Scoutkid now has a... Vankid? Ideas for rear seats I can put a kid seat in

[scoutkid]

Well team, I have one of these now:



Vantom was never set up with rear seats. I have no problem gutting the interior and doing a complete reconfiguration to make it more family friendly. What do you guys have for kids that work best? Rear bench? A single rear captain chair? If so, behind driver or passenger? Do any of them have the LATCH system - I believe I can still get to the shoulder harness bolts on the sides of the van - but since the floor has a layer of plywood not sure i could hit the floor bolt holes. Obviously this little human is going to get bigger, so I figure I should just assume we will still have to take him places with us so putting the seat(s) in a stock or near stock location so we could use shoulder belts would be best?

Let's see your set up and tell me your ideas!

 

[jdharrin]

First off congrats! What about adding a jump seat between the front seats like these guys did?: http://whensparksfly.org/?page_id=759

Obviously your mobility within the van is impeded but at least it'll postpone tearing out your interior until #2 comes along.

 

[Herbie]

Congrats!

I'm not aware of any seats that have LATCH built in, but remember that LATCH is all about convenience and offers nothing extra for safety. (It's safe up to 40 lbs, it's just not any safer than using the same carseat with a properly installed lap or 3-point belt. After 40lbs (kid weight), you're supposed to switch to a belt installation anyway. Provided you can use a top-tether on the car seat, you can use a lap-only belt with a car seat up to the point that they transition to booster. Once in a booster, you'll need a full 3-point belt.

Given that, add whatever 3rd seat works best for you. Some have 3-point belts installed within the seat. Others (particularly van conversion sofa/bed benches) may not and you'll need to anchor the belts through the floor or using OEM pick-up points. I did a "mix" - I'm using OEM seatbelt reels installed in the outboard floor and C-pillar mounts, but the receivers are mounted through the floor into a hefty backing plate (actually a 12" section of 2" C-channel), since the original OEM receivers mounted to the removable bench seats (since replaced with an RVIA-approved sofa bed bench).

 

[Herbie]

Additional info:
LATCH can be mildly more convenient than using a seatbelt (depending on who makes your car seat - Recaro makes an excellent pushbutton-release LATCH belt), but once you've installed/removed a car seat a few times, it's not very different. The cheaper kind of LATCH belts that just use gated hooks are actually harder to remove because once under tension it can be difficult to release enough tension to undo the hook, whereas the the pushbutton kind work just like a seatbelt, no matter how tight, you can always release the belt/seat.

As a parent, I feel it's vitally important that you know how to do this yourself correctly and not be one of those people who has to make an appointment at the fire station every time you need to reinstall the seat. (Seriously)

 

[scoutkid]

First off congrats! What about adding a jump seat between the front seats like these guys did?: http://whensparksfly.org/?page_id=759

Obviously your mobility within the van is impeded but at least it'll postpone tearing out your interior until #2 comes along.

I thought about that! Not as convenient for when he grows to be a regular sized - or even over sized human.

Congrats!

I'm not aware of any seats that have LATCH built in, but remember that LATCH is all about convenience and offers nothing extra for safety. (It's safe up to 40 lbs, it's just not any safer than using the same carseat with a properly installed lap or 3-point belt. After 40lbs (kid weight), you're supposed to switch to a belt installation anyway. Provided you can use a top-tether on the car seat, you can use a lap-only belt with a car seat up to the point that they transition to booster. Once in a booster, you'll need a full 3-point belt.

Given that, add whatever 3rd seat works best for you. Some have 3-point belts installed within the seat. Others (particularly van conversion sofa/bed benches) may not and you'll need to anchor the belts through the floor or using OEM pick-up points. I did a "mix" - I'm using OEM seatbelt reels installed in the outboard floor and C-pillar mounts, but the receivers are mounted through the floor into a hefty backing plate (actually a 12" section of 2" C-channel), since the original OEM receivers mounted to the removable bench seats (since replaced with an RVIA-approved sofa bed bench).

Additional info:
LATCH can be mildly more convenient than using a seatbelt (depending on who makes your car seat - Recaro makes an excellent pushbutton-release LATCH belt), but once you've installed/removed a car seat a few times, it's not very different. The cheaper kind of LATCH belts that just use gated hooks are actually harder to remove because once under tension it can be difficult to release enough tension to undo the hook, whereas the the pushbutton kind work just like a seatbelt, no matter how tight, you can always release the belt/seat.

As a parent, I feel it's vitally important that you know how to do this yourself correctly and not be one of those people who has to make an appointment at the fire station every time you need to reinstall the seat. (Seriously)

Great info on these!

Here is a pic from the Sienna Seat thread. Maybe I found the answer! You can see the seat base on the driver side seat.

 

[ujoint]

Congrats! As someone currently rocking 3 car seats I'd say its time for you to get another van strictly for baby duty

I also vote for at least one sienna seat. The latch system is great, built it seatbelt for people other than the little one and they're comfy/built well.

 

[scoutkid]

Congrats! As someone currently rocking 3 car seats I'd say its time for you to get another van strictly for baby duty

I also vote for at least one sienna seat. The latch system is great, built it seatbelt for people other than the little one and they're comfy/built well.

3?! Don't you have like 1 kid?

Thumbs on on the Sienna having LATCH (cause I'm lazy).

Also, cause I'm lazy, what year seats am I looking for?

 

[Pinnacle Campers]

Just an FYI, I have a Chateau version van and it has the latch system on one of the two rear removable captains chairs.
Sienna's are probably the better way to go.

 

[Jsweezy]

Congrats! He already has the look of, "How are we gonna tackle this obstacle." If I were you I would totally use your son as a reason that you absolutely without a doubt have to install sienna seats in your van. Unfortunately my van has a bench seat with the latch system so I wasn't able to use the same reasoning with my wife.

 

[familyvan]

Congrats, I put in the GO ES seats from freedmanseating.com. I have two kids in boosters and two in car seats they attach via seatbelts but are great seats. Plus the version I got folds up and out of the way. They have a lot of options and would be worth checking out. Congrats again!

 

[Jsweezy]

Familyvan - can you post a picture for us all to see? I had thought about going this route before but didn't know how it would look or work so id love to see your setup.

 

[bknudtsen]

Congrats! Love that expression!

 

[Hondaslayer]

Skip LATCH and go with a ClickTight seat. LATCH is limited to something like 65lbs including the seat itself which can easily weigh 25 or more pounds. ClickTight? Limited to the seatbelt strength. Side bonus, you literally cannot screw up the installation and it works with any seatbelt from pretensioners to old skool lap belts. All the locking is done within the Click Tight system.

Downside, they are spendy. I have more wrapped up into the car seats (infant + spare base and two convertible seats) than I paid for both cars :lol:

 

[familyvan]

First time attaching photos hope they work! Excuse the mess as I am remodeling my house and the van is primarily a work van. I am going to build it out once the house is done.

 

[familyvan]

Here it is in the up position. I have two rows of them