Ford F-150 Heritage (2004 year). Manual — part 17

SAFETY RESTRAINTS
Safety restraints precautions

Always drive and ride with your seatback upright and the lap
belt snug and low across the hips.

To reduce the risk of injury, make sure children sit in the back
seat where they can be properly restrained.

Never let a passenger hold a child on his or her lap while the
vehicle is moving. The passenger cannot protect the child from

injury in a collision.

All occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, should always
properly wear their safety belts, even when an air bag

supplemental restraint system (SRS) is provided.

It is extremely dangerous to ride in a cargo area, inside or
outside of a vehicle. In a collision, people riding in these areas

are more likely to be seriously injured or killed. Do not allow people to
ride in any area of your vehicle that is not equipped with seats and
safety belts. Be sure everyone in your vehicle is in a seat and using a
safety belt properly.

In a rollover crash, an unbelted person is significantly more likely
to die than a person wearing a safety belt.

Each seating position in your vehicle has a specific safety belt
assembly which is made up of one buckle and one tongue that

are designed to be used as a pair. 1) Use the shoulder belt on the
outside shoulder only. Never wear the shoulder belt under the arm. 2)
Never swing the safety belt around your neck over the inside shoulder.
3) Never use a single belt for more than one person.

Always transport children 12 years old and under in the back
seat and always properly use appropriate child restraints.

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Safety belts and seats can become hot in a vehicle that has been
closed up in sunny weather; they could burn a small child. Check

seat covers and buckles before you place a child anywhere near them.

Combination lap and shoulder belts

1. Insert the belt tongue into the proper buckle (the buckle closest to
the direction the tongue is coming from) until you hear a snap and feel it
latch. Make sure the tongue is securely fastened in the buckle.
• Front seats

• Rear seats (if equipped)

2. To unfasten, push the release button and remove the tongue from the
buckle.

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• Front seats

• Rear seats (if equipped)

The front and rear safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap
and shoulder belts. The front passenger and rear seat safety belts have
two types of locking modes described below:

Vehicle sensitive mode

The vehicle sensitive mode is the normal retractor mode, allowing free
shoulder belt length adjustment to your movements and locking in
response to vehicle movement. For example, if the driver brakes
suddenly or turns a corner sharply, or the vehicle receives an impact of
approximately 5 mph (8 km/h) or more, the combination safety belts will
lock to help reduce forward movement of the driver and passengers.

The front seat belt system can also be made to lock manually by quickly
pulling on the shoulder belt. Rear seat belts (if equipped) cannot be
made to lock up by pulling quickly on the belt.

Automatic locking mode

In this mode, the shoulder belt is automatically pre-locked. The belt will
still retract to remove any slack in the shoulder belt.

The automatic locking mode is not available on the driver safety belt.

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When to use the automatic locking mode
• Anytime a child safety seat is installed in a passenger front or

outboard rear seating position. Children 12 years old and under should
be properly restrained in the rear seat whenever possible. Refer to
Safety Restraints for Children or Safety Seats for Children later in
this chapter.

How to use the automatic locking mode

1. Buckle the combination lap and shoulder belt.
• Front passenger seat

• Rear seats (if equipped)

2. Grasp the shoulder portion and
pull downward until the entire belt
is extracted.

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