question about seating layout

[onsight512]

Hi All,

My wife and I are looking to buy a 'van' that'll serve a variety of uses, one of which will be camping. We have two kids that are in booster seats (4 & 6 y.o.). Is there a way to take a SMB that is laid out like this one:

http://www.rvt.com/dealerframe/sahararv ... id=5396912

and either re-orient the passenger bench, or 'simply' add a couple of forward-facing seats where the kids could (safely) ride to and from places like the beach, the bmx track, etc?

many thanks,
Chris

[86Scotty]

Yes, it's possible, but not easy. The problem is not going to be ditching the couch in favor of other seats, the problem is what is underneath the couch. There's most certainly a water tank, water heater, furnace, batteries etc. under there. Not all of those things but probably a couple of them. It would probably be a lot more economical to keep searching. There are TONS of vans for sale right now, not to mention mine. I'm not trying to bring attention to my own but I set it up for the same reason, us + 2 small kids facing forward. Check it out for the floorplan if nothing else.

Here's the other problem with getting rid of that couch. It's a double bed. Without it, you can only sleep 2 up top.

Good luck!

[onsight512]

Thanks for the info. I figured it wouldn't really be practical, but thought I'd ask. I've been through the classifieds here a 'bit' in the last few days. Yours is a nice one (I've looked at it a few times already) , especially with the way the seats are set up, but it's probably not the one for us (slightly above budget and we'd prefer something 'local').

[Ocsmb]

Custom base mounts can be had and have been done for stock ford truck jump seats. Down the line im considering adding a forward facing jump seat in line with the dog house and adjacent to the fridge.

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by onsight512

Thanks for the info. I figured it wouldn't really be practical, but thought I'd ask. I've been through the classifieds here a 'bit' in the last few days. Yours is a nice one (I've looked at it a few times already) , especially with the way the seats are set up, but it's probably not the one for us (slightly above budget and we'd prefer something 'local').

Glad to help, whatever you do I definitely recommend forward facing seats. So many reasons, but safety is the biggest.

[BrianW]

For kids your age, since they are only in boosters and not full-on child seats, you could do a "50" layout with the rear bench width-wise. But, many (most?) don't have two three-point seatbelts.

I needed to add a third captain's chair for our son (we only have one kid), and it took a while to find a van that would allow me to retrofit a seat in. In our case, I found a van that had a sink cabinet just inside the side barn doors. Removing that allowed me to get a seat in. For two seats, I highly advise looking for a van that already has the two captain's chairs installed. I've seen a few come up recently. It's not just the two chairs, but it's also really nice to have windows on both sides at the second-row seating position. It bugged our son this summer on our road trip that he could only see out the windshield and passenger side of the van, since we have cabinets on the driver's side.