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Old 04-08-2013, 11:01 AM   #11
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

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Originally Posted by jage
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianW
definitely a no-go for now unless you get a van that has seating with three three-point seatbelts to use with car seats.
Wait, is this a legal requirement now? Is it illegal to take carseats in lap-only vehicles or are carseats no longer designed to work with vintage belts?
To my knowledge lap belts only are ok when used with a full car seat that has a built-in harness (like most infant and younger kid seats do). When we had our 1988 VW Westy camper with only lap belts we were only able to use it because our son was young enough to be in a full car seat with five-point harness.

If you are using a booster seat, it's definitely not ok. Is it legal? Not sure. But current best practices are to use three-point belts with any sort of booster seats.

Also, modern car seats (not boosters) are usually designed to be tethered from the top center to an anchor behind the seat. The LATCH system has this designed in.

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Old 04-08-2013, 11:07 AM   #12
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

Jage - I don't think you have to have a 3-point for car seats. Once the kids are big enough to sit in a booster seat and incorporate the vehicles seat belt it is obviously a good idea to have a 3-point belt. I've got friends that have an older Westy and all it has is lap belts in the back seat for the kids. Is it the safest? Probably not, but I don't think it is illegal.

Often you mount the car seat in the center seat position too, where there is only a lap belt.

edit: Brian - you were reading my mind as I typed!
I think the top tether incorporated by the LATCH system definitely helps secure the seat, especially as the kids grow/become heavier. Neither our '98 Volvo or '84 Econoline (surprise surprise) have the latch system anchors; however, I added anchors in the back for the top tether to work in conjunction with the seat belts for added security.
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Old 04-08-2013, 12:17 PM   #13
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

You will be very tight and cramped very quickly. I would not recommend it with a family of five. You can buy a travel trailer for a heck of a lot cheaper used and not have a problem with room. Depending on what size you get you can do a lot with a travel trailer and a family of five. Our van is/was tight with our family of 4 and our growing kids. Any rainy or cold weather camping and there is not enough space for gear and kids.
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Old 04-08-2013, 12:59 PM   #14
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

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Often you mount the car seat in the center seat position too, where there is only a lap belt.
Often must not have twins. But yeah the 50 seat is shoulder, lap, lap across the bench. Sounds like there is going to be a rough period between appropriate car seat and lap belt. There isn't anything I'd want to secure to in the SMB either (it's not like you can just add a shoulder belt to the closet!) but back on topic:

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buy a travel trailer for a heck of a lot cheaper used and not have a problem with room.
But TT plus crew pickup? I'd say go with the SMB-type now and add a teardrop when the kids can no longer be crammed. But I'm biased. My sister-in-law's family has a TT that takes both of them, plus two kids plus the older kid's friend and have no problems- but they did have to upgrade the pickup to tow it properly. A pickup might be a better entry point to 4x4 with proper seating too, and I've seen some crazy places where trailers can be dragged out to the boondocks.

I don't know, the problem is even if we come up with the dream scenario (window passenger van with PH and kids teardrop! "Go clean your trailer-room!") it doesn't mean it will be available for sale in the right price bracket; the purchase might be driven by what is available not what is ideal.

Of course the important thing is to go camp now!
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Old 04-08-2013, 01:10 PM   #15
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

I wonder if a CCV pop top is strong enough for a roof-top-tent on that? With popouts on both ends of pop-up, and a roof top tent, you could sleep 8 all upstairs! A transformer setup behind the 3rd row of bench seats (or captains chairs) would allow for safe seating for all.
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Old 04-08-2013, 01:21 PM   #16
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Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher sal?

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I wonder if a CCV pop top is strong enough for a roof-top-tent on that? With popouts on both ends of pop-up, and a roof top tent, you could sleep 8 all upstairs! A transformer setup behind the 3rd row of bench seats (or captains chairs) would allow for safe seating for all.
No, it's not. It's strong enough for a box, or roof air, solar, or rack, but not that strong. Also, it's WAY too high with the roof up for anyone to get up there safely. I'm not sure if you were kidding, but it's too high.
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Old 04-08-2013, 01:28 PM   #17
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

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Also, it's WAY too high with the roof up for anyone to get up there safely. I'm not sure if you were kidding, but it's too high.
yeah, I didn't think the access through all the way. I was envisioning a roof hatch through the bottom. It would be a great view up there though!
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Old 04-08-2013, 01:45 PM   #18
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

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Any rainy or cold weather camping and there is not enough space for gear and kids.
I have to agree with most of the members here especially the bad weather scenario. But when I was a kid, our family of 5 was shoved into a small trailer. We pulled our trailer with a station wagon, and if my sister had a friend, they were always able to sleep in the car. We camped in campgrounds only and generally in good weather. So I’ll say a lot depends on the type of camping you are planning. Boon docking might be an issue. Although a porta potty might get you by, the more people in the van the worse it might be. An outside pop up shower/bathroom shelter can work. Like suggested, a trailer might be a good choice when pulled by a passenger type SMB and even companies like Adventure Trailers tent type trailer could be a solution for storage albeit kind of expensive option. Tents are OK but are not very secure in most parents’ eyes.
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Old 04-08-2013, 03:03 PM   #19
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

SMB way small for family that size.

buy a travel trailer new for under 10K between 19-22 Ft and then use a Vehicle to tow.
If trailer is light enough you could tow with a Pass Van otherwise a Truck or Expedition.

Just my 2 cents.

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Old 04-08-2013, 04:14 PM   #20
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Re: Sportsmobile realistic for family of five on a teacher s

Tim, it looks like you have gotten advice all over the map, certainly because everyone's view of comfort and space is different. Everyone's idea of camping is different as well. I have 2 kids and have converted my EB van to sleep 4-5 and seat 8, with NO benches, but we're talking about a family plus a friend or two, not 8 adults!
You can check out my build thread here, but it's basically a SMB EB31 plan, modified a little since I built it:
http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/vie...p=87439#p87439
For a little history, we've had several bigger trailers and motorhomes, and this is the smallest yet and our favorite yet. We take a couple of long trips a year, but primarily do camping weekends close to home, and we are 2wd, so we usually go to state parks where they have showers and bathrooms, if we can find them. I could easily carry 3 kids instead of 2 and sleep them all comfortably, but one would have to ride in the very back and sit sideways while moving, which isn't for everyone. This could also be remedied by putting in 1 or 2 benches instead of buckets for everyone. Each van bench has 3 belts, 2 of which are shoulder belts. Before my current conversion, I had 2 benches behind the 2 front seats, and these were the kids seats AND beds. It worked out great, but only for kids of course. With a pop top, you could easily convert the rear of a van however you want, and easily sleep 2 up top in an SMB or 3 up top with a CCV conversion.
We prefer to be OUTSIDE while camping. If the weather is bad, we just go home. It's really all about your view of camping, your lifestyle and schedule, etc. That's the beauty of camping. Do it as light or as overblown as you want! Another thing we love about stuffing it all in to a van is that our whole travel setup fits in one parking space (relatively speaking). This is a pretty handy consideration if you really want to see the world and travel without limits. Many Nat'l Parks, such as Sequoiah, have a 19' or maybe 22' limit (can't remember) for vehicles on some roads, and lots of the better/prettier/quieter campgrounds don't have room for large RVs/trailers.
Long story short, I think you can do it, but you won't have a lot of interior space to retreat to or hang out in, it will just be sleeping, and it will be tight with baby gear.

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