I'm hoping the list can help me purchase the appropriate car seat for my
toddler who has outgrown her rear facing infant seat.  I drive a 86 Westy
Syncro with the current seat locked by the lap belt to the back bench seat -
it seems pretty secure.

The convertible seats, which are for children weighing between 22 to 65 lbs
(depending on the make) are more difficult to anchor securely and appear to
be designed for more modern vehicles with latching systems and tether
points.

Last week we took our first camping trip and I swapped the car seat from our
other vehicle, which is a convertible style seat, and fiddled around with it
to get it to fit.  It ended up facing the rear and being relatively snug
from front to back but not to my liking in terms of side to side movement.
Part of the reason for this is it is difficult to cinch the lap belt super
tight because of how the belt travels underneath the child seat.  The model
of this seat, which is highly recommended, is a Sunshine Kids Radian - it
fits quite well in our Honda CRV.

When checking to see whether the seat fit any better frontward facing, I was
disappointed to see that it didn't and was not very snug at all - especially
from side to side.  I'm guessing this is the purpose of the top tether on
the seat - to help stabilize the seat.  Obviously I would like to find a
seat that fits front or rear facing and works to the specifications it is
designed for.

Anyway, I open this non-mechanical topic up to wise members of the Vanagon
list.

Many thanks,

Bruce Todd
Vancouver