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Brian
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Legal restrictions on seatbelted seats in a car?

I just did some in-depth research (8 google searches) and couldn't find an answer, so I'll ask here: does anyone know what the legal restrictions are on what seats I can put in a car that I'm sitting in with a seatbelt while driving? I've got my Rialta and the captain's chairs are bulky and barely fit in the space well. I can't really lean back much in them when I turn them around to face into the cabin area. They're awkward and cramped.

What I would love is to just mount Aerons on those two and use those.

I mean, Aerons are heavy-duty seats that can take a beating. I wouldn't worry about them breaking in a crash any more than these junky old things already mounted there, especially if I mounted them very solidly (i.e. got custom-welded attachments.) Plus they're very comfortable for long-term sitting because people routinely sit in them for hours every day. They'd be much better for lumbar support and whatnot on road trips than the existing seats.

Plus they aren't that bulky, nowhere near the existing seats, and I could spin 'em around and then have two sweet Aerons to recline in when watching movies or eating or whatever.

But when I mentioned the idea to a car-savvy friend he looked at me like I had just suggested filling the gas tank up with Kool-Aid to save money. He insisted it was certainly illegal. But now I'm wondering, because it would be awesome if I could find a way to get away with it.

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Creator of SETT. Adventurer.
Tynan
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I think that there's probably a wide gap between what's actually legal and what's enforced. If you can't find the answer, cops won't know.

When we had the school bus and got pulled over (which was often), I would make up laws that explained why it was legal for us to drive (it had bus plates at first), and the cops would just agree with me. If you just said, "Oh, I researched it and because the seatbelts aren't integrated with the seats, they can be replaced", they would 99% just go with it.

Creator of SETT. Adventurer.
Tynan
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Also... I have an idea for making a couch in that area. Have a static base and then use arms to position thebackrest at either the back (for driving) or front (for hanging out). The closest thing I could find was this: http://www.homechunk.com/1600/2012/07/17/reversible-todo-modo-sofa-by-jean-michel-wilmotte-for-tecno/, but I would make my own.

'95 Rialta-dweller, VFR800-rider, builder of cool things
John Wes
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Brian, try taking the armrests off.  IIRC,  once they're in the up position, you pust in very hard at the bottom of each rest where it swivels and then twist them backwards to unlock them.  A couple of mine were very stubborn.

Ashish
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Based on even less-extensive research, I suspect that a lot of the design/functionality of car seats has to do with how they support your back in a crash. This is not necessarily a good thing. Seats in all new compact Hondas and Mazdas (and possibly other brands) are designed to be ALWAYS UNCOMFORTABLE because their neck-forward headrest performs better in crash tests.

pNuker
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On a somewhat related note, I've been considering trading the desk chair (still have the stock one) with the front passenger chair. Then I'll have a nice reclining seat for the desk. Aside from measuring it out to make sure if it will even fit, I should probably research whether or not it's legal to have a low back seat in front.

Thor
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AFAIK, there aren't restrictions on the seats (though I think that's changed for "new cars").  I would check out Summit Racing - even the seats that look like uncomfortable polycarbonate turn out to be quite nice (don't mess with the aluminum jobbies).

Howerver, the powers-that-be do insist on 3 point seatbelts only, because they think 4, 5 & 6 points are too complicated.  I'm still putting 5 pointers in my hot rod (mainly because I don't trust the seat not to twist out of shape with only a 3 point harness -- connecting to the body for the shoulder belt would result in the belt being too low and a good possibility of spinal compression on impact).

All that being said, I think it's probably quite firmly in the don't-ask-don't tell category.  I also think that an office chair (even an Aeron!) probably would do exceedingly poorly in a crash situation (many moving parts, held in with single -- probably grade 5 -- bolts, combined with a mesh back that will let your spine mash against the steel frame when compressed at 10.5G's), so YMMV.

On my Goose, I'm using seats from a Geo Tracker.  It turns out that the original Model A's are quite narrow in the interior, and the Geo Tracker seats fit nicely.

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