Rear Seats

[Littleoldman]

Hi all, on Sunday we drove to Reading Services where I me a guy called Mo. He sells van seats on ebay. I bought a lovely pair of Captain's seats with swivels from him and have just fitted them. They look great. The existing passenger seats for the van are the joined pair type. I would like to use them as seating in the back of the van behind the cab. I will bolt them down to the metal and get an engineer mate to build what's needed to bolt them securely. Only one of the seats has a belt (the middle one). I only need that one for our grandson.There will never be more than 3 of us travelling at any one time. Will this be an MOT fail because one seat has no belt? I have bought a transit seat that I can use it has a built in seat belt but it's seriously ugly. If someone has done this before can they let me know. Or if someone has added a second belt to the twin seats I'd be interested to hear how it's done. Thanks all

 

[Mikeco]

Don’t see how you could fit another seat belt if you use the double front seat as the fixing for the second belt is built into the van and you cannot replicate this in the back.
i used a double mini bus seat in the back with its own steel frame and seat belts, this was bolted to the floor in line with the DVLA guidelines which are buried somewhere on the internet. I did have it reupholstered though before I fitted it.

 

[Littleoldman]

Thanks Mikeco. Your seats look really great. Personally I don’t need another seat belt one of the pair has it built in. That’s all we need. I’m trying to find out if the seat without a belt has to have one to pass the MOT.

 

[pappajohn]

If it needed a belt there would be a world of motorhomes with no MOT.
MOT criteria..... If a belt is fitted it has to be safe, usable and correctly fitted.
No belt, no problem.

 

[Guigsy]

Or van was converted by the previous owner, they paid good money to get it professionally done. The former front two passenger seats had been moved into the back for passengers with two swivel seats up front. The van passed several MOTs with the new seats.

I wanted to add an underslung LPG tank, which got me looking under the van. Turns out the seats were a real death trap. Simple coach bolts through random bits of the floor with some large washers to try to distribute the load. And the frame under the seats was hacked to increase the height to a similar level to the front seats. The additional sections were shoddy and skinny angle iron welded to what was left of the much stockier tubular frame for the seat base. I cringe about what would have happened if we'd had an accident.

It's only 2 of us, so I ripped out the seats and converted the area to something more useful... Just beware of dodgy conversions.

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[TheBig1]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...9/changes-to-seatbelt-installations-guide.pdf

 

[Littleoldman]

Pappajohn I agree with you, lots of vans have seats without belts, just hope DVLA/VOSA think the same. Guigsy that sounds horrendous. If you do it do it right might take longer and be more expensive but it’s right, wrong is not an option when safety is concerned. Thebig1 It’s going to take a while to read but all the information is there. Thank you all, going to visit the local van MOT center tomorrow they can give me the exact ruling. Once I know I’ll post.

 

[pappajohn]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...9/changes-to-seatbelt-installations-guide.pdf

Only applies to Coach, minibus and buses.
Not applicable to trucks and motorhomes.
Private Buses etc are class 5 MOT
ALL motorhomes are class 4 MOT regardless of weight.

 

[Littleoldman]

Anyone seen any videos or articles of how to fix the seats to the van? Read the guidance a few times and it's beginning to sink in. It will take more than a few rivnuts. Will speak to the MOT guys in the morning.

 

[Mikeco]

Anyone seen any videos or articles of how to fix the seats to the van? Read the guidance a few times and it's beginning to sink in. It will take more than a few rivnuts. Will speak to the MOT guys in the morning.

When I fixed mine I managed to find the requirements on the internet and they were somewhere in the DVLA website, they give details of bolt and plate sizes and state that they must be fixed to the chassis members.
The front double seat is not suitable to use unless you adapt the existing steel frame, this was one of the reasons why I did not use it as any adaptions would not be a tested or proven method.

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[Littleoldman]

Thanks Mikeco. I think TheBig1 has given me that detail. What an idiot like me cannot understand is why the seat works in the front but not a few feet behind?

 

[Guigsy]

If you're looking at converting a Ducato (or the Citroen/Peugeot equivalents) you'll notice that the front seats are on a raised platform compared to the rest of the body of the van. If you have swivelling seats in the front, the swivel makes them even higher.

So if you're planning on transferring that double seat to the back for passengers, it's going to be low. In our van, the idea was the swivelled front seats would share a table with the passengers. You'll notice that factory built campervans that do this also raise the floor for this seating area. As mentioned, our conversion just raised the seat base which made them uncomfortably high (even tall friends had dangling feet, which makes your legs go dead after 20 mins) and the frame additions were structurally terrible. Bad design, do not do this.

 

[Littleoldman]

Guigsy yes it has been my plan to raise the floor behind the driver’s seat and it will butt up to the shower/toilet. The rear seat will have a framework concealed below the level of the floor so the seat legs will start at the new raised floor level. I hope to fit drawers under the table. I have to get my head around the metalwork needed for the seat, that’s my priority.