Motorhome berths vs seat belts

I know you claimed nothing, Rich, but people have made assumptions that you’re changing units. You refer to using the BMW as a tow car in your other post so I concluded, correctly, that an imminent change is not on the cards.

Whatever, your knowledge of MHs has now been enhanced. 

Rich, thanks for the heads up, happy to help if you need a bit more advice, good luck with your observations.

Whilst agreeing with all the previous posts, especially regarding payload, if you need extra full forward seating with belts Elddis have a great solution. They have 'fold away' aircraft type seats under the two front bench seats. My daughter says they are comfortable.

We own a 6 berth but only 4 seatbelts. 

Current UK law says that forward facing MH rear seats must have seat belts and be used if carrying passengers. However parallel side facing seats do not require to have seat belts and rear passengers do not need to wear them. 

Although side facing seats do not require seat belts it would be very unwise to travel on one. Indeed it would be unwise to travel on one wearing seat belts too, which may be found on older vehicles.
As I understand, the current seat belt regs refer to designated travel seats that must be fitted with seat belts. Side facing seats are not designated for travel and it could be argued that the driver is carrying passengers dangerously. This may lead to a conviction and insurance deemed to be invalid.
For the past 8 years my insurance company has asked how many seat belts are fitted to my MH so there is no escaping how many passengers I can carry.

Which brings us back to my comment on page 1 about the law being a minefield in that respect.

Just to illustrate the safety issue, some years ago there was a case in the Westcountry where a local vet was in the rear of his MH sat at a table doing paper work while someone else drove. The window beside him fell out and the force of the draught sucked him out into the road. He was lucky but it could easily have been fatal.

By  'eck,  TW  What  speed  were  they  travelling at  ??  You  never  got  that  effect  in  a  Puss  Moth  !!

Having 28 years in the insurance game and qualified up to the hilt the insurance company cannot overrule the law of the land. The law is not grey but clearly black and white. You can travel unbelted in the back of a motorhome with side facing seats. 

Naturally I question the safty aspect but that's up to the individul and driver. I have parallel seats and I would not entertain anyone travelling unbelted.

I doubt it was very great, ABM 

It was quite a long time ago and I think it was one of those vans, popular at the time, with a deep window beside the dinette. Not the size windows you and I have - I’d not fit though one of them.