nocalhoo

I have a 99 4runner and have purchased/installed the bolt for the LATCH tether to install a child seat. I was curious though if there is also a way to make it compatible with the actual LATCH connectors for the car seat itself? Threading the seatbelt through the car seat is fine, although tedious, but if you have ever used a LATCH compatible car, you get spoiled! I'd like to see if that is possible with the 99 runner. Anyone have any ideas?
thanks

jalaber

I got the bolt/clip also. Will need to mount it soon and cut the Husky Cargo Liner to do so :cry: Anyway, I have not heard of a way to retro-fit the lower anchors.

MTL_4runner

I have been searching the net for a way to install the LATCH system into my 1996 4Runner and finally had to do some engineering of my own. I finally found a way to mount the anchor points into the truck using the trunk striker latch (you need 2 per seat) for a 2002 Honda Civic LX (not sure if other models are different). I tried the door and trunk latch strikers on the 4runner but they were too difficult to mount and were too large for the clips to fit over on my Eddie Bauer carseat.

http://www3.sears.ca/webapp/wcs/stor...ctId=157714598

The Civic trunk latch was just perfect and they are quite cheap here (about $12 each) so I will be putting 4 in the back so I could have 2 seats if I wanted to (for bringing the little buggers friends around too). I need something fast and secure because the seatbelt is fine but I can never get it tight enough to keep the seat from tipping over (the baby is almost 20 lbs at 4 months.....unreal how solid he is!!!).

I did some calculation to verify if it would be safe in an accident and I came out with a decent Safty Factor (assuming the child and seat together weigh no more than 50 lbs) and so that is good enough for me. I will post some pics after the install and do a bit of a writeup when I get some time.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

You guys are making the car seat thing hard, especially if you have to swap it to another vehicle w/ no LATCH system. Just use the seat belts in any vehicle and one of these. This think locks down the seat so tight it doesn't budge and I can swap out both the car seats in less than 5 minutes to any vehicle.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...16736?v=glance
MIGHTY TIGHT




EDIT: We've been using Might Tite's for (3) years now and on (4) car seats at the present with no problems that Jamie mentions in the reviews below. The key thing is making your kid as secure in the vehicle as possible and in using the Mighty Tite we can put them in a take them out and get them secure much easier and faster than just using the seatbelt. My suggestion is research it for yourself as something like 70% of all car seats for children are put in incorrectly. Read the instructions and take you vehicle to a free car seat inspection in your local area! You can't be too careful when carrying precious cargo!

MTL_4runner

Hey Waskilly,

I looked at that too but it has not been getting good reviews (check out the review section on Amazon) and I worry about the sturdiness and the possibility that it may damage the seatbelt inertia mechanism or cut the belt. Easiest secure way for me seemed to be to retrofit a LATCH system into the 4Runner (our Civic has LATCH already)........we'll see how it comes out when I am done (should be pretty slick).

Thanks for the suggestion tho!

MTL_4runner

I will probably still get one of those for when we go in other people's cars because it does look like a neat little gadget and seems pretty quick to use. I just wanted a more permanent solution for the 4runner.

nocalhoo

Hey MTL, did you finish the LATCH mod in your Runner? I'd love to see the write up, I'm trying to do the same in a 99. Thanks

PirateFins

Stupid question but did you read the owners manual? I don't know about the Runners, but my 92 ext cab truck has the anchor bolt points (M8) installed in the back wall of the cab. Even shows it in my owners manual. Check it out.

nocalhoo

Yep. I have the tether bolt installed. I was hoping to find a way to put in the lower anchors. Sounded like MTL was working on a mod to do that.

Maddog

I use the luggage D loop thingys in the back of my 90 runner.The the little D shaped mounts in the floor of the boot,next to the wheel well.

MTL_4runner

I am, but dang Honda had to order the parts (I will explain why Honda in the writeup) so I am still waiting for them to come in. They should be in soon so I hope to get this project done pretty quick after that. This would basically install the full LATCH child restraint system into a 96-02 4runner.

MvCrash

Greetings,
50 Lbs traveling at 30 MPH generates about 2700 lbs of energy over approximately 20-40 milliseconds.


Just a thought.


MV

MTL_4runner

As an engineer I am quite aware of the physics involved and I believe I will still have a SF of at least 2+ (even at the forces you mention) when my design is done.....we are talking about safety of our children here so I will be double checking everything before my child uses it. I believe 54 G's is a bit high for the design and I think the LATCH webbing and truck's seat foam help to greatly reduce the G forces seen by the carseat and baby (a baby would have a very tough time surviving 50 G's even for the ms of time you are talking about). My design was to hit a SF of 3 with 30G's of force as seen by the carseat. I think my design may even be better than what I have seen designed into cars currently so I think it will work quite well. Thank you for bringing the seriousness of what we are attempting to light tho (and I am not being sarcastic here).

For any that are interested, here is a great site for info on the physics of a baby carseat in a carcrash........The site has a great animation so you can see the carseat reduce the force by allowing give even after the car has stopped:
http://www.babytrend.com/physics101%202/Physics101.htm

MvCrash

Greetings,
That is a really good website. The bottom line is the longer time it takes to "ride down" the crash, the less likely you are to be injured.
My point was to make sure your anchors and anchor points can withstand the energy created by the infant and the seat. You wouldn’t want the anchors pulling out at the wrong moment in time.
I've seen to many tragedies, be careful, and stay safe.


MVCRASH

MTL_4runner

You are sooooo right.....I appreciate the heads up!

Here is another good site if anyone is interested:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/seatb.html

MTL_4runner

http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.ph...6&topic=1939.0

MTL_4runner

Finally finished the writeup and I hope to have some pics of it online soon!

calamaridog

Good efforts. Thanks for sharing this 411.

MvCrash

Greetings,
Really good work, I'd like to know where the 92,000 lbs comes from? Also, does one have to consider the "Bending Moment" since there will more than likely be an angle to the direction of the force that is applied to the hardware holding the device?

MvCrash

MTL_4runner

The 92,000 psi comes from here:
http://www.rockcrawler.com/techrepor...ners/index.asp
It is an average for a grade 5 bolt since I will not be actually testing the bolts to failure myself.

There may be a very slight bending moment inward towards the seat but it will likely be so small that even a slight yield will negate it altogether. The anchors are positioned approximatly 12" apart (and the child car seat industry appears to use this as a design standard) so when the seat is installed the LATCH straps put almost no moment at all in the anchors and all parts of the system essentially come only under direct tension. I hope to have some pics up soon when I get a free moment and that should answer most of the questions on the design.

What is really tough to design for is off angle or side impacts but these will do at least as well as what is currently in place for that purpose in vehicles currently being manufactured. I did use my Honda Civic as a model (I assumed Honda's have a good safety record) and analyzed how they constructed their anchors and then designed mine to be equally strong or better.