Vanderhall North America is recalling its Brawley GTS electric recreational off-road vehicles from model years 2024 through 2026 because the seat belts can permanently lock in the fully retracted position. About 190 vehicles are covered, and the company has logged 11 reports of seat belt lockup. No injuries have been reported.
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A belt that has locked all the way back cannot be pulled out, reset or fastened while the vehicle is being driven. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall on Nov. 5 as number 27-064 and lists injury and crash hazards.
How a seat belt retractor ends up locked for good
The commission’s recall notice says the belts “can permanently lockup in the fully retracted position.” In that state a driver or passenger who unbuckled mid-trip would have no way to put the belt back on, so the occupant would ride unbelted. The fix targets the speed of retraction. A technician installs an insert in the seat belt guide slot on each seat to slow the belt’s retraction, and the work is free. Owners are told to stop using the vehicle until a dealer completes it. Vanderhall lists the reference name as “Vanderhall North America, LLC Recalls Brawley GTS Seat Belt Retractor.”
The notice’s heading covers all Brawley electric ROVs from model years 2024 to 2026, while its body names the GTS. VIN ranges run from the ending digits 005927 to 005990 for 2024 models, 005992 to 006074 for 2025 and 006077 to 006152 for 2026. The number sits under the dashboard on the driver’s side.
Belt use is the central safety variable in this class of vehicle. A 2016 staff briefing package on recreational off-highway vehicles found that 433 of 610 victims in its incident review, or 71 percent, were partially or fully ejected, and that 282 of 374 victims whose belt use was known, or 75 percent, were not belted. The voluntary ANSI/ROHVA 1 standard described there calls for three-point belts with an emergency locking retractor and limits vehicle speed to 15 mph when the driver’s belt is unfastened. A belt that cannot be fastened defeats both protections.
The scale of the problem is modest but not trivial. Eleven lockup reports against about 190 vehicles works out to roughly one report for every 17 machines, although some reports could come from the same vehicle and the notice does not break them down. Owners who see a belt stuck in the retracted position should stop driving and call a dealer, as the notice directs.
Dealer states, build window and the $50,000 price
The sales window runs 26 months, from April 2024 to June 2026. Vanderhall dealers in Utah, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona sold the vehicles for about $50,000. Paint options include Ivory White, Obsidian Black, Royal Blue, Ida Rose, Bosco Blue, Atomic Green, Rossa, Jean Gray and Emerald Green Metallic. The maker is Vanderhall North America LLC of Provo, Utah, and the vehicles are built in the United States. Owners reach the company at [email protected] or through its dealer contact page, and the commission’s hotline is 800-638-2772. The firm also keeps a safety notice page on its portal that has carried earlier Brawley campaigns.
The commission’s off-highway vehicle statistics count 2,448 deaths from ATVs, recreational off-highway vehicles and utility-terrain vehicles from 2018 through 2020 and an estimated 94,700 emergency-department injuries in 2022. Vanderhall’s 11 lockup reports are a tiny sample against those totals, and none involved an injury, but the recall exists to keep that record clean.
The fourth Brawley safety campaign since March 2025
Brawley owners have received a stop-use instruction before. Vanderhall’s notice posted March 3, 2025 covered 59 model year 2024 vehicles over a software fault that could leave rear steering unlocked, plus a rare high-voltage isolation fault that carried a shock risk. Owners were told to keep the battery at 50 percent charge or higher until the update. A second notice, released by the commission on Feb. 9, 2026, covered 180 vehicles whose tie rods may break under strong sideways force in off-road driving. The remedy was replacing all four tie rods, plus a possible software update.
On Aug. 6, 2026, the commission’s acceleration recall followed for about 210 vehicles that could keep their speed or accelerate after the pedal was released. Recall number 26-674 required firmware version 7.1.0, released April 15, through Vanderhall’s own notice and its customer mobile app. One unexpected-acceleration report was logged then. The unanswered question is overlap. The notices cite different unit counts, from 59 to about 210, with different VIN spans, and none says how many vehicles sit in more than one recall. An owner of a late 2025 Brawley could face several separate repairs, each with its own contact route.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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