help, avice for seating capacity and rego in QLD

[omnibus]

A friend has just purchased a 86 county (isuzu) in awesome condition and just been thru the rego rigmarole where his seating capacity is not stamped on his plate, has all original seats and was told he had to rego it 5 seater yet he has all seating in back
why is this so and is there anything he can do to prove his vehicle is higher capacity
he was also told that engineer will not blue plate his vehicle cause side facing seats are illegal
WTF is wrong with these retards in QTD please help

[Hoges]

"Retards" is a bit harsh... indeed there's overwhelming evidence that side seating can be dangerous in even a minor "bump". Severe injury from Head-knocking (with the person seated next to you) and skeletal damage are significant when people sitting in these seats are subject to the forces in a collision, more so than people sitting facing the direction of travel. A couple of major insurance companies in the UK called a halt to insuring LR Defenders last year because of the risks of this type of seating. The Monash Uni Accident Research people have written a lot about this. Do a google. The fact that there are still many troopy-type vehicles with this type of seating around doesn't diminish the fact that they're dangerous.

[frantic]

I want to congratulate hoges for not answering his question and giving a lecture simultaneously:twisted:

Now back to the question, retard is to mild a word, they are still accepting new toymota troopies(WORKMATE-11 SEATS) with 8 inward facing seats to rego, they have only banned them from hire as to many pommy bacpackers where putting 10-11 in the troopie and 20 + bags on the roof, going to fraser Isl and rolling them. Show the engineer this and there should be no argument.
If it was released with 9 seats it should be able to be regoed with 9 seats, I went through this with my 2002 defender as I refitted the rear seats from another def, but was lucky enough that the bloke I went to adjust the rego was a LR specialist(silverdale) in NSW who knew the rules. Try and find a local QLD specialist along with a few original pics off the net, or maybe a copy of another Qld rego county with 9 seats.

Toyota LandCruiser 70 Troop Carrier Workmate specifications (http://www.toyota.com.au/landcruiser-70-series/specifications/troop-carrier-workmate)

[101RRS]

Rules are relevant to the rules that apply when the vehicle was built. yes sideways seats maybe dangerous but that is not relevant to whether vehicle can or cannot be given a roadworthy if it complies with the rules of the time. Must have been OK up to at least 98/99 as Disco 1s had rear sideways facing seats up to that time (yes with seatbelts) with full compliance so is doable.

Garry

[Ancient Mariner]

My 96 Defender has a mod plate 17-3- 99 Mod code LK1 LK6. mod seating capacity 7. so getting a plate should be no problem .

[Hoges]

I want to congratulate hoges for not answering his question and giving a lecture simultaneously:twisted:

etc...

Fair point frantic! ;) Must have been watching so much political comment during the election!:angel: Perhaps said seats are "legal"...but would you want to put others at risk when they've been proven time and again to be a damned dangerous way to transport people.

[JDNSW]

If it is like my 86 County, it will be plated as an "Omnibus", albeit with no seating capacity. This designation would not have been used if it had been only a five seater. It should have seat belt mounts for the seats in the back.

While sideways seating is not as safe as forward facing seating, it can equally be said that forward facing seating is not as safe as rear facing seating, and there would be a good case for all seating positions except the driver to be rear facing!

It would be interesting to see actual statistics on deaths or injuries in side facing seats in Landrovers - these almost certainly exist in army archives as well as in insurance company archives.

It is perhaps worth remembering that while side facing seating is more dangerous, if you have an accident, according to MUARCS own data, large four wheel drives, which would include Landrover 110s, are under-represented in accidents and deaths/injuries compared to most other types of car (perhaps due to the type of driver who selects them), and the Landrover Defender, despite side facing seats, has one of the best safety (i.e. casualty) statistics in the UK, where it is far more common than here. In my own experience, with over 55 years of driving, the only major accident I have been involved in was a side impact - Fairlane drove through a stop sign into the side of my Citroen, which I had stopped (too late), as I realised she was not going to stop! What price forward facing seating in this situation?

John

[Blknight.aus]

if your rear seats dont have seat belts then the rear seats are non compliant and your vehicle can only be registered as a 5 seater.

if you have all the seatbelts then you face one of 2 problems

1. it was originaly a 7 or 9 seater that was mis registered and youre screwed and will have to fork out for a mod plate for the seatbelts

2. it was originally a 5 seater registered as such and someone has paid for after sales fitment of the rear seats and seatbelts in which case youre screwed and will have to fork out for a mod plate for the seatbelts.


naturally Im omitting how much rigmarole youre going to have to go through to get said mod plate and have the dept of transprt accept it.

[manchild21000]

My 94 defender is a registered 9 seater omnibus with a mod plate . It is all aftermarket so its perfectly doable .
cheers

[Wallaby Ted]

My 85 County is the same as manchild21000, it is registered as an omnibus and has a mod plate which says 9 seats. I guess it came this way as the rear seats are the same trim as the other seats.

Richard

[goanna_shire]

I have a curly one. I have an originally 2 seater FFR perentie and stuck a 4 door body on it. It now has 5 seats. Is it possible to get it mod plated for 5 seats? $6,000,000 ? How?

Cheers,
Brian

[Blknight.aus]

if the body work is all in OEM spec
and the seatbelts are OEM stock
and the Seats are OEM stock
and its all bolted together with the required fixings

take it to an engineer and get the mod plate for

change of bodyworks
change of seating

then you're good to go

[jerryd]

A friend has just purchased a 86 county (isuzu) in awesome condition and just been thru the rego rigmarole where his seating capacity is not stamped on his plate, has all original seats and was told he had to rego it 5 seater yet he has all seating in back
why is this so and is there anything he can do to prove his vehicle is higher capacity
he was also told that engineer will not blue plate his vehicle cause side facing seats are illegal
WTF is wrong with these retards in QTD please help

When I purchased my County (it was a qld car that had gone to nsw) and when I tried to register it back in qld, I had all sorts of problems.
They said they needed to inspect the vehicle which was fine, but as the lady was trying to find the engine number she slipped off her stool :angel: Her attitude seemed to change after this and declared that I couldn't register the vehicle as the rear seat belts were missing :eek: I pointed out that the seat belts were fitted and working but she said "not those, the one's in the back"
I was at a complete loss as to what she was on about as there were no seats in the back.The paperwork said "5 seats" but she now insisted it was a nine seater :censored: When I asked where the other four seats were she insisted that the rear wheel arches were the seats and the seat belts were missing. This conversation went on for nearly an hour :censored::censored: and after insisting on talking to somebody else he advised me to go and get a mod plate stating that I was converting it from a nine seater to a five seater, this would also make the insurance cheaper.

Reluctantly this is what I did and it cost me $90 for the mod plate, even though under the bonnet was already a Qld mod plate stating it was a five seat vehicle :confused: I won't tell you about the saga to register the dormobile :D

[omnibus]

ok ty for the replies especially the safety advice always good to know someone cares, the vehicle is completely oem in regards to seats and belts and fixings, the reason they give for the 5 seat is that is was once registered as a 5 seater and never mod plated (even though it has also been registered as a 9 seater) hhmmmmm :angel: is retards really that harsh, it seems to me that it all depends on who you get at the counter and they decide, whether or not they know what the rules are,
I don't use the back seats in mine often mostly when were camping and I load all the kids with their cousins and friends we go for little joy rides up and down the beach they wave at all the ppl, we have the stereo blasting one direction (not my choice of tunes) and have a ball. To have the extra 4 in back costs an extra $80 to $100 for the CTP, when you hear how excited they are "to have a turn in the back" still worth having I reckon,