Currently thinking about replacing my asbo hatchback with a lwb Caddy van.

Quick question, if you use your van for hauling mountain bikes and family duties, can you still chuck bikes in the back with a bench seat in place?

Aye, but not with wheels on. Bench seats are shite, there’s a place down the midlands that does proper certified flip forward seats for a grand, do that instead. They also clip in and out easily for van duties.

Cheers for that, didn’t really mean a bench seat – just a 2nd row of seats really. Good to know though.

Problem is for the next few years they’d have to have child seats attached most of the time so don’t really want the faff of having to take them out to chuck bikes in the back.

Front wheel off or both wheels?

I’d say both wheels probably tbh. My standard caddy would only take my XL Bronson with wheels on at an angle, ultimately I’d have installed QR brackets to fit the bike in, but I ended to going back to a car.

There’s a really good VW caddy group on faceboak, you’ll get all sorts of ideas on there mate.

I had my cabby lwb converted with seats from another VW (couple of companies do it). I can fit one bike in without removing any wheels. After that it gets a bit tight. With the larger of the back seats removed we can fit 2 bikes and a child trailer easily. The child seat still fits in the other back seat.

Cheers guys – Timberriman, that sounds a bit more positive.

Sounds like you can split certain seats, be interesting if you could fit 2 child seats on the remaining larger seat and wedge a bike in the gap.

Think I’ll have to start having a look at them in the flesh to work out space.

There you go, someone who actually has one! happy days. 🙂

Our 2011 Caddy lwb has seats in the back and they are split, single and a double.

They all fold and flip, bikes will go in wheels on when they are flipped. With the single removed, two bikes go in wheels on
With the single in and the double removed, three bikes, wheels on go in.

Interesting – could you fit 2 child seats on the double?

Unsure, we dont have either children or childs seats…

The double is very securely fixed to the floor at four points though, its bloody heavy / solid….

Just done a quich google and nothing came up for this specifically but there are loads of images on rear Caddy seats. Ours are OEM in a Caddy Life.

Yeah think mine came from a caddy life. There is only one set of isofix on each half. The bigger seat might have room for another child’s seat alongside, but the easiest way is to get down to a vw showroom and look at the caddy life rear seats as they are exactly the same.

Oh and yes they are bloody heavy to take out, not something you want to do every day.

you might find this easier in a van-based-car where the middle seat can be taken out without the other 2, then stuffing bikes down the middle. squeezing childseats onto 2 adjacent seats is always a lucky dip of the exact childseats, possibly using belts instead of isofix (bit more wiggleability) and luck. stuffing a bike down the middle avoids the need for that (it even works in some hatchbacks with that style of access).

I’m glad you’ve asked this! I’d been looking at caddy’s with the exact same intention (2 child seats).

At the moment our berlingo works well, you can remove the middle rear seat and get two adult bikes with the front wheel off in along with a 20″ kids bike (wheels off) and a balance bike.

The 2/1 split in the back of a caddy seems to scupper doing the above and 2 child seats as they grow on the double seat will become a pain i reckon.

With no. 1 almost ready for 24″ wheels i’m gonna need a bigger van!!

Food for thought, I think the only thing to do is to go look at one with bike and child seats in hand – see what is possible.

Not sure of model but a mate has an ex gas board van converted with side glass and seats that are two plus one. With the single seat removed he can get a 250 suzuki race bike along one side and 4 people in it without any problems.

I’ve got a Caddy Maxi Life with 7 seats.

Interesting – could you fit 2 child seats on the double?

We have ours like this most of the time. There is only ISOFIX on the outer seats but the middle seat is wide enough for a proper child seat. We keep the single seat folder up to allow easy access to the back row of seats.

If you removed the back row of seats completely I reckon you’d get a bike down the gap. It probably isn’t a good idea though as I’d be worried out stuff moving in an accident and hitting the kid nearest the bike.

Buy a transit custom crew cab and be done with it?

My mate has one for work and family bike duties and they’re not using the car any more. Seats 6 if needed. Swallowed 4 bikes, 4 people and a massive load of camping kit for Boltby the other week. Bet you’d get a dog in there without much trouble as well.

We have ours like this most of the time. There is only ISOFIX on the outer seats but the middle seat is wide enough for a proper child seat. We keep the single seat folder up to allow easy access to the back row of seats.

Thanks for that very helpful info.

Buy a transit custom crew cab and be done with it?

Whist I get benefits I don’t really want anything bigger than a Caddy, 90% of the time there will just be me in it.

By bigger, if you mean longer you’ll find there’s nothing in it

By bigger, if you mean longer you’ll find there’s nothing in it

For sure – length is the same but a Transporter is 10cm wider than a Caddy Maxi and feels like a much larger vehicle to drive. I went through the same decision making process 11 years ago and just traded our 08 Caddy Maxi Life in for an 18 plate Caddy Maxi Life. 3rd row of seats are never in it.

Front wheel off, pedal hooked onto side trim, rear wheel wedged against the foot of the seat that’s folded up. Nylon strap around the fork crown and to the rear tie down point. (we do it with two bikes and the single seat down but works the same the other way – you can easily get 3 bikes and 3 people in that way.) Admittedly we’ve never had a smash but the bikes have never tipped over.

With >1 bike blanket between each. outermost bike tied at the fork. Strap through the rear wheels keeping them together.

As above the seats in the Life version are 2+1 and the 2 fits 2 car seats. We have ahd one for 7 years and they are great. Im not sure how you would get on retro fitting other seats because they have to align with the footwells (do you even get rear footwells in the van version?) rather than just a flat floorpan like bigger vans. If you did go down this route there is a scrapped caddy maxi life in bradford with the seats. Also Ive quite appreciated the extra sound proofing etc in the life version. Take the 3rd row bench out and put a ply liner on the floor and it is pretty van like too.

Now the hijack bit – my ’10 plate Caddy Maxi Life will be for sale next week! Let me know if thats of any interest. Its a great van – we’ve just upsized to a LWB transporter.

I’m thinking of replacing my T4 camper with a smaller van as it isn’t really big enough as a camper for 4 people, and most of the time it only has me, my son and bikes in (although I also need to take 4 people, a dog, and luggage including bikes occasionally).

I’ve been looking at LWB transit connect crewcabs – looks like the seats fold flat from stock with no mods needed in a 2/1 split. Also seem a fair bit cheaper than a caddy, I’m not fussed about badges, and I keep vehicles for a long time so not too bothered about resale (I have had T4 since 2004). Any thoughts about that as a choice?