Restraints while sleeping or riding in bunk.

"FMCSR 393.76(h) Occupant restraint. A motor vehicle manufactured on or after July 1, 1971, and equipped with a sleeper berth must be equipped with a means of preventing ejection of the occupant of the sleeper berth during deceleration of the vehicle. The restraint system must be designed, installed, and maintained to withstand a minimum total force of 6,000 pounds applied toward the front of the vehicle and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle."

Not real specific, is it.

 

Sooooooooo............I gotta tie down Gina my blow up doll or just let the air out of her?

 

If you convert the sleeper to passenger seating and register the vehicle as a bus your probably good to go. Busses are exempt from state seat belt laws as of now. If you register it as an R/V you will need seat belts for all seating positions.

 

How many wraps is that?

 

Looks like you have to have it installed but don't have to use it.

 

There is no mandate for its use. It only has to be available. Since I am a solo driver and obviously won't be sleeping while the vehicle is in motion, my webbing stays stashed in that cubby hole that's hard to reach.

I'm not sure how the law reads state-to-state. I can only imagine how this would be enforced. Think truck drivers are cranky now, just have some stranger crawl into the sleeper, waking up the resting team member to verify restraint use.

 

When I ran team in the Pete 379 I had them up and used them however in Petes they went from the bottom to the top. The Freightliners were a Belt type I would have never used. Sorry but when a normally run as a Team in Southern CA you need something to catch the Team mate when your standing on the binders when some Ahole in a BMW trys to play SUICIDE SQUEEZE.

 

My Freightliner had a net with seatbelt perimeter and cross reinforcement that covered about 3/4 of the lower bunk. It was bolted to the truck in the back and secured at the front of the bunk with three seatbelt latches.

When I was running team I had to make an emergency stop and my co-driver who didn't think he needed to use it ended up in a heap against the shifter. (he was really wide awake too ).

When I started running single I removed it (I also converted the lower bunk to a work/workout area). No co-driver means no need for "preventing ejection of the occupant of the sleeper berth during deceleration of the vehicle." Just like there would be no passenger seatbelt required if there was no passenger seat.