5 seater Grand Cali

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

I had a look under my seat & tried to take some photos - not easy. From what I can see it is only the battery charger thats in the way, looking at that Facebook video the swivel seat lifts up & with the charger being quite slim I would have though it should be possible to mount it sufficiently low that the seat lifts over it.

The only thing I didn't like was that the head restraints need to be removed to swivel the seat if you have the roof pockets over the seats.

Everything that doesn't swivel in the GC is contained within the bottom 150mm of space in the beatbox that the runners & then the VW swivel are mounted on. It looks like the charger is mounted on top of the fuse box There is still some free space in there hight wise. Not sure how much space the charger needs round it for cooling though.

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Would you mind taking a picture of the floor vents between the front seats to see whether or not they are raised up which I guess would cause a problem for the R&J bench swivel base possibly? Thank you in advance.

 

[andyinluton]

Pic of vents - I am sure they are standard on all crafters, if they were not I don't know why they would put them in a GC and not use them.
Keyfob is there for scale - I reckon 45mm step.

Please note the van has yet to be cleaned - 9 days by the beach with a dog & it does tend to get a bit sandy in there.

 

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

Pic of vents - I am sure they are standard on all crafters, if they were not I don't know why they would put them in a GC and not use them.
Keyfob is there for scale - I reckon 45mm step.

Please note the van has yet to be cleaned - 9 days by the beach with a dog & it does tend to get a bit sandy in there.View attachment 94362

Thank you.

Not the best picture but this shows the floor between the two single front seats on a standard Crafter, so definitely not standard.

 

[Camperfamily]

@VW54WKSJUNE82 from my initial research there seem to be different Crafter cab kit-outs, at least in terms of floors.

Here’s a photo of a LHD Crafter - prior to conversion - where it looks like the double seat is mounted into the ‘vent’ area that @andyinluton has helpfully photographed in the post above. Note the cut-out area in the flooring cover/ vent space, where the diagonal leg of the double seat feeds through, presumably attached into the Crafter’s flooring structure

 

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

@VW54WKSJUNE82 from my initial research there seem to be different Crafter cab kit-outs, at least in terms of floors.

Here’s a photo of a LHD Crafter - prior to conversion - where it looks like the double seat is mounted into the ‘vent’ area that @andyinluton has helpfully photographed in the post above. Note the cut-out area in the flooring cover/ vent space, where the diagonal leg of the double seat feeds through, presumably attached into the Crafter’s flooring structure

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This is great to see as I've been searching everywhere to find pics of a bench seat installed on a van that had these vents.

 

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

The parking/night heater vents in the floor aren't unique to the gc, a standard crafter can have these vents when built with the heater from factory so they may of considered these vents in there design ideas. I think I'll call them Monday and see what they say.

So I called R&J Camper Solutions today regarding the bench swivel base and the floor vents but he couldn't really offer up any advice unfortunately however he did say they have sold a lot of them and haven't ever had one come back to him saying it didn't fit so he is inclined to think it would fit but hasn't had any experience with a Grand California. My only thoughts are when watching the Facebook clip of them using the swivel base is that there appears to be a lot more electrical hardware under a grand california passenger seat when compared to a normal Crafter seat. I'm no further ahead in my quest unfortunately.

 

[Camperfamily]

Thanks for the update, @VW54WKSJUNE82

I wonder whether one of the converters specialising in Crafters might be able to help. They will almost certainly not have GC experience but they might have knowledge of the different flooring options, which may include the GC-style vent system.

I’m more concerned about having to remove/ modify the floor ‘vent’ system than the electronics under the seat. From the photos from @andyinluton above, the electronics under the passenger seat seem to be below the 160mm that R&J told me the swivel system raises up. In any case, the under seat area is being expanded substantially, in moving from a single base to a double - so it should be possible to re-home these within the (swivel area of) the new base.

 

[Camperfamily]

My only other thought is whether anyone has a link to parts diagrams for a GC600 and Crafter to allow comparison of the floor fixings on a single seat versus double seat, for example

 

[andyinluton]

The underfloor vents on mine are definitely dummies. I tried every heating setting last night and couldn’t get anything out of them.
I was wondering if that floor moulding is standard for automatics.

 

[Camperfamily]

Thanks @andyinluton. Do you have the extra diesel heater you mentioned previously?

I’m not clear on what this option actually is, assuming it’s different to the diesel upgrade of the gas heater/ boiler system

 

[andyinluton]

Yes different system.
Saw one on a different forum, I think it’s the option that comes with a remote control.

I think it’s option 7VL

 

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

Thanks for the update, @VW54WKSJUNE82

I wonder whether one of the converters specialising in Crafters might be able to help. They will almost certainly not have GC experience but they might have knowledge of the different flooring options, which may include the GC-style vent system.

I’m more concerned about having to remove/ modify the floor ‘vent’ system than the electronics under the seat. From the photos from @andyinluton above, the electronics under the passenger seat seem to be below the 160mm that R&J told me the swivel system raises up. In any case, the under seat area is being expanded substantially, in moving from a single base to a double - so it should be possible to re-home these within the (swivel area of) the new base.

Fantastic point you've made there regarding increasing the area under the seat going from single to double, why hadn't I thought of that! Ha ha. Cheers.

 

[andyinluton]

There's a couple of diagrams attached from the crafter body repair manual. Doesn't look to be too useful. Having seen a better picture of a van without the floor vents the overall thickness of the floor covering looks to be the same.

 

[Camperfamily]

Thanks Andy, very helpful.

Another thought/ concern popped into my mind - I wonder whether the GC is potentially based on a LHD Crafter since it’s rear sliding door is on the right and whether this could impact the position/ existence of any of the floor fixing points in the cab. Probably not an issue since it’s actually a RHD and we’re talking about the cab area here, but I don’t know the detail here. Presumably, like the Cali, the ‘base van’ for a GC is a special build in having RHD and a single rear sliding door?

What gives me some hope here is that there is an old thread on here which has a double seat bench being added to a RHD Cali; assuming the same principle applies between the Cali and GC, it’s an analogous scenario and it didn’t prove to be an issue in that instance.

On a separate note, I found the following page showing quite a lot of detail of the flooring area on a (pre 2018) Crafter as part of the process in going from a double bench to a single swivel (ie. reverse of what we’re talking about on this thread)

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/anton.belodedenko.me/lining-and-insulating-our-crafter/amp/

 

[andyinluton]

That pre 2018 crafter is a totally different vehicle that was a joint effort between vw and Mercedes’.
The GC uses the MAN / VW platform I don’t think there is a single component that is shared between the two.

 

[Camperfamily]

Thanks for the correction! I had forgotten that critical detail

 

[The Yorkshireman]

Hi not sure if this helps but it shows a GC with the seats out all be it left hand drive. It’s from an earlier post.

 

[Camperfamily]

@VW54WKSJUNE82 did you manage to make any more enquiries on the feasibility of this?

 

[VW54WKSJUNE82]

@VW54WKSJUNE82 did you manage to make any more enquiries on the feasibility of this?

No, I'll be honest I went to view the GC i was planning to buy but it hadn't been looked after very well unfortunately.

 

[The Yorkshireman]

Hi somebody’s done it.

 

[Camperfamily]

@The Yorkshireman thanks for sharing this.

I think the double passenger bench would be a better option for us (if possible), but this solution is very interesting. I wonder whether the owner considered the passenger bench option before going down this route.

 

[The Yorkshireman]

If it’s possible it would be the best option Here’s some better pics of the fifth seat.

 

[Mr T]

If it’s possible it would be the best option Here’s some better pics of the fifth seat.

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Impressive, but that rail must be horrible under foot!

 

[The Yorkshireman]

So I called R&J Camper Solutions today regarding the bench swivel base and the floor vents but he couldn't really offer up any advice unfortunately however he did say they have sold a lot of them and haven't ever had one come back to him saying it didn't fit so he is inclined to think it would fit but hasn't had any experience with a Grand California. My only thoughts are when watching the Facebook clip of them using the swivel base is that there appears to be a lot more electrical hardware under a grand california passenger seat when compared to a normal Crafter seat. I'm no further ahead in my quest unfortunately.

Hi here’s a double front seat fitted from R&J

 

[Cali adventures]

I know this is quite an old thread but did anyone attempt this in a grand Cali?