Middle seat lap belts and Disco 1 or 2

Hi all,

I'm new here and a potential Disco owner (hopefully).

We decided a while ago that we wanted a LR as we just love them to bits and have narrowed our choice down to a Discovery, as while we do need it for off road use around the local farm/estate (I do a lot of shooting/ferreting) it will mostly be used for tarmac driving and need the comfort. Although, both my wife and I prefer the look of the Defender esp the 110 County.

I have been researching now for two months (on forums, classified ads and bought the Haynes book so I can get a handle on the mechanical side) and will probably start looking for one around Feb/March next year as I hope that the new plate may mean more cheaper cars for sale as people upgrade, although this may have no bearing on my lower end of the scale purchase (£3-4K).

We have 3 children and need 7 seats so that I can have the dubious pleasure of taking my entire family and an extra person, eg the Mother In law, and if I am going to be doing this, I am not driving round in a Vauxhall Zafira or car of it's ilk, which are nice enough cars but just not for us.

Enough rambling and on to the question.... I have heard that Series 1 Discos have a lapbelt on the middle seat. Is this correct? As I am not took keen on these for safety reasons.

Also, is it possible to convert this to a 3 point? Or is my only option going for a Disco 2 which I have been told is the standard 3 point?

And finally, we live just South of Dorking in Surrey and was wondering, when I finally start looking to buy, if there are any local landie nuts who wouldn't mind coming along to give the thing a good mechanical going over.

Thanks for your help and heres to many more posts in the future.


/Mad

The TD5 was fitted with 3 point rear seatbelts but not the 200 & 300tdi's

Answer to your question, yes the disco 1 has a lap belt in the rear centre also on the two diky seat in the boot.
As for converting to 3 point, you would have to look at fixing in a TD5, but don't know how you stand on insurance with that.
Ian

Also 200 & 300tdi's have side facing dickey seats so you can't use them to carry children in anyway.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I take it that all side facing seats are a no no for carrying children. That would rule out all Defender County's as well or are there some with forward facing?

Is there anywhere I can see the different specs of landies?

thanks,

/mad

I think there is some forward facing seats on the market for the county. Can't remember who makes them off hand. They were advertised in Land Rover Owners mag. Will have a look and post back.

Forward facing seats

Ok had a look, its exmoor trim that do forward facing seats tested for baby seats and have 3 point seat belts

Ian

Madcowz said:

Thanks for the replies guys.

I take it that all side facing seats are a no no for carrying children. That would rule out all Defender County's as well or are there some with forward facing?

Is there anywhere I can see the different specs of landies?

thanks,

/mad

Click to expand...

As said take the side facing seats out of a 110 and fit a pair of forwards facing rear seats from exmoor or similar.this will give you 7 seats or 8 if you keep the front centre seat. You can carry children on a side facing seat but you can't use a seatbelt.

Thanks for the link Ian, I had seen these advertised in an lr magazine but it didn't click (been a busy week).

And redhand, you say that you can carry children on a side facing seat but can't use the seatbelt?

Sounds like a typical UK law that one!

<just searched the Defender forum and seen there are quote a lot of posts about this one>

So, we either go for a Disco TD5 or get a Defender and add exmoor seats.

/Mad

Carrying children in sideways facing seats is perfectly legal, the regulations only apply to newly built vehicles. I think seatbelts are legal too, but I know opinions differ about the advisability. The regulations for babies (I think about under 18 months) are different, and do apply to older vehicles as well.
If you go to the CSA or DVLA websites you should be able to find some links that will lead you to the appropriate page theta explains the regulations. Sorry I can't remember the link, but I found it fairly easily

Here is a link to the '8. My vehicle is unusual...'

UK Department for Transport | THINK! Road Safety - Welcome to the THINK! web site

/Mad

Yes, that's the site I meant, Thanks