Newly acquired T4 (ex-AA) and looking to put a set of T5 seats in the back (to get both seats with 3 point seatbelts) in place of the current T4 one, which are fixed on mushroom bolts.

The T5 seats have a different floor mounting bracket. Given that this place is a hot-bed of VW ownership* has anyone done this, and got advice and/or photos on how they did it, especially the underside of the body.

(I have trawled the T4/T5 forums but with little joy)

*I know that owning a T4 might not be quite aspirational enough, but budgets are budgets!!

do you want to fit to look good or be safe? you need to consider insurance as well.

If they are not designed to fit and have your nearest and dearest strapped to it and fail in a crash you are not going to be popular.

the T4 has a different chassis to the T5 and i would be wary of fitting seats with integrated seatbelts. the floor of a t4 is a bit of wrinkly tin and no more. seatbelts on a mulitvan (people carrier) are linked to teh c post or a bar over the rear window and the base of teh c pillar not the seats or floor. If you want to install belts to a panelvan conversion you need to put strengthening plates on the c pillar (the multivan had extra bits of chassis welded in at manufacture).

personally I wouldnt put integrated belt seats in. if i did i would want to do some serious welded reinforcement linked to teh chassis rails. even then i think you need to be careful. its probably why there arnt any ‘how to’s’ because any fitment is effectively a bodge and there are liability issues.

I have a reimo seat installed (TUV approved) by the specialist reimo importer

i note you can get M1 pull tested rock and roll beds now as well which would be an option (they werent available when i had the reimo installed). they are not cheap but then neither is your family.

probably not what you wanted as a response – sorry

good luck,

mark

Thanks VH… the van already has seats in the back (but on different types of bolt) and has the seat belts already fitted for the outside 2 seats – but just a lap belt to the central seat.

Am I right in thinking from your comment that the forces from the middle belt as a three point harness are then all taken on the floor (which seems obvious from my simple mechanical brain) and this is the main issue? I had wondered if it was possible to weld a bracing bar across the underside of the floor (from side to side) to reinforce the bolts.

If you do some Googling there are specifications for the size and thickness off the required spreader plates when bolting integrated belt seats to the floor. You also put spreaders between the front fixings and the floor to stop the seat submarining into the floor.

Anything described as a washer is nowhere near big enough.

for teh side belts (assumign they are seated in teh c piller behind the slider) most of teh load in a accident is placed into the chassis walls. the base unit has lower loads. The lap belt will probably disembowl rather than stop you in a big shunt which is why no one uses them! the force (moment) generated by a lap is also lower being closer to teh floor.

I know there are lots of variants to T4 vans with many things being options at purchase. Being ex AA it may have better floor/wall fixings if teh seats are factory fitted. the previous owners of my van put seats in the back but there was no bloody way i would have sat in em – just a washer under teh floor! which let me onto further investigations

mine is a plain panel and doesnt have any frilly bits or reinforcements and, to be honest, was a bit of a crap base for a conversion.

with integrated belt seats all the force goes through the floor and this is magnified by the height of the seat so you have massive loads through the fixing bolts and floor itself. you need to stop pullout and also compression of the floor at the front of the seat.

The reimo works on rails bonded to teh floor to spread loads over the whole rear floor pan. even so teh belts are still on the walls.

Like i said i’ve seen on ebay pull tested rock and roll beds which is probably the way i’d go if i started from scratch again. they do have some underfloor reinforcement.