dad's car, but they wanted something cheaper for the grandparents and decided to go with Nautili.

Here is the problem (this is copied from what she sent me).

I've got a question for you regarding car seat installation. My dad bought a Graco Nautilus for his conversion van. He's having difficulty installing it. He can't get the shoulder strap part of the seat belt to extend far enough to install it. He got some seat belt extenders from GM but it turns out that they don't work with the seat belts. The car was modified for my mom's wheelchair lift and apparently at that time the GM seat belts were replaced with Jayco seatbelts. (This makes no sense to me because they didn't have to do anything the bench seat at the back of the van.) J is going to try to help him. (He installed the Graco Nautilus for his parents and said while he had to extend the seatbelt, it didn't need that much. (I mean what if there was a very large person trying to sit on the seat. They couldn't use the seatbelt??) Anyway, just wondered if you have any suggestions?

Grandpa is kinda old, but if J goes over he should be able to see what the problem is (might be a while he travels a lot for work). I was wondering if anyone has any experience with conversion vans and would know of any issues with installing car seats. Especially any issues with non-factory belts being installed.

Also is anyone around Dearborn/Livonia, MI that would maybe be willing to help. (Kiddos/cousin in Dearborn, van/grandparents in Livonia, so closer to Livonia would be better.) I could send your info to her to contact you.
 
ADS

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
You cannot use a seatbelt extender with a car seat in a car. (Plane extensions are different.) I would suggest finding out if the seatbelts can be replaced (at least the one) with an original equipment seatbelt. I too have no idea why they would have to replace the seatbelts...
 

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