Van (rear seats)

[m4tty]

Hi,

Does anyone know of any vans which you can put seats in (legally) in the back for kids.

Cheers

 

[Lurch]

Easiest way, the ones that have a version with seats in. It will have the same floor and fixing points in the van and bus so you just bolt the manufacturers seats in place.

Slightly more involved, fairly certain you can just bolt seats in anything as long as you do it properly and have it tested.

 

[spinlondon]

Land Rover.

 

[revjames]

You can get the vauxhall Vivaro/Nissan/renault (same van basically) with 3 front seats and a row in the back as well. So I guess if you get one of those you will probably find rear seats to fit on the internet.

 

[Daninho]

You can get a Vauxhall Combo Crew van, this: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/index.htm?id=169

There's plenty of room in the back for the kids and a fair bit of space left for tools, etc!

Im not sure how easy they are to come by though!

 

[Lurch]

Quite popular on the continent, cheaper and easier to buy a van, a set of seats and cut some side windows in or buy some side doors from the bus version over here though.

 

[revjames]

I use a vauxhall crew van at work and find it quite small and slow when heavily loaded. I guess if I cleared a lot of the junk out it would be better!

 

[Chuck U Farley]

Land Rover.

I have a Disco Commercial and they are bog standard saloons when they leave the factory, then go to LR Special Vehicles to have some bits bolted on and other bits removed. Still would be a total PITA to replace the seats though, Land Rover found that people were exporting brand new Commercials, getting the VAT back, then easily turning them into saloons. Apparently now it's a lot more work to turn one into a 4 (or 7) seater.

Customs used to make Special Vehicles deliver the Commercial complete with the original saloon parts and then destroy them so they couldn't be used to re-convert them.

The hardest thing about putting seats in vans is getting the seatbelt anchor points tested and signed off. Also you must tell your insurance company. If it's for more than a one-off trip (where you may "forget" to go through the proper channels and simply bolt some seats in the back) it is a lot of hassle to do it legally and works out just as cheap to buy a cheap car for kiddie runs.

Or buy an Espace or similar, black the windows, take the seats out and use it as your van by day, and replace the seats easily and legally as and when you need to.

 

[Apache]

What about a double cab pickup?

I used to drive one and damn good vehicles. I had a Nissan Navara and it had it's quirks but I liked driving it. Five seats and a decent boot (with a hard top) for all your gear?

You can still get the VAT back!

 

[batty]

What about a double cab pickup?I used to drive one and damn good vehicles. I had a Nissan Navara and it had it's quirks but I liked driving it. Five seats and a decent boot (with a hard top) for all your gear?

You can still get the VAT back!

Only if your registered though.

 

[Apache]

Only if your registered though.

*sigh*

obviously

 

[androiduk2002]

A few years ago when I lived in Luton the company I used to work for had a Rye CNC , when Rye shut down one of their engineers set up on his own (the best thing he had ever done (so he said)) , he had a similar issue he brought a Mercedes Vito , that had a second row of seats in ,from the factory . He modded a few bits himself like slot out panels to allow long items to be transported inside , and he did use to carry alot of weight as the motors where very heavy for their size (two man lifts) , but he swore by that van.

 

[boltonsparky]

Ive fitted alot of seats in the back of vans, used to be a truck and van mechanic.

If you're retro fitting them and it's a standard van floor (without seat rails) the best way is to buy the seats that have seatbelts built into the seat so no belt anchoring is required.

To fit the seats you need to get from a fabrication shop some 5mm mild steel plate cut into a minimum of 100x100mm squares, one for each hole on the seat base (normally 4 for a single seat) and drill one hole into each of the plates the same size as the bolt holes in the seat bases (normally 12 or 14mm holes). Drill the same size holes through the floor of the van (after measuring and marking out the seat locations).

Before drilling check where the fuel tank is, any electrical cabling and handbrake cables and make sure you dont drill through these!!! Also be carefull as on newer vans (the new shape vito for definate) have the wiring looms for the rear lights, doors etc running right down the centreof the back under the wooden floor!

Bolt the seats through the van floor and put the steel plates on the underside of the van floor. Use Nyloc nuts and don't overtighten as you'll crush the wooden floor lining, they do need to be tight though, obviously!!

You can get seats new from sites like this

http://www.jennings-seats.co.uk/shop/4/index.htm

but they are very exspensive.

I did a mates van for his band, put a seat and table in the back, carpetted it etc. we got the seats from a van breakers in manchester and got 6 seats for