Newbie in Texas

[CrunchyFamily]

Hi everyone!! I'm Charlise from Dallas, TX. My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a school bus to renovate in the next month or so. We plan to stay stationary for a while, maybe a year or two while we save to go on the road. I have 5 children, all boys ages (almost 2 through 9), so I would love to hear from anyone who also has small children. Specifically about carseat safety! Thanks!!

 

[bansil]

Welcome aboard and good luck in you adventure

 

[taskswap]

We have 5 as well. Our two youngest do sit in car seats but I don't think of it as a big issue. I'm going to include two pairs of "lift rated" D-rings bolted to a piece of 1" steel tubing. That will be sistered onto the crossbar of a seat we'll save from the original bus. Buses are already pretty safe (they didn't even have seatbelts until recently, and even now don't always require kids to buckle up). Even at 10Gs it doesn't take much to keep 45lbs of kid from going airborne, which is the only point of them in the first place. You can buy seats with built-in car seats if you're worried.

 

[FirstTimeSchoolie]

I am so happy to read your post! My husband and I have 2 small children (1 and 5) as well! We are looking for a bus, but so far haven't found one. I am so happy to see a fellow lady in here. I was beginning to think I was the only one! LoL

I just recently saw a conversion on youtube where they put a row of captains chairs (like from a car) right behind the driver with a wall along the back of the chairs and a door into the main cabin. That allowed them to install proper safety belts with carseats. It took up a few feet from the living space, but it might be worth the trade off.

 

[EastCoastCB]

Yeah I'm also building a dedicated, yet small, cab area that will double as a "front lounge".

 

[cowlitzcoach]

Any full size Type 'C' or 'D' school bus is so much safer for passengers there is no comparison to any regular car or SUV. Between the tons of steel and the fact the floor is above almost all other vehicles besides commercial trucks makes the passenger compartment of a school bus one of the safest places for a passenger to ride.

Almost every school bus seat has been seat belt ready since about 2010. You can retrofit older seats by installing attachement points through the floor. Installing 3-point belts can be a problem if the seats are not seat belt ready. It can be done but it would require building anchor points into the side walls, or a wall behind the passenger seats, or into a framework like a roll cage. Older IC bus seats can be retrofitted with factory parts to turn regular seats into seats with 3-point belts. You can even get built in booster seats like Chrysler has had available in their mini-vans.

If there is not a seat close in front of your seating positions such that in an accident the passenger would rotate at the hips and hit the forehead on the seat in front 3-point belts are a bit of overkill. The problem for those who are still in car seats is it is hard to find any car seat today that isn't designed to work with 3-point belts. I was lucky to find at a garage sale an older booster seat that works with a lap belt--sure it isn't as good as a new seat but it is sure a lot better than no belt like it was when I was a kid.

Let me know if I can help with your search to find the "perfect" bus for you.

Good luck and happy trails.