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Grandson in Spitfire


PeterH

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My 7 year old grandson would love to have a ride in my Mk3 Spitfire. Unfortunately his child seat won't fit into the small bucket seat of the Spit. and a booster seat sits him too high - head level with top of windscreen.

Has anyone overcome these problems to legal carry a youngster in a Spitfire. The law says a child under 12 must use a child seat.

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More nanny state, I had my lad on the back of my motorbike from the day he could hang on hard enough, and there's still no legal age for pillions. 

By that logic he'd be legal sat on the boot but not in the car!  Yes there's a danger of him hitting the dashboard, but flying off a bike and under an oncoming lorry is probably worse. 

What's a car booster seat anyway apart from a bit of sponge in a cloth bag?  You could always get one and hack it up with a carving knife to fit in your buckets? Personally I'd put him on a cushion and argue the case, I have a much more continental approach to laws I disagree with. 

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My daughter's Halfords booster seat / cushion is a perfect fit on the GT6 seats - when said cushion is rotated 180 degrees so the front is against the seat back! Mind you, we were lucky in that we bought one whilst booster cushions alone were available - now they all come with backs.

We have got a full-on child seat with all the fandango wrap-around cocoon bits too, which gets used when my wife's driving or we're doing long holiday journeys.

Gully

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On 8/6/2018 at 8:37 PM, JohnD said:

I'm not happy about safety items made up of 'styrofoam' and gaffer tape, but it's your (child's) funeral.

What's different about an 'official' one? Take the cover off and it's just a piece of foam. And gaffer tape would be a dream compared to a tiny smudge of badly applied glue. 

I won't be planning any funerals thank you very much. I just don't happen to believe an EC mark bestows magic powers on a cushion. 

Let's not forget the cars either, no special seat will protect anyone from the effect of smashing a 1960s tin can into a lamp post.  Just have a look around, they're lethal. One decent whack and it folds up or punts the gearbox into the cabin. I know, I've done it and still have the scars....from a slow motion 25mph encounter with a ditch after being forced off the road and onto a slippery verge by a tractor on a country road. 

The only safe place is standing on the curb looking at it. 

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Whats different?   For a start there's ECE R44 04, the regulation that says that any childs' seat on sale must have been tested in a frontal collison at 50km/h (30mph) and a rear at 30k/h (18mph)

Like this: 

No magic, just good engineering - or in this case, bad.

And Spitfires WERE crash tested.  Of course they don't offer as much protection as a modern, but it does not fold up like a fag packet as you seem to think.

Would you wear a home made crash helmet?  I don't think for a moment that you are such a libertarian idiot.    

So, please, don't put your child in a home made car seat.

John

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John, did I mention child car seats anywhere? I was talking about boosters and delibrleratly didn't say seats which quite obviously have different considerations. I won't be putting my child in either, he's 26.

I also didn't say they weren't crash tested, I was just pointing out how standards have improved. That sanitised frontal crash test video looked adequate but what speed was it? 50? Two cars head on in town at 25? How broken were the dummy's legs? It's a shame accidents don't happen that way. The most common is an overlap or a side impact, take the door cards off mine and all there is is thin bare metal, no bracing or air bag in sight. 

I sensed a tinge of a dig about being libertarian in some regards which is your prerogative. But my point was simply that I just don't feel I have to put a modern EU regulation over what was deemed perfectly adequate and common sense by us and the UK authorities for decades. Besides, if all new standards are sacrosanct, and a spit wouldn't come close to passing modern crash testing, then by that logic we should we scrap them? Safety is more important than simply having a legal get out on age of car isn't it? Or are we old enough and smart enough to moderate our own risk, be it a car or a booster seat.  I think you and I know what's safe enough without Fritz or a man in Whitehall telling us what to do. 

However, I will concede that having now noticed that the child in the OP is only 7, it would be appropriate to take additional safety measures and either wait until it's tall enough or get a proper safety seat.

You might not believe it but I'm not suggesting being wreckless, I'm just habitually pragmatic. Until someone can tell me how a piece of foam is different to a piece of foam with an EC tested sticker on it,  I'll remain my disagreeable self. ?

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On 8/6/2018 at 5:00 PM, PeterH said:

My 7 year old grandson would love to have a ride in my Mk3 Spitfire. Unfortunately his child seat won't fit into the small bucket seat of the Spit. and a booster seat sits him too high - head level with top of windscreen.

Has anyone overcome these problems to legal carry a youngster in a Spitfire. The law says a child under 12 must use a child seat.

Daft question, but when he sits in the seat like an adult, where does he sit in relation to the seat belt and surroundings then? If he is too high with a booster, he doesn't sound small?

The reason, as I understand it, is the booster is to get the seat belt to sit in the right place across the chest. If it sits correctly without is there an issue (saving it being technically illegal?)

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As imposted the  .gov site is quite clear over 3 yrs old  the std diagonal lap, belt can be used without any booster or child seat 

The journey just needs to be   unexpected    neccessary  amd short  thats easy enough to concoct   a reason for a  reasonal test run

Above all spitfire and many of our other model seat comformity is sadly lacking to apply modern ruling 

The belt fixing meet the standards if factory fitted , some are home made anchor points in attempts to fit belts in 

Cars before their introduction,  

Crash tests have moved along way since the 60s

 

135 is aboit 4ft 3"

Pete

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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:

135 is aboit 4ft 3"

I was being a bit flippant as I don't like the cm as a unit of measure - thou, mm, inches, feet and yards/meters are my prefered units ?

Stems from my Dad who was a teacher of woodwork/metalwork/TD and always thought cm a waste of time. 

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47 minutes ago, Anglefire said:

I was being a bit flippant as I don't like the cm as a unit of measure - thou, mm, inches, feet and yards/meters are my preferred units ?

Stems from my Dad who was a teacher of woodwork/metalwork/TD and always thought cm a waste of time. 

I can estimate a room to be about 8 feet long or travel a half a mile distance, or guess a person to be about five feet tall, but metres and centimetres? Nope.

Ten gallons of petrol, yes, but litres? That's why I buy petrol in amounts, not quantity.

I guess I'm just being awkward; it's the same with 'Yuros'... (although I'll happily take those when given them!)

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3 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

and when was centigrade  changed   to  >>>>>>>>>>>  celsius

Pete

How old are you Pete !? It was changed in 1948 !

When Anders Celsius created his original scale in 1742 he chose 0° for the boiling point and 100° for the freezing point. One year later Frenchman Jean Pierre Cristin proposed an inverted version of the scale (freezing point 0°, boiling point 100°). He named it Centigrade. In 1948, by international agreement, Cristin's adapted scale became known as Celsius to honour the Swedish Scientist.

 

 

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  well i was only just  3 so i dont remember   

celcius only appeared when i retired early in 2003  up till then good old dinasaurus centigrade lived 

i still prefer Fahrenheit   its better when youre confused  bit like 12d makes a shilling now only  10p  who cares ,  just spend it  

didnt we win the   war with   £sd     deg F    feet and inches ,  lbs and oz. who need decimals   and no blasted smart phones 

its a nice day today as well 

 

pete

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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:

  well i was only just  3 so i dont remember   

celcius only appeared when i retired early in 2003  up till then good old dinasaurus centigrade lived 

i still prefer Fahrenheit   its better when youre confused  bit like 12d makes a shilling now only  10p  who cares ,  just spend it  

didnt we win the   war with   £sd     deg F    feet and inches ,  lbs and oz. who need decimals   and no blasted smart phones 

its a nice day today as well 

 

pete

5P is a shilling as in twenty shillings to the pound or one hundred new P. Every fancied being chancellor of the exchequer, you seem well qualified.

Regards

Paul

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I remember Farthings, Monarch on one side, robin on the other. Was it 4 to a penny? I've heard there's consideration to withdrawing the new penny, even the 5p "shilling" is a nuisance these days. 

I have some sovereigns somewhere and silver 6p's.

db

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