[Closed] Calling T5 owners - passenger seat comfort question

HI Rich

Firstly, welcome to the T5 ownership experience, you won't regret it!

My van has the double captain's chairs, which are very comfy. I've ridden in a mate's van with the double front passenger seat, and in my view the sitting position felt as if I was being pushed leftwards towards the door, not as comfy. Wouldn't fancy a long journey especially with a 'burly builder" as a seat companion!

My younger boy has suffered with car sickness (he's a bugger for not looking out of the window!), so my wife often ends up sat in the rear with our older boy, whilst younger son sits in the front with me.

Hope this helps!

Can only suggest your wife and lad try it, if they are not to big they might find it acceptable. You can always change when your wife decideds it's not comfortable. We had double passenger in our Iveco and I didn't find it comfortable along side our daughter in her car seat. Wife who is a little 'narrower' than me found it acceptable. We have recently bought a T5 and I specifically wanted single front passenger, for a number of reasons. Off to Le Mans Classic in couple of weeks in a mates T5, which has a front double. 6 of us means all seats will be occupied. For once it's the rear seats that are in demand.

Thanks chaps. We have test driven one but there is a difference effect of the ass between a 20 min test drive and a 5 hour drive to the Lakes so hoping for a bit of feedback.

Cheers
Rich

Plenty of miles in ours - Brittany and back etc. - no complaints. Not super comfy, but it's all subjective. She does like the higher position and makes trips much easier. Double bed/seat and rear windows with ours with pop top added. Very versatile. Took your old Tallboy to 10 under this weekend in mine - midge proof camping bonus

We recently got rid of an E Class estate and replaced it with a T5 Caravelle. The Merc was a lovely car but the 'van' rely puts a smile on our faces. My wife loves the high up position for driving and passenger. We've two captains seats and they're great. Not the sports buckets of the Merc but great on long journeys. I've a dodgy back and so far no issues. You won't be disappointed.

the double passenger seat is frankly bloody awful. might be alreight for a van but compared to a car it;s awful.

We used to fight over driving as neither wanted the other seat.

Not had an issue with our T4 bench/double and done some long trips, you can now get turntables for them them too so get swivel to face backwards when parked up (all crash tested from Kiravans)
So try it and see how comfy it is first

I find it a bit limited on legroom, but ok to sit in if I am diagonal. Maybe I'll look into getting a replacement at some point.

Speaking of T5 ownership, I'm currently trying to decide whether to put windows into mine to lighten the rear area up. Any thoughts from other conversionists?

Double seat is fine. We're both fairly small though, so can still fit a child on a booster seat and one of us on the double seat.

Probably depends yours and your kids combined width so you'll need to try first.

I never found ours uncomfortable. And we'd done thousands of miles in it.

But everyone's different.

Double front bench seat here. Never used it myself but did a few 12 hour stints last year with not a peep of complaint out of my girlfriend. I like the storage space underneath as it's just big enough to carry all the gubbins you need to travel around Europe like the bulbs, warning triangle, hi-viz vests etc... Saves stuffing them in elsewhere.

Just had a pair of captains seats and a caravelle sliding rear seat bed fitted to mine and it's so much nicer.
Not done a long trip in it yet but off to Goodwood on Saturday that'll be a 4 hour round trip, the 3 kids have more room on the back seat that they do in "her" Zafira.

Regarding windows, I would say windows in the sliding door and opposite are a must if you have people in the back.
I'm resisting putting windows in the back doors but slowly coming round to the idea, my van is black anyway so with decent tints you can hardly see it has windows!

Looking at a long trip to France/Switzerland in August, just need to get a tent and all the associated gubbins for the kids to sleep in first!

Having been a passenger on both the single seat and the double on consecutive trips from Suffolk to Wales, I'd vote for the single seat every time.

Bench is fine for short trips, but it gave my back some reet pain on longer journeys.

Advantage of the bench is you can put the lleisure battery and fuse box under it.

In the interests of STW contrariness, we have the folding double and her indoors complains that it's not very comfortable. It is handy for storing stuff in (jack etc) and folded flat it makes the back of the van feel bigger when in camper mode.

Our leisure battery and electrical gubbins is all under the driver's seat.

We have done 1000 mile trips in ours regularly (uk to italy) and the double is very uncomfortable for anything longer than 3 hrs.... cthe missus now insists on either stopping over the night or she takes the plane...

get a captains single seat....much better..