Safety Belt Locking Modes; Vehicle Sensitive Mode; Automatic Locking Mode; When To Use The Automatic Locking Mode - Ford F-150 2011 Owner's Manual

Seating and Safety Restraints
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.

Safety belt locking modes

All safety restraints in the vehicle are combination lap and shoulder
belts. The driver safety belt and the optional front center seat's safety
belt have the first locking mode only. All outboard passenger and rear
safety belts have both types of locking modes described as follows:

Vehicle sensitive mode

This is the normal retractor mode, which allows 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.
In addition, the retractor is designed to lock if the webbing is pulled out
too quickly. If this occurs, let the belt retract slightly and pull webbing
out again in a slow and controlled manner.

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 optional
front seat's center safety belt.

When to use the automatic locking mode

This mode should be used any time 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
optional front seat's center safety belt has a cinch mechanism. Refer to
Safety belt with cinch tongue 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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2011 F-150 (f12)
Owners Guide, 1st Printing
USA (fus)