How To Add A Shoulder Belt To Rear Middle Seat?

[preist]

Is there way to add a shoulder belt for the rear, center seat in the previous model Sierra? My youngest is graduating to a booster from a baby seat and so I must have a third shoulder belt (lap belt only is not acceptable by law to my knowledge). Honestly I don't know how this is configured in the new model Sierra's but I believe they have this 3rd shoulder belt.

 

Options?

 

Thx.

[dlstewart01]

If you have a 2002 crew cab must be a 3/4 ton. Dont know when they started putting the middle harness in crews. Probably when they went to 1/2 tons. They did not put the middle shoulder harness in the back seat in extended cabs till 2006. Don't remember how it is anchored. But as stated above yours should be legal for what came stock on it..

 

Don

[THE SILVERADO]

Wow, i didn't know that the 02 crews had only a lapbelt. My 2005 has the shoulder

belts. I think the easiest way would be to swap the rear seat from an 03-06 crew. I'm

not sure if an Avalanche or Tahoe would work.

[shawnbo]

Honestly, sticking to what the law says isn't enough here IMO. I don't have kids but I'd never put one in a seat with just a lap belt- in an accident that is way too much force acting on a little ones hips, and no torso control is just bad news. I grew up riding in cars like that but I know I'd want better for my kids if I had them.

 

Assuming the center belt is totally self-contained within the seat, swapping in a newer seat with the 3-point belt is probably the best solution.

 

My point was, even if it is self contained, unless the truck was designed to mount that seat, it will not be engineered for the truck, and as such, will not be properly mounted in the truck. If the seat requires an engineered mount (as opposed to just bolted in anywhere) for the seat and/or belts, it cannot be trusted to react properly in the case or an accident.

 

 

My hope was that if the new seat bolts in the same, and the new center shoulder belt mount is in the same place as my current lap belt mount, it should be OK. Unless anyone is familiar with the bolt-in, I'm going to have to find an applicable model and compare the seat mounting with mine.

[95Sierra2500]

Remember that seat-belt laws apply only to NEW vehicles when they're passed. My '68 Firebird has only lap belts in the front and NO belts in the rear, which was perfectly acceptable back then. My '95 has shoulder belts at all wall /door seats, and only lap belts in the middle, which was the ONLY way it was offered and they can't force you to upgrade something like that. Therefore, since your truck simply didn't come with a middle shoulder strap, the law of needing one in that location does NOT apply to your truck. Unless, of course, your state is stupid, in which case they should pay for the retrofit.

[MikeNH]

Honestly, sticking to what the law says isn't enough here IMO. I don't have kids but I'd never put one in a seat with just a lap belt- in an accident that is way too much force acting on a little ones hips, and no torso control is just bad news. I grew up riding in cars like that but I know I'd want better for my kids if I had them.

 

Assuming the center belt is totally self-contained within the seat, swapping in a newer seat with the 3-point belt is probably the best solution.

[Doug_Scott]

Honestly, sticking to what the law says isn't enough here IMO. I don't have kids but I'd never put one in a seat with just a lap belt- in an accident that is way too much force acting on a little ones hips, and no torso control is just bad news. I grew up riding in cars like that but I know I'd want better for my kids if I had them.

 

Assuming the center belt is totally self-contained within the seat, swapping in a newer seat with the 3-point belt is probably the best solution.

 

My point was, even if it is self contained, unless the truck was designed to mount that seat, it will not be engineered for the truck, and as such, will not be properly mounted in the truck. If the seat requires an engineered mount (as opposed to just bolted in anywhere) for the seat and/or belts, it cannot be trusted to react properly in the case or an accident.

[John Edwards_53390]

I'm going to add a reply to this old topic because I looked everywhere for options to accomplish this same thing, and this is one of the first threads that shows up when you google the problem.

 

I have a 2003 GMC Sierra extended cab, and my son sits in the middle bench seat. I found something on Wesco Performance's website that allows you, with the existing hardware, to add shoulder straps. It's called a 4-point harness. It's about $65 dollars and will do the trick.

 

Good luck to everybody!

[shawnbo]

You may be right that the the legal requirements can't exceed the stock configuration however there is likely good reason that child booster seats need the shoulder belt so it is probably worth figuring out how to do it.

 

So far it sounds like the taking the seat module from the recent trucks is the best bet but $$$.

 

.

 

Did you ever have any luck with this? I'm looking at the same issue on a 2000 Z71 Ext Cab, and was considering a late model rear seat with shoulder harness already included.

[Doug_Scott]

There is more to a belt that just adding it where it was not. Where are you planning on mounting the shoulder harness? Simply changing the rear seat would not be safe. If the new version has shoulder harness, you can be sure that it also has different mounts for the seat back.

 

You say your "youngest", so you must have other kids. Are the other kids also in booster seats? If they have graduated out of booster seats, then you can put one of them in the middle and put the youngest on they outboard sides with shoulder harness.

[preist]

You may be right that the the legal requirements can't exceed the stock configuration however there is likely good reason that child booster seats need the shoulder belt so it is probably worth figuring out how to do it.

 

So far it sounds like the taking the seat module from the recent trucks is the best bet but $$$.

 

.