Though we purchased our '25 Realm Presidential early this year, it's taken us six months to get out on the open road. And we love our new Foretravel. Solidly built with lots of upgrades over the "production" brands.
That said, one surprising issue is that the driver and passenger seatbelts have no shoulder harness — only a lap belt. Anyone else find that strange, especially in this day of increased safety measures everywhere?
I agree, always caused me pause when I looked. Its been that way in Foretravels for many years, like 15+
The style of the passenger seats do not allow for a built in / in seat solution and there is not a good mount area to anchor a remote belt to, so instead they omit it. I believe there is a vehicle classification level based on weight that allows the exemption.
I was not aware of this, I currently own 2 vehicles with shoulder belts intergraded in the seats. The exemption for weight seems odd being you could still get into the steering column, ETC in a crash. I personally would not be comfortable having responded to many vehicle crashes over the years seeing how shoulder belts are so effective. Jim.
Are there air bags in these new coaches?
Seatbelt dilemma goes back to school busses that have none.
Is it because of low speed of operation or the weight of the buss?
Now the lap belt provides limited restraint in case of an accident.
The significance of a seat belt (even just a lap belt) is two-fold:
1) It prevents you from getting ejected during a roll-over, which is one of the leading factors of death in automobile incidents and
2) Newton's second law of motion, which states that force equals mass times acceleration. In the context of a car crash, the seatbelt helps to reduce the force on your body by increasing the time over which your body slows down, effectively reducing the acceleration. The seat belt basically gives you the same mass as the vehicle, which affects how acceleration is calculated.
Newton's second law is also the reason you want a car that crumples like a pop can in a collision. It increases the duration of the event, effectively decreasing the acceleration in f=m*a
I'm definitely a seat belt fan - our 2000 GV has integrated belts (integrated means the shoulder belt is built into the seat, it's engineered for this - I'm a huge fan of these!) ... I more recently test drove a late model Foretravel that I'm certain also had an integrated belt in the driver's seat (air ride) but just a lap belt on the fancy passenger recliner...
Our 99 only had lap belts and the back height was less than desirable considering no head restraints. We were in the factory five years ago to get a few parts and saw two very used Villa seats with the shoulder strap in a pile of trash. They were missing seat belt parts. Wandered around until we found David who did not want to sell them, took some convincing and he relented. Allowed us to test them using a car battery and they were fully functional. Bought them for $400, had them rebuilt, reupholstered with new seat belts installed. They are pure comfort, the passenger seat is not as wide as the original but still has the foot rest that comes out and raised, seat back is heigher and acts as a head restraint.
They are so comfortable, we prefer the three point seat belts.