Seating for third person (kid) in a fullsize van

[witt]

We're shopping for vehicles for a longish (6 months to 1 year) trip we're planning in a few years. It'll be my wife and I and our son who will be about 5 when we leave.

We're leaning toward a sportsmobile or something similar based on a full size van. We're struggling with where to put the kid's seat. We've considered a few options:
- A captains chair behind the driver's seat. This takes up a lot of space in a regular body van, and the kid can't see out the windshield
- A captains chair behind but between the two seats so the occupant can see out the windshield. Again, this takes a lot of space
- You can get a jumpseat that mounts between the two front seats, but I imagine that this would make access from the front to the rear difficult, and it would mean that the front seats wouldn't be able to swivel.

Does anyone have experience traveling with a single kid in a van? Where did they sit? Were they happy with where they were sitting?

(Back when I was a kid and we had a Westy, my dad built a wooden platform between the two front seats that was removable. My nose was about two inches from the gearshift in 4th. Don't think that would fly today )

thanks!

 

[rockbender]

We are currently using a third captains chair behind the passenger seat in an RB-50ish layout. Our kiddo is not quite two yet, so while she isn't able to voice an opinion it seems to work out well. Our bench seat in the back currently doesn't have seat belts, so that is the main reason we are using the captains chair right now. I'd love to get that seat out to gain more floor space; however it is nice to have them be within reach and closer talking distance.

What layout are you leaning towards? Fixed top or poptop? It encroaches a bit on space for cabinets, but I'd recommend trying to have windows on both sides of where the second row of seats would be.

 

[dhally]

One kid in van

We had an RB-50-ish layout in a high top Ford when our daughter was from one to 5 years old. She sat in the bench seat in a infant seat and later a booster seat. My wife also used the van for a daily driver and took our daughter everywhere this way. This worked fine except it was hard to have a conversation from the front to the back seat, due to distance and noise. Also it was hard for the back seat people to see out because the galley was in the way.

Sometimes one of us would sit back there with her, but mostly she did fine on her own.

Later we had a passenger van with four captain's chairs. This worked a lot better for our kids (2 kids then) to see out and have conversations.

 

[Ozrockrat]

I put a center console/jumpseat from Honda in there.

I put a center console/jumpseat from a Honda Odyssey in mine. It can be used as a sort of a console (really just 3 cup holders) but the best part was that when in the seat formation it has the latches for the children's car seat built in. It is a bit of a tight fit with the car seat in there but much better than either not going or going without our grand daughter. It is recessed back a bit from the 2 front seats to allow for the kiddy seats bulk but can be moved forward to match the other seats if required.

I know there will be naysayers out there but the way it is installed (using honda mounting plates on top and 4 ft of 2x1/4 flat bar underneath as load spreaders) exceeds the shear capacities of the original mounting. Also it can be easily removed for access to the doghouse.

I am also considering putting in a 1/2 rollbar (essentially the top hoop) and using this as a mount for the harness (5 point) when she is in a booster seat. Mine is a cutaway/ambulance box so there is room at the junction between the cab and the box for the bars to sit.

My next plan is to replace at least the passengers seat with the same system so I can remove the seats to work on the engine.

These are the ones I used.

 

[witt]

Thanks for the replies!

We're planning to go with a poptop, and we'll definitely have windows so the rear seat passengers can see out, if we go with a rear seat.

I like the idea of the center jumpseat with fold-down capability. Still wouldn't be able to swivel the front seats, but it frees up a lot of room in the back. I imagine that with the center seat folded down you could climb through to the back if you wanted to.

 

[Herbie]

When I built my Astro camper van, it was specifically with 2 Adults + 1/2 children in mind, so we went with the classic Westfalia layout. 2-year old daughter rides in a carseat on the rear bench seat, clipped into a modified layout of the factory rear seatbelt system.

Putting the carseat on the bench seat means there's no further intrusion into living space. When parked and camping the carseat is stored on the driver's seat or in the upper bunk if no one is sleeping up there.

Our van is built on a passenger van, so there are full windows down both sides. Highback driver's/passengers seats mean the view out the front is a bit limited, but sitting further back means she can see the whole windshield instead just staring at the back of dad's seat if she was as close as a regular passenger car.

If I were going to have cabinets on the driver's side, I'd definitely plan to put the kid on the opposite side and give her a window somewhere near the seat. Sitting in the rear without a side window B-L-O-W-S. Take it from somebody who had to ride in the back of such vans as a kid (whenever I lost the customary rock/paper/scissors to see who had to sit in back).

EDIT: One other criteria to consider for your seating stuff: HVAC. If the kid sits on a middle jumpseat between the front seats, he/she will definitely enjoy the benefits of the front HVAC system. Sitting on a captain's chair behind the front row, even in the middle, may be far enough away that the warm/cold air may not reach effectively. Sitting in the aft-end as with a Westy layout is almost certainly beyond the reach of the front HVAC system unless it's cranked. Our passenger Astro van included separate rear AC and rear Heat systems so the rear of the van is taken care of, but on a cargo-based van you may need to take this into account...

 

[witt]

Good point on the HVAC. I recall FREEZING even in the front seats of our air-cooled VW anytime we went down a long hill in the winter. Eventually my mom sewed up a set of heavy curtains hung behind the cab area to block what little heat was available from escaping to the back of the van. A/C? What A/C?

 

[Ozrockrat]

I like the idea of the center jumpseat with fold-down capability. Still wouldn't be able to swivel the front seats, but it frees up a lot of room in the back. I imagine that with the center seat folded down you could climb through to the back if you wanted to.

Remember the one I have can be unlatched so you could pull it to swivel the seats. Especially if you made it so that it was reversible. Unlatch it, swivel the seats and then put it in backwards. It would nearly be a second couch.

 

[witt]

Excellent, thanks for clarifying. So you kept the two original van seats and just used the center portion of the Honda seats?

Did you custom-build the mechanism to unlatch and remove the center seat, or is that something that's built into the honda seat?

This sounds like the perfect solution for us!

 

[Ozrockrat]

It is build into the Honda seat. I will try to get a couple of photos this afternoon (when it cools off) to show you what it looks like in and out of the vehicle.

 

[r_w]

The Ford F450 center seat/console has a built-in 3 point seatbelt. It isn't an easy-out like the minivan seats, though. But if you have a place that it works folded down as a table, it makes an easy solution.

 

[vwteleman]

We have an EB50-style layout (in a GTRV conversion). Instead of the large storage cabinet on the driver's side of the rear bench (which precludes a window), we designed a low bin (similar to a Vanagon Westfalia) and there are large windows on both sides of the bench. This was specifically so our little guy (now three) can see out both sides.

I agree with the comments about conversation sometimes being difficult, but we didn't want to lose space with a 3rd captain's seat.

Brent

 

[spencyg]

When our kid came along, we added a 3rd captains chair behind the driver seat. It certainly chewed up some space, but I ended up doing a quick disconnect base for it so we could move it under the awning outside when camped. This provided a comfy chair outside, and also recaptured the lost space which was necessary to set up her porta-crib. We are now expecting our second in April and I'm once again trying to figure out what to do. I suspect I'll be installing another captains chair behind the passenger seat with another quick disconnect base though the idea of building a custom foldable bench seat where the current rear captains chair presides might be another option. The biggest question once you start getting more than 2 people in a camper van is "where do we all sleep"?

That is the topic for another thread.

Details on my seat base are on my build thread in the signature link.