Extra Seats In Van??

[Cti Stu]

I've been on Google and asked a couple of people regarding me putting seats in the back of my van and have had different answers!!

1 says if I do it they need to be signed off?? But by who?? Someone else said if it passes the mot then its fine
I don't want to make it into a camper more of a day van type thing, can anyone shed any light on the subject

Thanks

[cobblers]

Possibly you might maybe find someone to get them signed off if you really look into things and try and make life hard for yourself.

But in reality I know companies who have converted thousands of panel vans and fitted RR beds with seat belts and have never once even considered finding someone to "sign it off". They just send photos and details to the DVLA when they get the logbook changed over to Motorhome. I've done the same as have thousands of other people.

[rusty998]

I fitted extra seats in my transit van, the seat's came from a transit minibus which came from Ford, when I renewed my insurance and told them they had been fitted they would not insure me,
I had a devil of a time trying to find anyone who would insure me, van now sold but be warned and check it out first.

[Cti Stu]

I've got a horrid feeling my plan of a cheap day van could end up being a pain!!

Think ill just sell the van!!

[joda]

What are the legalitys of putting a rear seat in an Escort van?
I'm sure you get get a folding seat conversion, or at least you can for an astra van

[meltdown]

You can thank the eurocrats for all this hooha, getting rear seats into our T4 was fine (2000 model), however for the T5 complete pain in the rear (pardon the pun).
Canon's forge was doing R&R beds for about £600 when i was looking for the T4, nice chap to talk to and his beds came with belts.

Legislation was passed that specifically stops you putting non pull tested seats in to vehicles registered after 2008 i think.
If you aren't planning on having passengers in the van you can get away with it but the dvla will not add those seats on to the v5, if you are planning on carrying rear passengers then you have to have the seats certified for insurance and dvla will up the total number of seats on your V5. (m1 pull tested suppliers will provide the certificate when you buy their product)

last thing you want is to get done carrying more passengers than your vehicle was designed for!

Cheapest pull tested bench seat for a van i've seen is £1800 (smartbed), as for an Escort van, it's going to depend on model year, and i expect you'll be hard pushed to find anything, I doubt you can simply put in a bench seat from an estate!

Pre 2001 doesn't need to have seat belts in the rear fitted, however if the vehicle came out of the factory with belts in the rear then they have to stay.

** it's been a while since i converted my vans, so i'm not sure if this situation has changed any... **

[loudandproud205]

I had a row of coach seats fitted in my 2000 Vito, no issues with insurance or mot.

The coach seats had 3 point seat belts built in with all the correct markings the mot tester required.

The tester did inspect the seat rails and fixing points in the rear though, but as I was carrying children there were no short cuts taken in that department.