Rear seat/Front Seat swap???Possible?

[Ford Prefect]

SO

I have been thinking about getting a fuso type truck, as evidenced by my previous thread in here. The topic was different enough that I thought I would put it in a new thread.

For me, the best bet, is to go with a crew cab, but they are way out of my budget.


SO I was thinking today, the rear seat in the many crew cab trucks tend to have four seatbelts in the rear. What would the possibility be of putting a rear seat outy of a crew into the cab of a regular two door fuso/fe/npr truck?

If I can fit that four person seat into the front of the truck, then perhaps many of my problems are solve.

I realize that this may require some for of fabrication, and may even be required to be stationary, but my wife and I are both tall, and therefore we should be ok with the seat pushed as far back as it can go.

Obviously another concern would be that I may have to move the shifter linkage forward to fit the seat, any thoughts on the complications thereof?


Thanks much for any thoughts!

Brian

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi Brian,

Saw you PM about this but thought I'd answer here in case anyone else was thinking the same and wanted to continue the thread......although I have never actually heard anyone ask this before or comment in any of the older posts.

Firstly this would really be a question for a local engineer to get it passed through your DoT. I think you probably could but the the 2 main questions will arise with the seatbelt fastening and the relationship to the steering wheel (and the pedals).

Assuming you can create safe and legal seat belt fixing, the steering wheel will be way off centre relating to the driver........we've just been questioned about our aftermarket seats recently so I went out and measured the original offset. I reckon the wheel is around 40mm to the left of the centre of the driver's seat as the trucks come from the factory ( this is a RHD FG I'm talking about). For me, this has never been noticeable and I don't even think I sit crooked to compensate but my arms probably are positioned slightly to the left instead. Certainly my shoulders lay back evenly into the backrest anyway.........Now if you go fitting 4 x small rear passenger seats then the offset will increase considerably. I haven't done any measurements for you as we don't have a crewcab at work at the moment but this could be rather uncomfortable if you are sitting with the wheel way off centre.......imagine the wheel 140mm off line (possibly). Reminds me of a 1960's HB Torana (GM/Opel) which were equally as bad.

Don't worry too much about having to shift the gear linkages.......we had to move them out forward on an old FG once before. A little bit of creativity and you'll realize they aren't as complicated as you may think. Isuzu's gear shift is often done with cables which will make things even easier to relocate.

Last thing to consider I guess will be the internal engine hatch. You'll have to lose that for sure or it will be just too hard to make it happen with the seats (safely) . Some of the older FE and FG models have an oil check button which does make life easy but it'll probably mean that you'll be forced to tilt the cab whenever you need to do any engine checks (fluids, belts, etc)......that shouldn't be an issue either.....I have always preferred to flip the cab rather than lift the seats and stuff around with the clips under the floor mats.

Last thing I promise....make sure about the relationship between the squabs and the roof too......we've got a strict DoT rule about this here but certainly try to keep them as low as possible...if you go straight over the engine hump with the crew cab seats, it might all end up a bit high....another question for your DoT or engineer.

Look...sure it could be done, but have a really good think about how comfortable it's going to end up. If the truck is only for camping with the family and crawling along the back roads taking in the sights , then maybe that'll be OK. If it is going to be your work truck through the week and you will clock up considerable miles behind the wheel.........well may be keep looking for that super deal on a crewcab.

Good luck mate,
Regards John.

 

[4671 Hybrid]

Quick question: I'm guessing the current front seats in the Fuso are separate seats and not a bench seat?

 

[SkiFreak]

The driver's seat is a bucket and the passenger side is a split bench made up of a high back next to the door and a "dickie" seat in the middle.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Yep.

Basically there is a gap for a center consol area. Also the tranny shifter is "close" to being in the way. I believe outting a long bench seat would be fine, something akin to having to sit with your legs missing the stick shift in an old pick up truck.

 

[Lynn]

Brian,

I have no experience with the cab-over trucks in question, but my first thought wrt your question was the driver-seat-to-steering-wheel-and-pedals alignment that John addressed above.

For a short time I had to drive an old USAF Dodge 6-pax that had the steering wheel and pedals offset to the right in relation to the driver's seat.

At first it just seemed odd, but it didn't take many miles for it to become really uncomfortable.

 

[Ford Prefect]

For a short time I had to drive an old USAF Dodge 6-pax

Thanks Lynn, and John.

Lynn, I know what you mean... and we seem to like those big ole 6-packs in the AF don't we!

John, sorry, but some how I missed your initial response until Lynn referenced it, so having read that now...

The hard thing for me is that I can not just go out and look at one. You mentioned a hump, I have no idea what you are talking about there. (I trust you, I just have not seen it with my own eyes to know what you are speaking of.)

Thinking about the off set. I drove a Mitsubishi 300gt, and that had an off set, always thought it was rather goofy, but everyone said you would get used to it in time. I never noticed it being a problem, other than being odd. Now the pedals, that could get really annoying in time.

I am not planning on using it for a work truck at all, just for a family motorhome, and a second vehicle on the very rare occasions that we need one, (like two or three times a year in that case) or if the main vehicle breaks.

I am having a hard time envisioning the possibility of the offset. It seems like there is not any room for the seat to slide any further to the driver's side of the vehicle. Would there be room to some what compensate for this by pushing it extremely to the passenger side? This would not be so great for the passenger, but it would be manageable.

I guess I will keep looking, and drooling.

I think for right now I am considering putting a pop up trailer on the flat bed of a vehicle, so at this point I can always buy the perfect pop up and wait until I find the truck to put it on, at least I could begin pulling it and camping asap.


Thanks for the food for thought everyone. I just wish I had access to a few so that I could really take a poke around. The Local college uses a LOT of W4500 trucks, including singles and doubles, so perhaps I can get them to let me take a look at a couple and do some measurements of my own.

Cheers
Brian

 

[thedjjack]

cut the back wall of the cab off add 3 feet and make a "king cab"

A few Willys FC170/fc150 had this done back in the day.

 

[Ford Prefect]

That would actually be a great idea, but I have no idea what it would cost to try to do. One important thing with that also would be that the leavers for holding the cab in place are on the back, and would then have to be moved to allow for the lifting of the cab, and I am not sure that the current set up would allow for the added weight when the cab was open.

A very interesting idea though. I wonder what it would cost...

 

[Lynn]

Brian,

I haven't been in one either, but have been pondering this same issue, and studying all the pix I can find. I want to build a truck for our family of four, and want ample cab space (no-one riding in the cabin).

I'm sure the 'hump' John referred to is the engine cover. Pardon me if you already know this, but if the front seats are removed you will see that the floor under the outboard seats is lower. Under the middle seat is the engine cover / hump. Here's a link I found on a quick google. If you scroll through the pix one of the back seat views shows the back of the hump extending into the rear seat foot space. Sorry, that's the best pic I can find right now.

So, like he mentioned, to put the straight-across bench from the rear in the front you will probably have to raise it a few inches higher than the normal seating position to clear that center hump. May or may not be a problem; For you to figure out... You mentioned that you are tall, so reaching the pedals may not be a problem, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of headroom in an FG cab, and if you raise the seat you'll have to watch your, what did John call 'em, squabs?

Also I think you are missing the fact that to get four-across in the back Mitsu made the individual seat positions narrower, and the outboard seats are close to the doors.

Subsequently, if you move that bench to the front, both of the outboard seats are going to be less comfortable (narrower and closer to the doors). I'm afraid that back bench seat is going to be quite a bit more uncomfortable than the stock front seats. I think this would be a major consideration, given that most (all?) of the Fuso camper drivers on here haven't even been happy with the stock front seats, and I would expect the back seats are even less comfortable.

Here's another thought: scab a W4500 crew cab onto a Fuso chassis. It would certainly take some fabrication, but there is a precedence: USA6x6 took the military cab off of their Esarco 8x8 and put an Isuzu cab in its place when they built the Octomog. They used to have a write-up online with some photos of their cab-ectomy, but I haven't been able to find it lately. ADDITED 04/27: I just found a thread where I suggested this approach before and the expert consensus is that it would be easier to convert a W4500 crew cab to 4x4. One issue I forgot about is the stepped chassis.

Good luck, and keep asking questions. You're helping me design my rig

 

[kerry]

Having driven many miles with three of us in the cab of the Fuso, I can confidently say that 4 people in the cab is completely out of the question. There's just not enough room.
I saw a picture a few years ago of an FG with a kind of 'sleeper' attached behind the cab. There were no pictures of the pass thru and I don't know how it was set up inside, but it looked to me as if it was designed to carry additional passengers. Don't know why you couldn't do that.

http://www.buyandselltrucksleepers.com/