Additional bench seat

[Matthew Barber]

Anyone successfully installed a second bench to a California? Looking for additional seating on our se

Matt

 

[WelshGas]

Anyone successfully installed a second bench to a California? Looking for additional seating on our se

Matt

Whilst camping or just driving?

 

[Matthew Barber]

Just driving..

 

[WelshGas]

Just driving..

I see 2 problems.
1. In order to get enough leg room the rear / original bench would have to go further back. The rear bed board could be removed BUT you have the problem of headroom because of the overhead locker..
2. A second bench seat from a California will be extremely heavy to move and probably needs 2-3 people to do so.

 

[andyinluton]

I've had similar thoughts & measured it all up, basically it doesn't quite fit with enough space to be used as the bench is a lot deeper front to back than the 5th seat.

There is also the problem of weight - the extra bench + 2 extra people will probably put you over weight.

Then there's access - slide your existing bench as far forward as you can & see how little room there is to get out between the back of the bench & the sliding door pillar.
Whilst its just about ok to squeeze in, I would not want that opening to be the only way of escaping in an emergency, theres not room to scramble over the bench in front & no room to go out via the boot, if the front most bench or the sliding door gets stuck so are the people in the back row, in my view not an acceptable situation.

For 6 seats we use 2 5th seats staggered, the passenger side rear bench seat ends up with about zero leg room but it worked for us with a small 5 year old on a booster seat in that position. It left enough room in the boot for 6 small suitcases if we left the downstairs mattress & shelf behind.
This set up also enabled all passengers to be able to get out of the van via the front passenger door if needed.

 

[Digger]

Could the extra seats not be fitted facing backwards - rear passengers facing each other? Leg room might be ok. Just a thought.

 

[WelshGas]

Could the extra seats not be fitted facing backwards - rear passengers facing each other? Leg room might be ok. Just a thought.

The single seats can be as they rotate on their fixing base, so have been safety tested with base facing forward and seat swivelled and locked facing forward or rearward.
I’m not sure the Bench seat has and I’m not sure the seat rails allow the bench to be fitted facing rear wards.

 

[andyinluton]

Ignoring whether its safe to or not, the Bench won't fit backwards without cutting bits off it as its not symmetrical on the rails.

 

[s2bear]

I’m not sure what SE you have but as a reference, a full fat 204ps DSG 4M Ocean only has a payload of 381kg. Given that a Beach 3seat bench weighs something like 160+ kg an SE bench must be pushing 100kg or more so throw in the extra people that you want to carry and you may run out of payload anyway, then there’s the insurance aspect etc.


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