LATCH system for car seats

[Rileysowner]

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to put our car seat into my Mothers 2005 Toyota Echo. On of the things I loved about it was the LATCH mounting system (See Here for more information) I was wondering when seats with the LATCH or UAS systems were put into the AstroSafari vans? I know there were required after September 2002, but some manufacturers put them in before that.

I have two reasons for asking this. First, I may want to seach for junked Astro or Safari that i could scrounge seats from. Second, we are hoping that my sister-in-law can take care of Justin for a few days, but they have a 2001 Astro which they never had small children in, so it may not have the tether strap anchor. If they have the LATCH/UAS system, then it will already be in their van.

[brianj]

my 2001 has tether mounts at the bottom of the seat back (bench seats) but these are on the outside, and the middle is where the lap-belt is.

We have L.A.T.C.H. mounts in our saturn, and although they are nice, I really don't like them any better than the lap belt in the safari.

We use the style that has the removable base, so that may make a difference.

I'll snap a picture of the mount, and check the manual later. It seems to me that the models with rear captains chars had LATCH anhors, but the benches do not.

bri

[Rileysowner]

If your 2001 has the tether mount, then odds are my In-laws have it as well. The advantage of the LATCH mounts in the seat comes later for us. In Ontario booster seats are required up to 8 years of 50 Lbs whichever comes first. There are some really nice boosters that clip onto the latch mounts that I would prefer to use in a couple of years when Justin outgrows his car seat.

I will have to check my In-laws van the next time I see it. Pics of where the tether mount is on the bench would be great

[potskie]

I bought my 98 used and someone added the tether mounts after market style bolted them right to the floor behind the seat.

What i used todo with the tether in my 93 was run it down the back of the seat and then clip it to the seat frame under the seat or if the 3rd row was out i would clip it to the little bars on the floor that the 3rd row latches into..

[dragonvan]

My '02 was built in August '01. It has 3 top tether points ( a fourth could easily be added) but no latch. You could probably take the brackets off of a later vans seats and put them on yours. It is an 8 passenger with 2 benches.