Rear center shoulder belt

[mtmactom]

Has anyone ever mounted a shoulder belt in the center section of the back seat? I have a great 98 Pathy with only 87k on it but my wife wont let us load up the whole family in it at once because the ceneter rear only has a lap belt. Are there any kits out there to retro fit?

[XPLORx4]

I take it that none of your family is small enough to require a child seat, or you would likely be able to secure the seat using the rear tie-downs and the lap belt, and seat 3 rear passengers adequately.

 

I've never heard of an aftermarket lap-belt to shoulder-belt conversion before... for ANY vehicle.

 

It is generally not possible to replace the center lap belt with a 3-point (lap and shoulder) belt. This is because the car will probably not have been designed with a mounting point for the upper end of the shoulder belt. A seatbelt has to take a very high load in the event of an accident (the tests required during vehicle development generally apply enough force via the belt to distort the body shell beyond repair), so the upper mounting point has to be included during the design stage of the vehicle. If you've seen newer vehicles equipped with a center shoulder belt, you'll note that the shoulder belt usually attaches in the center of the roof, where extra reinforcements inside the body have been placed to withstand the forces of a collision.

 

That being said, you MIGHT be able to use a product like this to your center seat position, but you would have to cut a slit in the carpet where the rear seat folds down to feed the belt through.