Where do you put car seats in an RV?

This is a tricky question for parents. Child car seats are designed to be in a forward-facing seat. In most RV's, the only available forward-facing seats are the front passenger seat and the forward-facing bench of the dinette. However, at the dinette the table is in the way, and even if your car seat fits in the space, in an accident the table could come off its supports and injure your child. We ourselves have opted for the front passenger seat with Nicholas, now 3, as long as there is no passenger air bag or the air bag can be turned off. Another issue is that the dinette seat belts are fastened to wood, whereas the front seat belts are bolted to the frame of the vehicle and are much more reliable in an accident.

Because this is a gray area in the law, many people opt to buckle car seats on the sofa, even though it faces to the side. I consider this to be safer than the dinette with the table hazard, but in a serious accident, the car seat would not protect the child's head from side-to-side motion, since car seats are signed for forward-backward protection.

I recently read something about some RV's having tethers for car seats behind the forward-facing bench of the dinette, which would be a great benefit (although I would probably lower the table to the bed position rather than leaving it up).

The fact of the matter is that traveling in an RV is not as safe as a car and you have to sort out the risks versus benefits for yourself.

We have one interesting class A RV for sale at Rice RV which has four captain's chairs in the front, with an additional set behind the driver and passenger seats, presumably with frame-mounted seat belts. They face forward while driving but swivel around to be part of the living room when you want. See photos of this 1998 30' Itasca Sunrise here.