Owning an RV allows a family to explore nature while still providing the comfort of a home; however, the RV does come with its fair share of challenges. A particular challenge is making your RV safe for children. Many drivers seem to overlook child safety because they tend to create a misconception that bigger vehicles provide more support against a crash. While vehicles like school buses, which are proven structurally sound for child safety, RVs do not provide the same kind of security.
The Danger of an RV
The reality is that RVs, specifically Class A, are not subject to safety testing, which makes RV a bit dangerous for children. For example, the seats are not anchored to the cars frame, which is the common procedure for cars in compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 208. Many of the seats are placed on the side of the RV, which is not safe for a child seat. Also, in many cases, safety belts do not provide any anchorage or safety, as they are usually attached to the seat or a door. While having some sort of a seat belt is better then having nothing, if they are not anchored, they will not provide too much of protection if a serious crash happens.
Tips on how to Provide Protection for Children
Many experts recommend that a driver look into buying a Class B or C RV, because they are subject to crash tests and are built on a conventional truck/van chassis, or frame, which means the cockpit shares the structural and safety features of those vehicles.
Another recommendation would be to consider using a trailer instead of an RV, which will allow you to place your child’s seat in the towing vehicle, giving you a front facing seat in order to keep your children safe. Some people tend to put children in the front seat of an RV and turn the airbag off; however, this will bring risk to the driver, as an airbag is all too important in protecting people.
If neither of these are an option, you also may want to consider bringing a separate vehicle specifically for transporting children. While this is an obvious hassle, bring a separate car may be the best option to provide a front facing seat and a crash tested vehicle, which is of the utmost important for children, especially infants.
What Coach Specialists Can Provide
While these suggestions are helpful, they may not be feasible for all drivers. For example, it may not be reasonable to bring a separate vehicle or purchase a trailer. No need to fret, we at Coach Specialists provides customization options to make your RV safer for children.
Coach Specialists is happy and ready to help provide several solutions in order to make your RV safer for children. We can install custom seats that will meet federal standard. This means that the car seats will be bolted to the frame of the vehicle. We will also make the seat forward facing in order to meet with regulations for child seats.
We won’t stop at the seats, as we can install seatbelts that also following federal standard regulation. This is just as important as having a car seat attached to the frame, especially for small children.
We will also help install new and secure locks for your interior cabinets. Many customers overlook the danger of their items once a crash occurs. We can help provide safer locks that can withstand more force in an accident. We can also secure the cabinets themselves to make sure they too will not go mobile during an accident.
We want every family to enjoy nature without having to sacrifice any aspect of their safety. Click on the link below to schedule a meeting with us and we will go through every possible solution to provide you with peace of mind for your child’s safety.