Fitting three children on a two seat bench

[On the open road]

Hi all, just looking for some advice/experience from others in this situation - I know there have been some previous old threads talking about similar things but maybe not for a while.

We have a t5 beach with two seat rear bench but now expecting child no 3 so need to find a way to fit them all in! Options seem to be;

1) an extra single seat - have basically ruled out as we like to do single night stopovers on long journeys and don't feel putting a big heavy extra seat in and out regularly is practical.
2) multimac - great option though heavy to move, expensive and only really useable until oldest child is 12 (currently 6) - so kicks the can down the road but great shorter term option for retaining current set up.
3) Swap to 3 seat rear bench - unable to source a matching rear bench so end up with mismatched seats which seems a shame- though I know you can buy covers. Concerned about impact on re-sale value if we ever want to sell, and also head room on lower bed by the time you add a mattress topper. My husband is 6ft 2!

We have no realistic plan for being able to get a newer van so likely need a long-term option but also concerned about talk of clean air zone in our area which would make keeping current can unviable...

What have others done in this situation/any advice??

thanks

 

[Steve1]

Hi all, just looking for some advice/experience from others in this situation - I know there have been some previous old threads talking about similar things but maybe not for a while.

We have a t5 beach with two seat rear bench but now expecting child no 3 so need to find a way to fit them all in! Options seem to be;

1) an extra single seat - have basically ruled out as we like to do single night stopovers on long journeys and don't feel putting a big heavy extra seat in and out regularly is practical.
2) multimac - great option though heavy to move, expensive and only really useable until oldest child is 12 (currently 6) - so kicks the can down the road but great shorter term option for retaining current set up.
3) Swap to 3 seat rear bench - unable to source a matching rear bench so end up with mismatched seats which seems a shame- though I know you can buy covers. Concerned about impact on re-sale value if we ever want to sell, and also head room on lower bed by the time you add a mattress topper. My husband is 6ft 2!

We have no realistic plan for being able to get a newer van so likely need a long-term option but also concerned about talk of clean air zone in our area which would make keeping current can unviable...

What have others done in this situation/any advice??

thanks

I would go for the bigger seat. Forgetting the travelling arrangements, once they all get a bit bigger the kids will probably sulk and argue if they have to sit too close together when camping. Having a seat for each person when sitting in the van on a rainy day is worth its weight in gold.
We had an old Autosleeper conversion before the California with a 2 seater rear and 2 front seats for 4 of us, but only one front swivelled, so when sitting in it while camping 3 people had to squeeze onto the rear seat together, the endless moaning is the main reason I got rid of it.

 

[andyinluton]

1) an extra single seat - have basically ruled out as we like to do single night stopovers on long journeys and don't feel putting a big heavy extra seat in and out regularly is practical.

How tall are the kids? We have previously left the rear bed extension at home & just slept the kids on the rear bench folded down.

No need to remove the 5th seat then.

If you have just one tall child you can use the 5th seat to extend one side of the bed.

5th seat also enables kid separation whilst travelling.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Change the rear seat for a 3 seater, and also change the front seats to matching colour. Kernow transporters will be able to supply fit & might purchase the old seats as well.

You will also gain more storage space under the higher MFB which will come in handy for 3 kids.

Avoid the 5th seat, takes up too much space & will get in the way whilst camping.

 

[ThomasHJ]

Get a 3 seater-bench. Buy a matching cover for it. Keep the 2 seater bench if you're worried about resell value. Problem solved. Also, keep in mind that as the kids get older they're probably going to want to sleep in their own pop-up tent or in a drive-away awning, etc. So as long as you can seat them, you're fine and the sleeping arrangements will probably change in a few years anyways, regardless of the 2- or 3-seater.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Maybe, you could swap the front passenger seat for a double? (As in some conversions).

 

[soulstyledevon]

Maybe, you could swap the front passenger seat for a double? (As in some conversions).

You don’t want to do that.
You end up with the person nearest the door, pushed up against the B-pillar and the seat belt cutting into your neck.
It’s not comfortable for medium to long journeys.

As said above, get the 3 seater in and have the chairs re-upholstered to match and sell the 2 seater to re coup some of the costs

 

[On the open road]

Thanks everyone, sounds like the 3 seat bench is the resounding winner! Really appreciate your thoughts.

 

[reserves]

Whatever you do I’d hold on to the original 2 seater seat.

Otherwise I think it would affect resale value.

 

[Camperfamily]

We have a Multimac for our SE/ Ocean.

In your position of having a Beach, I would go for the 3 bench seat. It’s probably cheaper than a new Multimac too (we paid £2100 for ours).

 

[Camperfamily]

Some things to bear in mind in moving from the 2 seat to 3 seat bench:
- you’ll lose the large storage drawer underneath the 2 seat bench; the individual storage hatches under the 3 seat bench are comparatively poor in my opinion
- do you need to replace the Multiflex and/ or mattress? I believe the 2 seat bench sits lower when unfolded (ie. in bed mode) than the 3 seat bench, so there’s presumably something different between the Multiflex/ mattress setup between the 2 seat and 3 seat benches
- the VW Beach 3 seat mattress is different to the 2 seat mattress (see recent threads on this), due to the flat versus curved backs of the 2 seat and 3 seat benches respectively. You may need to buy the 3 seat mattress to make the bed comfortable

 

[andyinluton]

For the sake of £250 for a second hand 5th seat, I would buy or borrow one just to try.

Leave your rear bed shelf at home & you will have plenty of space.

We have overnighted with 5 of us in an Ocean like this without removing the 5th seat. You will have more space than we did & with a Beach you will have the option of sleeping the kids across the van rather than lengthways.

 

[kp64zl]

I agree - just get an extra seat -

 

[kurienp]

... surprised that no one has so far mentioned about selling one child







I'll get my coat ...

 

[kp64zl]

... surprised that no one has so far mentioned about selling one child







I'll get my coat ...

Have you read “The Joke“ by Milan Kundera?

 

[Grant Cooper]

Hi all, just looking for some advice/experience from others in this situation - I know there have been some previous old threads talking about similar things but maybe not for a while.

We have a t5 beach with two seat rear bench but now expecting child no 3 so need to find a way to fit them all in! Options seem to be;

1) an extra single seat - have basically ruled out as we like to do single night stopovers on long journeys and don't feel putting a big heavy extra seat in and out regularly is practical.
2) multimac - great option though heavy to move, expensive and only really useable until oldest child is 12 (currently 6) - so kicks the can down the road but great shorter term option for retaining current set up.
3) Swap to 3 seat rear bench - unable to source a matching rear bench so end up with mismatched seats which seems a shame- though I know you can buy covers. Concerned about impact on re-sale value if we ever want to sell, and also head room on lower bed by the time you add a mattress topper. My husband is 6ft 2!

We have no realistic plan for being able to get a newer van so likely need a long-term option but also concerned about talk of clean air zone in our area which would make keeping current can unviable...

What have others done in this situation/any advice??

thanks

We’ve been considering the opposite of you ,swapping our 3 seat & 1 or both of our 2 singles, for a 2 seat. Our “kid” is off to Uni & we experimented with no bench & 1 single on our recent trip round the Pyrenees (just the 2 of us).
If you are still looking & want to discuss give us me a message. Our van is a 2016 Beach which we bought as an ex demo from a dealer….seats have Inka covers on since we got it - original colour is a light grey (not sure of the name but could find out)
Grant

 

[babble]

I used a multimac successfully for a number of years, with a fifth seat too, making a very useable six person people carrier. (Not used when camping clearly.).

I could remove the multimac and fifth seat in under ten minutes on my own, but they are both pretty heavy.

 

[Grant Cooper]

Yeah, read a bit on heard about how heavy seats can be, but we’ve not had any issues removing singles or the bench - have had the 3 seat bench in and out multiple times with 2 of us & no fatalities to report

 

[babble]

 

[danvan]

We struggled in our SE with an extra seat for several years with three kids, but gave up in the end and bought a Nugget . The extra seat was a pain to add/remove, but the main issue was that it robbed the cabin of all the space you needed when not camping. But we also struggled with space for the three kids to sleep, which won't be an issue in the Beach due to the massive lower bed.

 

[bagel.rhodes]

My new Beach 6.1 arrived in July. Even with 2 kids the 3 seater is brilliant. I had to borrow a 2 seat van for a week and I just could not get use to the 2 seater configuration. The 3 draws under each seat hold a surprising amount, the boot size is very very big, I have 2 boot tidies and that’s 5 draws effectively allowing the right things in the right place. Finally the simplicity of just putting the bed down and the matress going on top is really easy. Being able to split the kids up and the space in the middle is a must.

 

[ThomasonCalifornia]

I used a multimac successfully for a number of years, with a fifth seat too, making a very useable six person people carrier. (Not used when camping clearly.).

I could remove the multimac and fifth seat in under ten minutes on my own, but they are both pretty heavy.

I'm considering buying a multimac but it is unclear how it is installed - I see the picture of your van and wonder if you're still able to slide the seats back & forth? I wanted to check because Multimac answered me they probably have to mount in the floor, which would obstruct sliding it

 

[Camperfamily]

@ThomasonCalifornia the stabilising ‘legs’ are not attached to the floor, they just rest against the floor. Each of the two legs are, roughly speaking, 90 degree angle pieces of metal.

It’s a little hard to explain, but here goes - the end which rests on the floor has an adjustable rubber foot on the end of a threaded bar (enabling vertical adjustment). The other end slots into the multimac seat and is attached to it by way of an elastic cord.

The legs can be pulled out, flipped upside down and reinserted into the multimac, enabling the Cali bench to be slid forward and backward.

The multimac itself is attached to the Caku bench by way of (very) heavy duty straps which are bolted into the same bracket where the seatbelts are attached to. The one-off installation of the straps is a 15 minute job.

There are videos on YouTube which show some of the functioning and installation.

 

[babble]

I'm considering buying a multimac but it is unclear how it is installed - I see the picture of your van and wonder if you're still able to slide the seats back & forth? I wanted to check because Multimac answered me they probably have to mount in the floor, which would obstruct sliding it

you can still slide the seat back and forth, no problem. I removed the rear seat 'stopper' so i could slide the seat much further back giving a good amount of space.

 

[ThomasonCalifornia]

@ThomasonCalifornia the stabilising ‘legs’ are not attached to the floor, they just rest against the floor. Each of the two legs are, roughly speaking, 90 degree angle pieces of metal.

It’s a little hard to explain, but here goes - the end which rests on the floor has an adjustable rubber foot on the end of a threaded bar (enabling vertical adjustment). The other end slots into the multimac seat and is attached to it by way of an elastic cord.

The legs can be pulled out, flipped upside down and reinserted into the multimac, enabling the Cali bench to be slid forward and backward.

The multimac itself is attached to the Caku bench by way of (very) heavy duty straps which are bolted into the same bracket where the seatbelts are attached to. The one-off installation of the straps is a 15 minute job.

There are videos on YouTube which show some of the functioning and installation.

Thanks for the explanation, seems pretty clear! I'm reading and also got confirmed from the very friendly people at Multimac that:
1. The multimac is easily attached to the bench itself, no need for drilling in the floor
2. The legs indeed rest on the floor, so you're still able to move the bench without too much trouble. I'm not sure how this works exactly, but I guess there is a way.

@babble : What / where is the rear seat stopper?