Not Pro-Touring, but Tahoe safety question

[chevy2inreno]

I've seen some great safety discussions on the board, so thought I'd check here before starting to cut and weld.

I’m in the process of retrofitting my 99 Tahoe with the third seat out of a 99 Suburban. My wife would like to install the seat with it facing towards the back of the Tahoe, not facing forwards as installed in the Burb. Her rationale is that it will be easier to load the kids from the back and the third seat headrests will not obscure the rear view mirror nearly as much as when installed facing forwards.

I will also be installing Suburban shoulder belts and the third seat will be primarily used by my 6 and 7 year old kids with appropriate child seats or boosters.

Are there any safety issues, in a front or rear collision or otherwise, with installing the seat so it faces towards the rear of the Tahoe?

Thanks,

Dave

[David Pozzi]

I wouldn't want to ride backwards! I'd get car sick.
If someone other than your kids rode there and you got in an injury accident, how will you explain you thought the seat would be as safe backwards? I'm not saying it isn't, - it might be safer, but there probably isn't anywhere you could find proof. Do the belts attach to the seat?
David

[Vegas69]

I would be concerned with the kids being able to slip out of the belts even though the belts should lock. The force would be applied to the seat instead of the belt making it possible for them to endanger other occupants as well. I wouldn't do it.

[Skip Fix]

Back in the station wagon days ALL the third row rear seats faced backwards. They folded down flat to make the cargo space.

[rjsjea]

Brand new Dodge Caravan's have swivel seats that face backwards. I would worry about the insurance liability in a traffic accident since they would not be a factory type of install

[bigvegan]

How many kids do you have?

If it's just the two, you might want to consider putting them in the second seat, as you want to keep them as far from the crumple zones as possible.

Depending on your engineering skills, this might be one you punt on, and either keep the Tahoe as is or trade for a Suburban with the third seat, as the benefits from this project are pretty minimal, and the potential costs (emotional, not financial) if something went wrong would be utterly disastrous.