Fold up seats for a camper van?
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- čas přidán 31. 01. 2021
- I installed fold-up shuttle bus seats in my G30 van as my solution to maximize space for sleeping, while still having seat belts for a family of 6. These shuttle bus seats are super sturdy and easy to fold up! How do you maximize space for camping and getting there if you have a lot of passengers?
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those are super cool, love them!! what a great score!
Thanks! Yes they are such great utilitarian space savers!
What a good idea. I love your little helper to. Can't wait to see what else you do
Wow thanks for watching! Yes I am so thankful to share the love of vans and camping with my girls!!
This is brilliant, it may even to the answer to my current dilemma!
Wow thanks so much! Yeah its such a great space saver. We love our Chevy van but with 6 of us, we need every square inch when we are camping!
what a great idea!!!
Haha awesome... thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing this idea looking for similar thing
Thanks! Glad it helped. Yeah this company is called Freedman Seating co, they actually have some cushier looking seats that do the same thing. www.freedmanseating.com/seats/bellagio-foldaway/
Great idea!
Thanks so much!
great video, thanks for sharing 👍
Wow, thanks for watching brother!
I'm looking at using some of these folding seat mechanisms for a Murphy bed type setup. I would use two facing setups like you have but remove the lower cushions, and possibly the seat backs, then attach a mattress assembly to the folding mechanisms so that I could fold the bed up and down as needed.
Oh that is a rad idea!! I think you can engineer it to work. It would definitely be simpler without the back rests, since they have to fold down first. I'd love to see that in action when you are done!
I saw it done a couple months back in a bus on CheapRVLiving.
Just glancing at this comment section, you do such a good job of acknowledging comments and answering questions.
Ohhh wow, thank you so much!! Yeah I just love this stuff and love talking about it and want to help people get out and camp or help keep their old vans running ;-) Thanks for watching!
@@kampinglogik Well, your passion shows! Cheers :)
@@SageGarlandSingerSongwriter thanks so much for the encouragement!
Really nice. 💕
Thank you! 😊 Glad you like it! We were just out camping this past weekend in the van. Great times.
great idea.
Thanks brother!!!!!
Menos mal que tienes ayuda allí con la demostración!! jeje. Abrazo desde ARG. Gracias
¡No hay problema! ¡Gracias por verlo!
I love the idea of having floor space when you need it! I would need one of those seat, but for 3 people. Do those exist?
Yes I love having floor space too! It is very multipurpose and makes the van feel a touch more roomy than otherwise. I am not familiar with a 3-seat option. But I have seen single seat options, so maybe you could have a 2+1 setup?
Love this idea. Considering this option for my littles 5-12 yrs. In all honesty what are you thought of the safety of passengers.
The physical quality of the seats and the base are incredibly sturdy. Clearly disgned for commercial use. The obvious upgrade would be a shoulder belt, which this manufacturer does offer now. I now only have the rear facing folding seat and we use it with car seats, so no concern for safety, those guys are the most secure passengers haha.
I replaced the forward facing folding seat with a 4 seat standard bench just to aquire more seat belts for the tradeoff of lost floor space. 😳 but glad to still have some flexibility. We have more kids now than when put these in so just had to make that adjustment 😁
@kampinglogik absolutely amazing man I love it and would love to see her progress and where she's at these days. As for the seats in the video above, how was everything mounted. Straight into floor will bolts or was custom fabrication and welding needed. Thanks 🙏
this is a brilliant idea!! how do you go about purchasing a seat like this?
Thanks so much for watching. I found mine on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace, I don't recall. I bought them from a guy who was converting a medical shuttlebus into a camper. These can be found in various types of medical transport vans and busses, maybe in some regular shuttle vans and busses.
I see some on ebay as well.
This brand can be found at www.freedmanseating.com
Love this! it's cost-effective I'm looking for ones also but it seems the one that your daughter demonstrated its difficult to find one. I need one for the passenger's side any advice would be so much appreciated.
Not sure if you are in the USA, but if so we found ours on Facebook marketplace, and I've seen similar seats on Craigslist. Also, looks for shops or companies that retrofit vans for various uses, specifically for wheelchair mobility transit vans. These seats came out of a wheelchair transport van
@@kampinglogik thanks you!
Here is the weblink to this particular brand -
www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
looks great, do you think they can be modified to point in different direction and still flip up toward the wall if needed? like swaping the seat side, or changing the mounting bolts?
Hey thanks for watching! Hmmm, well I personally would not feel comfortable altering these (for the sake of safety). They are very sturdy and somewhat mechanically complex. So cutting and re-welding seems like a not great idea.
The base is generic metal plate with 6 bolt holes, so theoretically it could be positioned in any direction inside the vehicle. If you need it to fold against the passenger side wall, purchase one that is oriented in that direction. As you can see from this video both "sides" are available from the manufacturer. The seat I have facing rearward was originally mounted facing forward in a shuttle bus, but on the passenger side of the vehicle.
Did I understand your questions properly?
@@kampinglogik thanks for the reply.
Yeah make sense, I just found a used one for a good price that folds the wrong way 😜
Might have to pass on it.
@@scp8412 no problem. Yeah I would wait on one that is facing the right way. It'll be worth the effort/time/safety in my opinion
Hey bud, i have been looking at these too as an option; do they recline at all beyond the factory upright position? Thanks!
No, it just locks in the one upright position. So not really the cushiest ride for an adult if its a long road trip. Shorter, normal trips it would be fine. For the kids its not as big a deal, they can arrange some pillows and blankets to make themselves more comfortable. Or, if they are little tikes and still in car seats, then its all good. These are definitely a trade off of space saving/utilitarian design over physical comfort. Though, Freedman (this particular seat company) has some much cushier looking versions of these folding seats now, though I don't see any that have adjustable back rests. www.freedmanseating.com/seats/bellagio-foldaway/
@@kampinglogik hi where can I purchase these . Thank you Inadvance
@@johne4443 the brand is Freedman, and they have some even nicer looking options on their website, and they are even marketing to the camper market now haha www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
I bought mine off of FB marketplace and have seen them on Craigslist as well. Seems like most of these are coming from people taking them out of shuttle busses or medical transport vans that they are building out.
cool ❣️❣️❣️❣️
Wow, thanks for watching and the comment!!
I very cool! I can ask what are the measurements on the bench seat? I have Metris Van and I am not sure is will fit well on my van.
Let me check - I will measure it tomorrow
Yeah here are the measurements I took and a link to the actual brochure from the original manufacturer below. Hope this helps!
Closed - 41.5" tall, 25.5" wide, 9.5" deep
Open (when in use) - 35" wide (side to side), 43" tallest point (floor to top of headrest)
25" deep at headrests, 20" deep at seat cushion
www.freedmanseating.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/BV-AM_Foldaways.pdf
@@kampinglogik thanks you so much! ❤
@@SewCool-Ideas glad it helped!
These came in my bus, same thing for my old neighbor's bus. Threw his out, kinda wishing I hadn't, but it's almost two years of moving the other seats around.
This is exactly what I'm looking for!....what should I search for to find something like this? Do you know the model?
Yeah these things are so useful.
These are a generic fit seat from a commercial upfitter company named Freedman.
These happened to come from an mid-2000s shuttle bus. Here is a link to the current versions of these seats from Freedman - www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
I hope this helps!
I was able to get one for $60! Did you add any sort of bracket or plate underneath when you vokyed it in?
@@chrisgirardi2827 no I didn't, just big bolts and big washers and nuts underneath. The original seats and bench were mounted in the same manner. That floor mount on the seat base is super hefty, much more than the original seating!!
Depending on where in the van you put the folding seat, there may potentially be room enough to put a plate or plates on the underside to reinforce the hold of the bolts going through the floor.
Awesome solution. Did you install the plate over your floor? What is your flooring system? We are looking at installing this foldaway seat, however, our flooring (insulation, plywood, vinyl) is already installed.
Yes I installed these right over top of the laminate flooring and the plywood subfloor and drilled and bolted through the floor in the same manner the original seats were. Pretty basic, not fancy, but it totally has worked great!
The main issue is making sure you are drilling through non-sensitive parts of the van floor, especially be careful of hoses, wiring, etc under the van, and also missing the frame pieces underneath, so that you can run the bolts through cleanly.
@@kampinglogik thanks!
@@user-wj6vc5oe2s cheers!
Hey are the seats reversible or do you have to flip the seat to be backwards facing?
Well - what I did was buy a set that were from each side of the shuttle bus that they came out of. So the seats that had been mounted on the passenger side of the bus have their mount on the opposite side - allowing for that one to be rear facing when the mount is placed against the driver side of the van. So I did no alterations to the seats themselves - just grabbed one with the leg on one side, and one with the leg on the other :-) Does that make sense?
What did you search on Craigslist to find these?
Hey thanks for watching! I searched for all kinds of terms and kind of had to stay on the hunt for a while (I live in a smaller market). Anyway the terms I used the most were van seat, bus seat, folding seat, folding bench, van bench... however this company (Freedman) sells variations of this style seat new as well... www.campervanseating.com/
Looks like you can find them on ebay also. Hope this helps!
Cool .
Can it turn to bed?
Hey thanks for watching! Unfortunately, these do not turn into a bed. These benches are very firm and the frames are rigid enough that if you could create some way to bridge the two with some plywood, then throw a mattress across them, itcould definitely work for 2 kids. I could envision something like a camper dinette, where you bridged the gap with plywood at the base of the 2 seat cushions, then added a foam cushion to fill just the gap between the lower portion of the seats? But then maybe just building a dinette is a better option if the floor space is not actually the highest priority?
What year make and model did the seats come from
These are a generic fit seat from a commercial upfitter company named Freedman. The mounting plate in the seat base is a flat rectangle with 6 bolt holes. As long as you have a flat surface for the seat base - you can drill through the floor and bolt it in.
These happened to come from an mid-2000s shuttle bus as I recall, but I have seen them in many shuttle or medical transport type vans and busses. Here is a link to the current versions of these seats from Freedman - www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
I hope this helps!
Where do you buy seats like that?? Folding ones thanks
I found these on Facebook marketplace locally, but see them on Craigslist sometimes as well. They are from commercial vans and busses that people buy to convert into campers, and have these seats to sell off. This particular brand is Freedman www.freedmanseating.com/
How do you like the seats facing each other that way. Avenue 350 as well and I was thinking to do the 6th exact thing right now I have a bench in that spot
Yeah its been great. We've had it this way for a couple years and 1000s of miles of trips. Besides the space saving aspect, the best thing for us is that older kids facing forward can easily attend to the littler ones in their car seats who are facing rearward. This is such a big help for keeping the peace on long drives!! I foresee this setup being less optimal when our youngest ones are larger and out of car seats. But we have a good number of years to go until then.
Oh rad. I have twins, almost two years old. So thinking it's a good safe setup and gives a dinette type thing.
@@autumnauston Yeah I have read a bit on the safety of rear facing seats. Apparently a crash tests show that rear facing occupants fair better in a crash, which is why infant seats face rearward. So even when they grow out of car seat if they sit facing rearward they are theoretically safer.
Also yes, the dinette layout is a bonus at camp as well. A lot of times I just sit on one with my feet upon the other if I'm on the computer or something. Just make sure you space the seats far enough apart to fit a table leg/support between the two (if possible)
@@kampinglogik sorry so Many questions. I have a 16 year old. Think he would be comfortable enough on a long road trip in em? I'm about to buy a pair but never have seen em or sat in them
Hmmm honestly for an adult (or near adult size young person) these particular ones are pretty stiff/firm for a long trip. The same company (Freedman) nowmakes some similar folding 2 seaters now that are aimed at the consumer camper market and are much more padded with better cushions. I actually have replaced the forward facing bench with a 4 seater from a 90s Dodge passenger van, primarily due to the need for additional seat belts, but it is immediately obvious how much more comfortable it is. So to answer your question - it definitely depends on which folding seats you can come up with. Another thought is that these benches are taller from the ground than typical, so an average adult male's head is gonna be pretty close to the ceiling of a standard height van
how are these seats for seatbelt needs?
Each of these seats has 2 seat belts, which are bolted to the steel frame of the lower/bottom section of the folding seat. They are very secure, assuming that the seat is well secured to the vehicle.
How difficult was the installation?
Well the base plate has 6 bolt holes, so line it up and drill through the floor. I did 1 bolt on each opposite corner of the floor plate first to "lock in" the placement.
Gotta make sure you avoid drilling into the frame rails or cabling. Otherwise its pretty similar to the way the old bucket seats were mounted, using the same type of nuts, bolts and washers. More grunt work then it is complicated.
Where can I buy this fold up seat
I got these off facebook marketplace from a guy who was converting a shuttle bus into a camper van. I have also seen these type of seats being sold on craigslist from people gutting buses or medical transport vans. The same company now makes some less "commercial" looking seats as well geared at campers... site is here: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
how much does it bounce when driving on an unpaved road?
The seats kinda ride like a normal bench. Its definitely well engineered and locked solid when in its downward position. Probably the biggest downside is that the backs are pretty straight and the padding is a little lacking for a long trip. But this company, Freedman, is now making more cush seats in the same form factor targeting camper conversion vans.
Where did you get the shuttle bis seats I can't find them
I scored these off the local Facebook Marketplace but I see them now and then on Craigslist... they are heavy as heck, so you definitely don't want to pay to ship them. I'm in a small market but still see them pretty regularly in a couple hours radius. What area are you in?
That's good to hear I'm in Chicago land. Thank you I seen a couple of offers. I will check it out today. How wide are they? I want to put a kitchen half the door way. I was also hoping to put a a 70" bed behind the seats
@@atechieinchrist the mounting baseplate is 17"L x 8.5"W - the seat cushion is 36" wide x 21" deep - the bed platform I built is only 57" from the back door to the back of the seat... set up to sleep sideways. We aren't the tallest people haha...
@@atechieinchrist not sure about that 70" bed unless you have an extended length van? The 36" width of the folding seats would definitely work with a kitchen I think
I measure from the back of my drivers seat to the back door being 9'6"- OR 9'10" at seat cushion level - 57" bed and then 59" of middle seating area- Here is the video of my bed platform : czcams.com/video/AqZR0i0jeAo/video.html
I always see the attachment behind the driver what about attaching it on the other side? Okay the reverse one is on the other side
Hey thanks for watching! Yeah mounting stuff, whether benches, kitchens, cabinets, or storage of some kind is to utilize that space without blocking the side door :-) Plus it doesn't mess with the drivers view too much, as you can't see directly behind the drivers seat anyway.
I really need one, can you help my find the same???
What state are you in?
When they fold down are they flat? Like could a young child sleep on it?
They are pretty flat as in level... but you can definitely feel the frame. You'd need like a piece of plywood to go across the two and then a mattress on top of that. Does that make sense?
What's the brand name on these seats ?
Brilliant idea.
Wow thanks so much! Definitely helped solve a problem for me... we were just out camping in the van at the beach this weekend.... anyway the brand is Freedman, and they have some even nicer looking options on their website, heck they are even marketing to the camper market now haha www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
@@kampinglogik well you should get a royalty ! We're empty nesters but want to DIY a van to visit grandchildren. Who will need a seat 😃
@@pelenaka yes! Definitely gotta get out there with the grandkids. We have camped all over the US with my dad, I'm always so thankful my kids get to camp with him now too!!!!
Can you please tell me where you bought that folding chair?
I got these off facebook marketplace from a guy who was converting a shuttle bus into a camper van. I have also seen these type of seats being sold on Craigslist from people repurposing buses or medical transport vans. The same company makes some less "commercial" looking seats as well... site is here: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/page/3/
Thank you so much!
@@geofab3281 cheers! We have been all over the East Coast (from Maine to Florida) with the folding bench setup. So glad I found these.
what model seat is this from freedman?
As far as I can tell, it is the "AM Foldaway" - www.freedmanseating.com/seats/bv-foldaway/ - came from a shuttle bus... Though Freedman now also offers more "cushy" versions, and some with shoulder belts - www.freedmanseating.com/seats/bellagio-foldaway/
www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
Hey question did you bolt them to the wall or just the floor
Its a steel floor mounting plate that has 6 bolt holes... 6 bolts straight through the floor! The seat doesn't touch the wall at all actually.
Ok I feel better I am putting more seats in my shuttle but they also bolt to the wall but there is no track to do so. So just making sure it still would work if I didn’t bolt to wall
@@davidjr6231 oh interesting... yeah I actually got these out of shuttle bus. Yeah no track needed just 6 bolts, 6 nuts, 12 washers (one for top and one for bottom) and 6 lock washers.
@@davidjr6231 Yeah I think you will be fine. I would imagine that the floor would be more solid than the walls
where did you buy these seats?
I got these off facebook marketplace from a guy who was converting a shuttle bus into a camper van. I have also seen these type of seats being sold on craigslist from people gutting buses or medical transport vans. The same company makes some less "commercial" looking seats as well... site is here: www.freedmanseating.com/
How do I find one and how much,???
For the folding seats I paid $100 a piece, I found them on Facebook marketplace but I see them on Craigslist as well... I would search "folding van seat" or "shuttle bus seat"
Hi where can i but this seat from?
Not sure what area you are in, but we found ours on Facebook marketplace from someone retrofitting a wheelchair transport van,, and I've seen similar seats on Craigslist. Also, look for shops or companies that retrofit vans for various uses, specifically for wheelchair mobility transit vans. Here is a link to the actual company that made these specific seats - www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
Thank you so so much for sharing the link.
@@annierosle9961 No problem, good luck with your build!
Where you buy it bro?
I got these off facebook marketplace from a guy who was converting a shuttle bus into a camper van. I have also seen these type of seats being sold on Craigslist from people repurposing buses or medical transport vans. The same company makes some less "commercial" looking seats as well... site is here: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/page/3/
@@kampinglogik thanks 🙏
How much did this cost you
I bought these seats used from Craigslist or the FB marketplace for about $100 each
Where can I buy it ?
You got a link ?
I got these off facebook marketplace from a guy who was converting a shuttle bus into a camper van. I have also seen these type of seats being sold on Craigslist from people repurposing buses or medical transport vans. The same company makes some less "commercial" looking seats as well... site is here: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/page/3/
What’s them seats!
Hahaha - they are Freedman Seats - got these from a shuttle bus a guy was building out. Got them off FB marketplace or Facebook.
Here is the company website: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/
Does it recline???? 🤦🤦♀🤦♂
This one does not, unfortunately.
No way is that thin metal tubing and bracketry going to survive the torque of an adult decelerating to zero mph from any considerable speed in a frontal impact. The seat would just rotate around the bracketry and shear clean off, sending the occupants into the back of the front seat and/or through the windscreen. Folding mechanism looks cool but is potentially lethal.
hmm interesting concern, maybe I don't fully understand the physics you describe. Either way, I definitely want my family safe.
From my observations: These are mounted thru the floor with 6 bolts, where as the original 3 seat folding bench was only mounted using 4 bolts. The old heavy swivel seats were fairly top heavy but also mounted with only 4 bolts - So as far as I can tell, this folding seat is an upgrade, when it comes to mounting. I will point out that these are pretty heavy duty, and are definitely NOT home made ... these are standard seats in the medical transport and shuttle bus industry - from Freedman, a well established manufacturer: www.freedmanseating.com/seats/3pt-foldaway-seat/