Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, we’re new to owning a camper of any sort and we fell in love with this one, well we now have a seating problem, no enough seats/correct seat belts!!!
Can you or has anyone changed the lap belts for 3 point harnesses in the rear seating and does anyone know about adding seats or a buddy seat with a lap belt!?
I’ve googled like a mad person but nothing has come up for our seating arrangement of the van.
Thank you I’m advance The Dangerfields

my Holdsworth Vila 3 had a rear facing fold down seat behind the passenger seat with a lap belt, so it is possible
I removed it for space but I don't want to sell it sorry.

I'm pressty sure you can add a 3 point belt to the side with out the cupboard but cupboard side would mean loosing the cupboard or maybe at least the door.

Ah brilliant it is possible to have a buddy seat, fantastic I can see what I can find to fit!

Yes that’s what I was thinking in regards to the cupboard, our passengers side rear seat slides from the middle to the side (near the sliding door) so I wonder if a three point could be fitted there!

Do you have any photos of the buddy seat fitted at all? X

Thedangerfields wrote:
Do you have any photos of the buddy seat fitted at all? X

maybe not sure I will look, have you seen this website lots of pics maybe one in there somewhere.

http://www.holdsworth.vwt25camper.info/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One thing to Note is I have rotating seat bases, I could not see the point of a buddy seat being fitted ( the upholstry says it's origional) as the seat won't rotate rear facing, probably an optional extra.

You can get buddy seats that fit (when you can get hold of them).
could also fit a twin seat in the front (like we did) & now got 3 x 3 point seat belts in the front.
Have seen a bar that fits inside the cupboards where a 3 point seat belt has been fitted to the rear seats.
There's always a way around a problem - finding the right combination for you is the hard bit

Do you have pics of your seating arrangement? We have three kids and two of them need 3 point belts so I’m trying to find a solution, yours sounds ideal

Yes our front passenger seat swivel around so I’m not sure a buddy seat would “fit” I just want to know there is a solution lol!

I’m sure there is and it’s just finding someone to help where we love, there are a few camper conversion company but more to the van to camper sort!

I feel this club is going to be such a help on our new t25 journey

It's hot in my loft today...

if you fit a double front passenger cab seat it won't turn either and you have almost no gap between to walk into,the back, they are designed for bulkhead vans so you need add support, also the middle seat in lap belt.


double passenger seat by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

80s colours

P1100425 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1100429 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1100430 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

Ah I see, damn no three seats up front for us then! The front needs to swivel to make the bed I think!
That’s the kind of thing I was thinking of a gold away seat, argh so many ideas I need to find someone to look at our van and say yes they can do it lol! Thanks for all the info and ideas I’ll keep searching

How about putting some pics up of your van seats then you get 100s of people looking at it
some of the bed made up too.

That’s a good idea! Hubby is now bringing her home so I’ll do a post tomorrow thank you

Thedangerfields wrote:Do you have pics of your seating arrangement? We have three kids and two of them need 3 point belts so I’m trying to find a solution, yours sounds ideal

private message me (or add me on facebook if your on there) - I don't know how to add pictures on this forum which is a pain.

We used the twin seat from a van - and had a box frame made up to secure the brackets to it, that bolts to the passenger & driver B posts - we then had another post welded above it to attach the 2nd 3 point seat belt to (so 3 point seat belts on both passenger seats) - would have liked to add isofix as well, but the space between the seat didn't look enough. It does restrict walking through to the back, & we lost our passenger swivel seat which I sold on (which we could live with - saved shouting to the back of the van to talk to the mrs, & the little un loves being up front as well).

The brickwerks rear seat belt (& bracket) are really good quality items (its brickwerks so enough said really , which I retro fitted - actually quite easy to do following their blog / wiki articles I read up on. I think another 3 point can be fitted on the same side of the van using a longer seat belt for the middle seat. One of the main issues is to make sure your rear seat cushions are secured to the base and back to avoid moving under an impact (hopefully never ever happens but got to be prepared).

I was obsessed at every camper show the year my little un was born checking out the different ways people had got around the extra seat belts issue.

I haven't seen the cupboard side bar (which would need to be secured to the drivers side bodywork) advertised for a while (but I haven't been on ebay much either), & you might lose some cupboard space.

If I ever have another little un (it took us until my mrs 40th birthday for our little miracle - so getting unlikely now 5 years on), I would really consider a dicky seat behind the front seat (as it can be removed fairly easily whilst camping I believe) - I came accross a newbie the other day that was going to chuck theirs down the tip (& offered it on facebook for FREE - she was very pleased when I told her to at least ask for a charity donation as they're like hens teeth, & don't often come up for under £150).
Other options include a mini bus seat, or ex ambulance / local authority bus (or even dare I say it a T5 seat - i'l go wash my mouth out with soap lol ), as they usually have built in seat belts, and often are foldable depending on the configuration - I didn't end up going down this route as the double seat (in matching trim to my drivers seat) did the job for my needs

whats a dickie seat?

itchyfeet wrote:whats a dickie seat?

Comes from the olden days - dickie seats were the extra seats (that used to be in the boot of vintage cars).
Dickie seat / buddy seat / jump seat - heard them called loads of different things