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Interested in buying a cargo van for work and wanted to know if you can use some stock bench seats in the cargo area. Do they bolt right in? You know like the factory uses the same floor pan for club vans and cargo types? Thanks
The floor is the same but the caged nuts for the seat brackets probably are not there. There may be dimples to indicate where the nuts go. I did this on my previous van (1989). I had to drill the holes then use large washers on the bottom when I bolted the brackets down for the factory seat I found. I'm in Northern Nevada and I have 2 seats and brackets that came out of my 2003 E350. I would give them to someone who needs them.
I installed seats in the back of mine, using square tube bolted to floor on the left side and a bracket in the footwell. The seats are bolted to one size smaller square tube, and I can remove the seats fairly easily as it is set up to slide into the floor mounted tubes, and it bolts to the footwell bracket. The two seats and the mounting tubes are a little heavy, but it's managable.
However you do it, I suggest:
--be very carefull drilling in the floor, as the gas tank isn't that far away.
--use grade 8 fasteners.
--go overboard on backing plates. Elsewhere it was suggested that 1 foot square would be minimum. Mine are smaller at about 3 x 6, but that's still much bigger than a washer.
HI, this is the only thread I could fine that talks about installing passenger seats in a cargo van. DId I miss any? If not, does @85e150six4mtod
have any photos?
--be very carefull drilling in the floor, as the gas tank isn't that far away.
--use grade 8 fasteners.
--go overboard on backing plates. Elsewhere it was suggested that 1 foot square would be minimum. Mine are smaller at about 3 x 6, but that's still much bigger than a washer.
Great ideas and I've done something similar mounting and securing a Snap On tool box in my cargo bay area. Using 3/16" aluminum angles between the floor ribs I'm able to capture those ribs which gives me quite a secure mounting I believe. Like this:
BTW most factory seat bolts and welded nuts are inside the frame rails. For the most parts the right side (passenger) is a bit easier to access where the left (drivers) side can be a bit more challenging with the gas tank etc tucked under the floor along that side.
This is approximately how the setup would look as you looked in the cargo door of the van. There was a piece of angle iron bolted into the footwell which those bars were bolted to. Oversize bolts as you can see by the size of the holes.
The top photo shows how the bars telescope into the next size up square tube, which was bolted to the floor near the wall behind the driver seat. Second photo is the same stuff, upside down, showing the little relief I had to put into the bar to clear the hold down bolt. "Engineer as you go".
This shows the 4 holes where the stock low backs on their pedestals were bolted to the bars. I could install and remove the whole mess by myself. No wonder I had hernia surgery.
Followup- does the setup outlined in the photos allow for any bench seat or the specific late 80s econoline club wagon seats...
Whatever you can drill holes for. There are no set dimensions there, you place it where you need it to fit the seats in mind. They will mount a couple inches higher as your mounts are higher than the floor.
