Adding a swivel base to the passenger seat was an absolute must. It's something we had in the old T3 van and have missed having until now.
It's surprising how it instantly feels like there is more living-space in the van; not only somewhere else to sit, it opens up the rear of the van and connects it to the cab area, no longer do the two feel separate.
The walk-thru area is a god-send especially when arriving at a destination in bad weather, no more getting out just to put the kettle on!
I'm wondering if I could remove the bench seat in the front of our T5 and use it in the back, then move the drivers seat to the passenger side, and buy a captain seat for the drivers side? Would like to get more of a campervan feel to it and the space between the two single front seats looks great. If this is poss, I wonder if I could fit the bench seat onto quick release mount points so I could remove them easily?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. Fantastically useful! Insulation next project for us.
Hi SF, thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteIt would be tricky; the front bench seat won't mount onto the quick release points in the back, you would need the correct 'kombi' rear seat from VW.
Also swapping front seats is difficult as they are side-specific - it would mean swapping the seatbelt points on the seats and so on... not easy.
For other rear seat options have a search on the internet for RIB seating, not cheap but fully MOT compliant - if I had the money that's what I would've gone for.
Good luck with the insulation!
Hi new to all this chat / message/blog thing so please bare with me and laugh if you want to.Your site was very interesting please let me know if you get this message then maybe we can keep in touch and hopefully in time share our interest in vwt5s many thanks Rob
ReplyDeleteHi Rob, thanks for reading and great feedback.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already, I can highly recommend joining the forum over at Brickyard; they're a friendly bunch of like-minded van-owners and a great source of information and guidance.
Glad you like the blog, there's plenty more to come this year!
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThanks for replying. That's really useful information about the seats. Looks like I'll have to an original kombi seat and have it fitted. I think I'll leave the bench seat in the front for a while, but it does limit us we're finding with a baby seat.. we've had to move the seat to the window as the gear lever area was restricting leg room.
Insulation is planned for next month.. and hopefully all modifications will be ready for end of summer (though I doubt it will even be finished!)
Fantastic resource.. I hope to document my efforts too.
SF.
Cheers SF!
ReplyDeleteI'll look forward to following another van converter!
Keep your eyes-peeled on eBay, I've seen rear kombi seats on there quite regularly...
Richard