Energy Management Retractors; Vehicle Sensitive Mode; Automatic Locking Mode; When To Use The Automatic Locking Mode - Ford 2010 F-150 Owner's Manual

Seating and Safety Restraints

Energy management retractors

Your vehicle has a safety belt system equipped with energy management
retractors at the driver and front outboard passenger seating positions.
An energy management retractor is a device which pays out webbing in a
controlled manner. This feature is designed to help further reduce the
risk of force-related injuries to the occupant.
Safety belt systems equipped with an energy management retractor must
be replaced if they were in use during a frontal collision which resulted
in deployment of the frontal airbags. Refer to the Safety belt
maintenance section in this chapter.
The front and rear safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap
and shoulder belts. The front passenger outboard and rear outboard 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 outboard safety belts can also be made to lock manually by
quickly pulling on the shoulder belt. Rear safety belts (if equipped) can
also 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, or
the Regular Cab center safety belt.

When to use the automatic locking mode

• Anytime a child safety seat is installed in a front outboard passenger
seating position in a Regular Cab/ SuperCab/ SuperCrew or any rear
seating position of a SuperCab or SuperCrew. The Regular Cab front
center seatbelt has a cinch mechanism. Refer to Safety belt with
cinch tongue (Regular Cab center only) earlier in this chapter.
Children 12 years old and under should be properly restrained in a
rear seat whenever possible. Refer to Safety restraints for children
or Safety seats for children later in this chapter.
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2010 F-150 (f12)
Owners Guide, 1st Printing
USA (fus)