Child Seats
Senior User
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 167
Likes: 0
From: ABQ NM
The F-250 and up (Class, GVW, etc.) are exempt from providing the lower anchor points in the rear seat. The seat belts are compatible with the requirements: the floating latch part will hold it's position under tension so that the lap portion will hold the seat in place (put a knee in the seat and reef on it), and the shoulder harness will ratchit and hold it's position (move it all the way out, then let it retract).
They do provide the teather attachment, but kick me and call me a mule, if I can figure out how you can tip the seat forward to attach the the teather and then make sure that it's relatively snug once you fold the seat back vertically and fasten the seat in place.
The Baby seat safety gestapo say you shouldn't need the butterfly clips or the ratchet clips to hold the seats in place, but when my 70+ year-old mom needs to transfer the seats from one car to the truck (I can't keep her from driving my truck if I'm not driving it) the ratchet things work well.
A note on the butterfly clips: put them on the latch side (just a couple inches from the latch), not the door side. This a couple of good things for you. It safety 'pins' the floating latch part in place - there is a definite limit to how much slack can ever develop. It avoids any sharp parts of the butterfly clip from wearing the edges of the webbing when the belt splits away from the latch to go to the floor anchor point and the shoulder anchor point. The draw back is that you need to get the position right before you latch the seat into place the final time (the firechief that taught me these tricks suggested marking the underside of the belt with a Sharpie to be able to put the butterfly in the right position each time.
I too wish the lower anchors were back there. It wouldn't be that tough.
They do provide the teather attachment, but kick me and call me a mule, if I can figure out how you can tip the seat forward to attach the the teather and then make sure that it's relatively snug once you fold the seat back vertically and fasten the seat in place.
The Baby seat safety gestapo say you shouldn't need the butterfly clips or the ratchet clips to hold the seats in place, but when my 70+ year-old mom needs to transfer the seats from one car to the truck (I can't keep her from driving my truck if I'm not driving it) the ratchet things work well.
A note on the butterfly clips: put them on the latch side (just a couple inches from the latch), not the door side. This a couple of good things for you. It safety 'pins' the floating latch part in place - there is a definite limit to how much slack can ever develop. It avoids any sharp parts of the butterfly clip from wearing the edges of the webbing when the belt splits away from the latch to go to the floor anchor point and the shoulder anchor point. The draw back is that you need to get the position right before you latch the seat into place the final time (the firechief that taught me these tricks suggested marking the underside of the belt with a Sharpie to be able to put the butterfly in the right position each time.
I too wish the lower anchors were back there. It wouldn't be that tough.
Posting Guru
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,532
Likes: 3
From: Valdez, Alaska
I have 3 car seats across the rear seat. Swear truck engineers never think of us with kids. Now if they can create an automatic bubble that surrounds the driver when they all act up.......
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 471
Likes: 0
From: Goldsboro, NC
For the teather attachment behind the rear seat, I let out enough slack in the teather to lean the seat foward and clip it in, then lean the seat back and take the slack out. I can get it pretty tight.
