Van with seats question

bombidol

I need to buy a van soon, a used one. its for carting around 4/5 people and a full band rig. Im having trouble trying to find a van with seats in the back as well as a space for gear.
Does anyone know what the story is with buying a van and having it converted to take seats and gear safely and legally?

mike65

I think the rear bench seat has to be "fixed" (though it can pivot/fold) and the seat belts must be installed.

Mike.

ninty9er

how much you got to spend???

Max_Damage

What you need is the Ford Tourneo, it's basically a Transit with seats in the back. Keep trying Auto Trader and Car Zone for one.

bazz26

bombidol wrote:

I need to buy a van soon, a used one. its for carting around 4/5 people and a full band rig. Im having trouble trying to find a van with seats in the back as well as a space for gear.
Does anyone know what the story is with buying a van and having it converted to take seats and gear safely and legally?

Ford sell the Transit with a crew cab which means it has one row of rear seats plus a loading bay.

VW also sell the Transporter and Toyota the Hiace like this.

Ford Transit:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=353272

VW Transporter:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=290113

Merc Sprinter:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=496110

crosstownk

I'm in the same boat myself. We need a van big enough to take the gear as well as the 5 band members. Up til now we've been using 4 cars but thats becoming a pain in the ass. We've been thinking of a high roof Transit and simlply adding seats in the rear. I would assume that once it's within the limits of you licence and that seat belts are fitted there should be no problem. The crew cab transit seems like a good idea.

What bazz26 has posted are great ideas - but way too expensive. Any ideas on something cheaper - less than €3k? We're not worried about bodywork, ,once the van drives and is roadworthy we'd be happy.

Max_Damage

crosstownk wrote:

I'm in the same boat myself. We need a van big enough to take the gear as well as the 5 band members. Up til now we've been using 4 cars but thats becoming a pain in the ass. We've been thinking of a high roof Transit and simlply adding seats in the rear. I would assume that once it's within the limits of you licence and that seat belts are fitted there should be no problem. The crew cab transit seems like a good idea.

What bazz26 has posted are great ideas - but way too expensive. Any ideas on something cheaper - less than €3k? We're not worried about bodywork, ,once the van drives and is roadworthy we'd be happy.

You could try this:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=458611

It may have 300,000 miles, but that isn't anything on a Toyota diesel engine.

R.O.R

Parfit at the airport do van conversions to minibuses or crew cabs, and Van Equip in Ballymount. If you convert a small van - i.e. Hiace in to a Crew Cab it would then be classed as a car and subject to a shed load of VRT. To keep it classed as a Commercial you need to go for something like a Transit 350L.


I used to live next door to a guy who's fulltime job was keyboard player in a band. He had a 3.5ton Merc van converted so could carry 5 people, all the equipment and still be a commercial vehicle for tax purposes.


The crew cabs don't come up for sale that often but there are a few as at least one of the contract cleaning companies uses quite a few and change them every 3/4 years.


Crosstownk - If you're in Terenure keep an eye on Rathdown to see if there are any new silver ISS crew cabs in there to go out. Chances are there will be one going back to the lease company when the new one goes out and I'm sure the sales guy in Rathdown who looks after the ISS vehicles could put you in touch with someone.

bombidol

would one of these conversions be expensive do you know?

Lord Nikon

Would this be suitable.

bombidol

Have one of those already. in fact, its pretty much that exact one.
No use. dont fit everything in it.

bombidol

Got onto Parfit there and they want 4300 Euro to install seats!

R.O.R

bombidol wrote:

Got onto Parfit there and they want 4300 Euro to install seats!

Sounds fairly reasonable to me. All seats have to comply with safety legislation, there is probably a bulkhead to go in, carpet on the floor, windows in the van etc. On a new van it's around €8,000 + VAT.


Try Van Equip, think they'll be a bit cheaper - 01 457 0111

bombidol

im looking at spending about 2000/3000 on a van, theres no way i can afford 4300 euro on top of that! What would the legallitys involved in buying a small mini bus and removing most of the seats?