Vehicle & Technical > Defender

Rear bench seats, seat belts and the MOT man?

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Suvvey:
I know this has probably been covered a hundred times or more but with the search function STILL not working I'll ask it again :roll:

Can anyone clarify what the situation is with the lack of seat belts for the rear bench seats in a 110 CSW with regards to an MOT and carrying passengers? I have heard various answers ranging from the seats needing to be removed (will probably do this anyway as they take up a surprising amount of space) to being exempt as they are not forward facing or because it classes as a minibus :-k I know the previous owner used it to commute into London as it was apparently exempt from the congestion charge due to be classed as a minibus or something like that but the V5 seems rather vague on a lot of details including the number of seats and it's class :doh:

Suvvey:
I found this handy site that seems to answer my question... sort of :roll:

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual/contents.htm

Due to it being a '93 110 CSW it falls into the 'Minibuses, motor caravans and ambulances (9-12 seats) used between 1 October 1988 and 30 September 2001 with a Design Gross Weight not exceeding 3500kg' catagory. In this catagory it states that any forward or rear facing rear seats do not require any seat belts :shock:

Obviously I didn't think that Landrover flaunted the regulations at the time of build, infact they have actually fitted more than is legally required as it seems the middle seats don't strictly need any :-k But I was under the impression that some vehicles had to be retro fitted with belts to remain legal or does this only apply to those with 8 passenger seats or less :?

thompjas:
My 110 Hardtop failed its MOT the other month due to there not being a seatbelt fitted to the front middle seat, mine is a 1987. The MOT inspector took a while looking it up before delivering the bad news .

Ne advised that if teh seat was not fitted he could then not inspect it and thefore fail it, so I removed the middle seat for the re test and it passed !

I would advise removing the seats to be on the safe side for the test.... :lol:

Saffy:

--- Quote from: thompjas on September 28, 2009, 11:07:24 ---My 110 Hardtop failed its MOT the other month due to there not being a seatbelt fitted to the front middle seat, mine is a 1987. The MOT inspector took a while looking it up before delivering the bad news .

Ne advised that if teh seat was not fitted he could then not inspect it and thefore fail it, so I removed the middle seat for the re test and it passed !

I would advise removing the seats to be on the safe side for the test.... :lol:

--- End quote ---

trouble is the number of seat the vehicle had gets recorded on the MOT database at time of MOT so you can't really go adding the seat back later without having another MOT. My 12 seater CSW is MOT'd as a 1 SEAT + Driver. Insurance notified of number of seats change. I do not know in reality of how of much a risk/ penalty it is if the number of seats didn't tally with that of when it was last MOT'd in the event of a serious accident where it leads to the vehicle being scrutinise but I am guessing it's asking for trouble.

tack43:
You don't need the seatbelts fitted for MOT, but, if you retro fit some they come under the regulations, are tested and can be failed!

Rich

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