2nd row bench with inflatable belts

[13ExplorerLTD]

Good evening guys,

I've been lurking on this forum for quite some time.... A lot of really good information on here. Quick question... Does anyone else have the inflatable belts with the 2nd row bench seat? Prior to my son being born, my wife and I decided to upgrade our 2007 MKX to the new explorer. We purchased a limited model with a lot of the goodies (302A). The one option we did not get was the 2nd row buckets because the safest place in a vehicle for a newborn is the middle of the vehicle. It took some searching, but the dealer found us the vehicle we wanted...

Once we loaded the carseat base in the center of the middle row, we noticed that with the inflatable seat belts, the buckle for the drivers side second row seat belt is actually located inside the middle row belt. That means if you have 3 passengers in the second row ( or 2 passengers and a carseat ), the drivers side person cannot buckle their belt as the center seatbelt covers the buckle.

I showed the dealership, so we went on the lot to take a look at the standard belt middle row on an XLT.... Low and behold, it has a different buckle style. On the standard belts, the drivers side buckle isn't buried in the midst of the seat, it's on a tether and rests on the seat. It seems to me that this is an oversight by Ford engineers.... And as a licensed professional mechanical engineer, this baffles me... I tried emailing Ford, and of course they never responded.

I love the vehicle, I just wish I would have known about this or I would have gotten second row buckets since with the bench only the passenger side slides.

Jim

 

[dabucs]

made me look

Your post made me check our car. I also have the inflatable seat belts and bench seats. You are correct in your observation that Ford erred on this one. That is why when we went on a recent roadtrip and there were seven of us, it always takes a while for our 2nd row passengers to buckle themselves. Before we bought our Ex, I tried to check every issue/concern that we could have regarding seating position, ingress/egress in the second row and third row because that is the one of our priority and one of the reason why we chose this vehicle. Since our kids no longer use baby/kids seats I did not check on the Inflatable seatbelt buckle position. I hope you could find some solution to your concern.

 

[Bryceb]

Almost makes the 2nd row middle seat useless. I know I wouldn't want to be stuck there. Maybe a real little kid, but that size they probably should be in a car seat which will be a real PITA in the middle the way it's designed.

Ours are like this also but not a big issue for us since our kids are all older now and the need for 7 in our car would be less than occasional and there probably will never be a baby seat in ours. 5 or 6 passengers will be more frequent and we'll just put them in the 3rd row.

 

[FIND]

Do they have the latch hardware at least?

 

[The Cheat]

^^ I'd like to know too. I bought the Explorer for or baby that's on the way. I wanted to put the child seat in the middle so I specifically did not get the rear buckets.

 

[Riley]

Do they have the latch hardware at least?

Exactly! Why are you not using the Latch hardware?

 

[snm805619]

LATCH is there on mine ('13 XLT, bench, leather, no inflatable). We currently have carseat in the middle of the 2nd row bench, attached with LATCH

 

[The Cheat]

I can't imagine the BLIS would remove the middle LATCH system would it?

 

[gpzrider]

The reason why the inflatable belts receiver is fixed and ridged is because the air mechanism is located in the buckle. That means that the buckle cannot be flopping around like the non inflatables. If you look under the seat you will see a fixed air hose attached to the bottom of the buckle.

Yes, you cannot put 2 people in the back when a car seat is in the middle. Well you can, but no operable seat belt for person behind the driver.

Also, if you put the car seat on either side, make sure to go get the seat belt extender for the middle seat. I got mine free from dealer. Without it, the person in the middle gets hammered in the back by the buckle.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Put the car seat on the right side. That is how we did ours. If you got the buckets, you would have stuck with left or right anyways. At least on the right, you are opposite of oncoming traffic.

 

[gpzrider]

Pretty sure you're supposed to put a car seat behind either the drivers or passenger side seat in the back....NOT in the middle. Car seats 101...

That is completely wrong. Kids go in the middle whenever possible.

From WebMD

"The center rear seating position is used less often by children restrained by a child-restraint system as they get older," writes researcher Michael J. Kallan, MS, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues in Pediatrics. "Children seated in the center rear have a 43% lower risk of injury compared with children in a rear outboard position."

 

[13ExplorerLTD]

The latch is only on the outboard seats and our carseat won't reach them when in the middle of the seat. So, when you have the carseat in the middle, you can't use the drivers side middle row seat, because of the seatbelt buckle issue nor can you fold the passenger side middle row seat forward to use the back row because the carseat base is wider than the middle seat anyway. This means your 7 passenger vehicle is now a 3+carseat passenger vehicle if you have it in the middle seat of the middle row anyway.

Our carseat is now LATCHed into the middle row passenger side seat(with the seat all the way back) so the drivers side can be folded forward so the back row can be used. So basically, I should have gotten buckets,since that is essentially how I have to use the vehicle anyway. I hope someone from ford customer service sees this post and contacts me, as I have had little luck with emails to them.

 

[gpzrider]

Get britax convertible seat. Nice long latch belts reach inner two latch anchors easily. 300 at babies r us or cheaper on Amazon.

 

[DustySport]

When I was a kid, this was a properly installed car seat

 

[Bryceb]

When I was a kid, this was a properly installed car seat

Te entire pee-wee baseball team used to ride to ames in the back of our ElCamino and we used to sleep on trips in the back of a pickup truck with a cap.

Those days are gone. One of the most exciting days from my kids were the days we threw out their car seats!

 

[harlenm]

The 2nd row is horribly designed, overall. There is not enough distance between the front row and 2nd row, and it's very difficult to get a rear facing car seat behind the passenger seat, and completely impossible to get one behind the drivers seat.

I hate to say it, but my wife's tiny RDX has much more room in the back seat compared to the Explorer.

 

[DustySport]

The entire pee-wee baseball team used to ride to games in the back of our ElCamino and we used to sleep on trips in the back of a pickup truck with a cap.

Those days are gone. One of the most exciting days from my kids were the days we threw out their car seats!

Good times...I remember many similar trips to yours. Sure some died, but the majority of us survived those simpler times.

 

[Bryceb]

Good times...I remember many similar trips to yours. Sure some died, but the majority of us survived those simpler times.

Exhaust leaks just helped you sleep better!

 

[gpzrider]

Good times...I remember many similar trips to yours. Sure some died, but the majority of us survived those simpler times.

In the 70's my parents would make a comfy bed in the back of our Datsun B210 hatchback and sister, brother and myself would sleep all the way to EL Paso, Tx from Los Angeles.

 

[spar]

The 2nd row is horribly designed, overall. There is not enough distance between the front row and 2nd row, and it's very difficult to get a rear facing car seat behind the passenger seat, and completely impossible to get one behind the drivers seat.

I hate to say it, but my wife's tiny RDX has much more room in the back seat compared to the Explorer.

that's funny because I bought this car for the room it had. I have 3month old twins so we needed room for two carseats and all the baby stuff.
We got the bucket seats so people could get to the third row still. with the third row up there's still plenty of storage behind it for the stroller and baby bags. You must be 7ft