Middle Row Seat woes using Child seats - '94 110 - Solved?

hillstrubl

hillstrubl

Founding Member
Starting a new thread specific to child seats in the middle row of a pre-puma 110 (300TDI).
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Just had my 3rd kid and was at first trying to re-use the Recaro Child seats from my D3 in my 110, not going to work as is. Almost zero legroom, they're not as secure as I'm comfortable with (lots of wiggle room) unless I use additional lines to go above what the belts can do, terrible idea.

Current issues with the 110 middle row seats:
  • No headrests
  • Very "thick" on the butt cushion (this complicates the ability to tighten down a "permanently" affixed child seat)
  • Small legroom exacerbated by MASSIVE* seat that fits much further forward than an adult human would be
Abatement options:
  • Clever mounting of said Recaros (see pic below) with an additional brace to tie it into the seatbelt anchor nearby - this will allow LATCH mounting that is far superior to just sliding a seatbelt through
  • New rear seats with headrests that'll allow for migration to their boosters (the 2 kids in question are both old/heavy enough for those) - already speaking to Z.G. about this. There is some lead time before they're available, and much more work but a better - more permanent- solution
Some things to note:
  • Car seat sizes have gotten out of hand. I'm all for safety where possible, but the volume of seat + human for my 42lb 7 year old is significantly larger in the car than a very large very tall dude
  • The LATCH retrofit thing, I'm going to still use the seatbelt for extra peace of mind in the event of an accident, but alone the seat is NOT secure in the middle row
*partially my fault because I bought really nice Recaros with safety in mind, shot myself in the foot when I tried to move it to a vehicle with 1950's seating


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hillstrubl

hillstrubl

Founding Member
Worked on it a bit more today, found a seat (Graco Wayz) that is almost 5" smaller in depth, 4" smaller in width and significantly smaller in height (height of the kid in the seat) vs the Recaro I was using originally. My 2 older kids are old/large enough to be safe in it and when used with the LATCH retrofit kit its MUCH more secure than the setup before.

A few things to note, besides the admittedly absurd straps all over the place:
  • I had to run the excess length of the over-seat strap under the seats floor support. I did this for 2 reasons - Shortening it another way would require the seam being re-sewn in but that seam would be under a lot of load in the event of a crash. Also, it meant that some of the load was tied to the floor support itself in addition to the seatback which is definitely not strong and relies on 2 smallish bolts
  • This config caused the LATCH retrofit bracket to tilt a bit and not be as flush against the seat as it probably should be, I'll remedy this (and further strengthen it) by using a ratcheting strap from the LATCH ring to the OEM seatbelt anchor just below it
I ordered a second LATCH retrofit and 2nd seat to use for #2. When the new seats come in, i'll just move this entire setup over to them.

Here's some pics.

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side by side with the other Recaro I'm replacing.

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hillstrubl

hillstrubl

Founding Member
miket961 said:
Saw this long ago but haven’t tried it yet

Click to expand...
I don't have a lack of anchors though, its more that the child car seats are designed for much deeper seats than are in the middle row by default. Having said that, adding anchors in this way would work great for a younger baby's click-in seat base like was used in the video. I'll look into that for the baby's seat, thanks.
 
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