Rules about riding in a RV/converted bus?

[Train-train]

My family and I are planning a long trip to my in-laws. So far, we have only used our bus on short trips. Our seats have seat belts so the current rules for our kids is to always be seated and wearing your seat belts.I have been looking around the authority's web sites to review what the law is, but I can not find anything that applies to my questions. Does everyone ride in their RV in much the same rules as you would a regular passenger car? People that I have talked to have stories of lounging in the RVs while going down the road. Is this legal? I know I bring up some pretty stupid questions but I have never traveled in an RV before.

[the_experience03]

As I read it in our state regulations no seatbelts are required if the manufacturer didn't put them in the RV. Since I am the manufacturer...

At the same time I know plenty of people have put seatbelts in and I think that's a good idea. I just didn't have a means of doing that with my couch that was very feasible.

[Elliot Naess]

How about you walk into an RV dealer and look thru some of the inventory? Wear clean clothes and comb your hair, and talk friendly and upbeat, and they will let you look all you want. I seem to remember seat belts on forward facing seats near the front, but not on "living room furniture" further back.

[newbusser]

Train, I have been cruzin the skoolie network continuously for the last two months and have yet to see one stupid question from anyone, including you. I have learned something from every question asked and answered. Please, keep them comming??

[Steve]

Maybe it is different from state-state but in Iowa you do not need to be wearing a seatbelt unless you are the driver or sitting in a seat next to the driver if you have one (not even the driver if the bus is older than 1972ish, mine is and does not have seatbelts, even for the driver.)

[lapeer20m]

i just looked it up and the michigan statutes are interesting....

(3) Each operator and front seat passenger of a motor vehicle operated on a street or highway in this state shall wear a properly adjusted and fastened safety belt except as follows:

257.710b Safety belts; bolts and brackets.

Sec. 710b.

A private passenger vehicle manufactured after January 1, 1965 shall not be offered for sale in this state unless the vehicle is equipped with safety belts for the use of the driver and 1 other front seat passenger. All safety belts and bolts and brackets used in the installation of the safety belts shall meet the minimum specifications of the society of automotive engineers as prescribed on April 1, 1963. This section shall not apply to trucks, buses, hearses, motorcycles, or mopeds.

does that mean that in a semi truck, pickup truck, bus or hearse you don't have to wear a seatbelt?

under the section 257.710d Child restraint system required; exceptions; violation as civil infraction; points; abstract; exemption by rules; alternate means of protection.

(3) This section does not apply if the motor vehicle being driven is a bus, school bus, taxicab, moped, motorcycle, or other motor vehicle not required to be equipped with safety belts under federal law or regulations.

so you can breast feed your kid while going down the road? otherwise they have to be in a carseat, that's odd. Also doesn't apply to a bus, school bus, etc

and the last one i ran across

(1) This section does not apply to an operator or passenger of any of the following:

(a) A motor vehicle manufactured before January 1, 1965.

(b) A bus.

(c) A motorcycle.

(d) A moped.

(e) A motor vehicle if the operator or passenger possesses a written verification from a physician that the operator or passenger is unable to wear a safety belt for physical or medical reasons.

(f) A motor vehicle that is not required to be equipped with safety belts under federal law.

(g) A commercial or United States postal service vehicle that makes frequent stops for the purpose of pickup or delivery of goods or services.

(h) A motor vehicle operated by a rural carrier of the United States postal service while serving his or her rural postal route.

(2) This section does not apply to a passenger of a school bus.

and i found this link here: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/safet ... 8581_7.pdf

[the_experience03]

I think according to those laws a person driving and someone in an adjacent seat (if you have one) would need to be wearing a belt. The bus exception does not apply unless you have registered the bus as a private bus (which I believe a few of you Michiganians have). Unfortunately you can't have all the benefits of RV tags without some of the regulations as well.

[sportyrick]

I put a couple seat belts on my couches in case someone was nervous about their precious little kid getting thrown sideways out of the front window. Otherwise no one will put them on anyway while traveling down the interstate.....what fun is that? I plan on my 10th Christmas trip in a couple weeks with at least 20 people and no one ever puts their seat belt on. We walk around, visit, eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and I do the same if I am not driving, that's the fun of it, free to roam. Just be sure you build your RV w/o any sharp corners or edges, curtain rod holders (use magnets), or anything that will warrant a travel delay by going to the local hospital for stitches. We did get stopped by the cops one time when my niece mooned a car behind us through the rear door.....a cop was the next car back....pulled us over and wanted the person who did the deed.....she finally fessed up, the female cop was smiling the whole while and asked if we were a choral group or what, my niece said everyone on the bus had the same last name and it was a Christmas trip.....FUN. I have a picture in my album.

[Ronnie]

As far as I can tell any behind the front seats do not need them, but what about child safety seats?

[TheHubbardBus]

The law only applies to witnessed violations.
The law & safety might not necessarily agree.
I think you'd have to try real hard to get ticketed for safety violations of your passengers.
I also think that if your goal is to keep everyone onboard as safe as possible, the law is probably more a starting point than the final say.


Just make sure any relatives you don't care for are partitioned off so they don't become missiles that may impact those you do

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by LaraBulinksky

While traveling with kids in an RV, with all of its amenities, comforts and room to spread out, it’s sometimes easy to forget that you are, in fact, riding in a moving vehicle. Even though an RV is equipped with the comforts of home, you must remember that turns, bumps, braking and unexpected movements can cause things in your RV to fall, or cause cabinets to open.

How curious - your comment is word-for-word identical to section 2 of this blog post from rvshare.com: https://rvshare.com/blog/safe-rv-travel-with-kids/, and you certainly don't look like a "Jeremy Miller".

No offense, but ... you are a robot, aren't you? (this is a quote from a Lost in Space episode and I wanted to link the clip, but I can't find the darn thing on Youtube - looks like somebody issued a copyright takedown on everything from that show lol)

Edit: oops, I didn't realized this poster actually included a link to the blog post the comment was taken from. Oh well, I still don't think it's a real person.

[matthews2001]

We drove across Canada to Alaska last summer. After several weeks we became VERY comfortable walking around the bus, and my 18 year old became a better driver then I (this is our first bus and trip).

Anyhow One afternoon I decided to shower while he was driving. While all soaped up my son yells, dad, we're getting pulled over! Well I got dried and dressed by the time our bus stopped and ran up front all wet headed. Evidently we passed a water craft inspection station (Kayaks on the roof?). The cop was so pissed he couldnt see straight (or my wet hair), and made us turn around and go back to the inspection.

Only time pulled over, haha.

[naes14]

Watercraft inspection? Is that a thing for self powered water craft like kayaks?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by matthews2001

The cop was so pissed he couldnt see straight

A few years ago my dad was in the hospital in Cleveland and the GPS device we were using to get there ended up directing us towards a branch of the hospital that had been closed some months before. I ended up driving past a traffic sign that said "no through traffic" and was pulled over by a cop who decided I was the stupidest human being in history and actually said "can you not read?" My discourse on the meaning of the phrase "through traffic" just made him angrier, but at least he sent us on our way without a ticket.

On our way out of this part of the city, we passed an odd sight: a huge corner piece of a building, about 40 feet long, had fallen off and embedded itself in the street. It was surrounded by police tape and emergency vehicles, and this was apparently why the area had been closed to (through) traffic.

Turns out this was when they were filming The Avengers in Cleveland, and the building corner was a movie set, but we only discovered this a few days later.