Can you put a child seat in front in certain cases?

[khalloc]

DH just bought an old pickup truck. I think its a '47 Chevy. Its pretty cool. Obviously it doesnt have airbags. Could he put one FF carseat in the front?

DS is 2.5 and would be riding in a Cosco Scenara.
DD is almost 5 and riding in a Cosco 5-point harness seat that then converts to a high back booster. She uses the harness though.

The trips would be short trips. Maybe 5 miles max. Like to the grocery store or hardware store to pick up something. Just to give the kids a chance to ride in the truck.

He usually drives a 2010 Prius, but I know the kids will want to try the truck out.

[wellyes]

DH has a 60s roadster -- no back seat -- and takes DD in the passenger seat once in a while. She is 2.5. The biggest concern with having children in the front seat is the danger of airbags, so if there was one, it would HAVE to be disabled. But that's obviously not an issue with antiques. We FF using a seat with side impact protection (Radian 65). I've found that the other cars keep a respectful distance from vehicles that are clearly antiques. I'm comfortable with it for occasional short trips.

[christiedavid3]

I would be OK with it too. However, I'm thinking the truck most likely does not have headrests. Your DD's seat requires that it be installed on a seat with a headrest behind it. So, if the truck doesn't have headrests, you won't be able to use her seat in it at all. As far as I know, the Scenera is fine to be used with or without a vehicle seat headrest.

[o_mom]

Yes, you can use a seat there, assuming there are properly installed seatbelts. Sometimes those old vehicles didn't come with seatbelts and you may want to have a mechanic check that aftermarket seatbelts are installed in a sound manner.

If there are only lapbelts, then you will need to use harnessed seats. You may want to plan ahead with a highweight harness seat to use in there long-term if that is the case. The Cosco combo seat may require a headrest, depending on the model.

[khalloc]

Well the truck has had some work done to it. I think it has new seats. So it may have headrests. It also may have nicer seatbelts. Its coming tomorrow, so I guess we will find out then!

[Joolsplus2]

Those one-piece short Cosco HBB's don't have the headrest requirement, only the dedicated, headrest-moving Coscos do.
How about a nice tall-harnessed Evenflo Maestro? It has a top harness slot a good three inches taller than the Coscos (Scenera is taller than the HBB, make sure your dd isn't at or above the top slots of her seat next time she's in it :))