U
Unregistered
Guest
Do you know of any seats for passenger vans ( Ford ); that have head restraints?
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LISmama810
Admin - CPS Technician
Hi there! Are you looking for vehicle seats to add to an existing van, or are you looking for child restraints? Does your van not have headrests, so you need child restraints that have head support? If so, how old, how tall, and how heavy are the children?
Keeanh
Well-known member
Is this the church van? Do you already own the van? There are newer vehicles that do have headrests, like the Nissan NV, the Ford Transit, and the Dodge/Mercedes/Freightliner Sprinter.
Are you looking for aftermarket bench seats? I believe such a thing exists, but obviously not approved by Ford, and quite expensive. I would think commercial / licensed uses might have different rules about modifying vehicles. It's possible to retrofit headrests on the existing benches, but again it's not approved by the manufacturer. As in, you find someone who knows how to weld and pay them cash to do it kind of thing. If this is your personal vehicle, I can help you with that. But you should investigate liability before modifying a commercial vehicle.
If this is the church van I saw mentioned in another post, I would have the kids in high-back boosters as long as possible. Those Ford Econoline bench seats are quite tall, unless you have a really old van. My 11yo who 5-steps would still have head support to the top of his ears in those seats. If the kids are all under 10, you will likely be fine without headrests.
Are you looking for aftermarket bench seats? I believe such a thing exists, but obviously not approved by Ford, and quite expensive. I would think commercial / licensed uses might have different rules about modifying vehicles. It's possible to retrofit headrests on the existing benches, but again it's not approved by the manufacturer. As in, you find someone who knows how to weld and pay them cash to do it kind of thing. If this is your personal vehicle, I can help you with that. But you should investigate liability before modifying a commercial vehicle.
If this is the church van I saw mentioned in another post, I would have the kids in high-back boosters as long as possible. Those Ford Econoline bench seats are quite tall, unless you have a really old van. My 11yo who 5-steps would still have head support to the top of his ears in those seats. If the kids are all under 10, you will likely be fine without headrests.
AutoShopMama
Member
Hijacking this thread as I am investigating similar options. Are there people on here that have actually retrofitted large passenger van bench seats with headrests? We have a 2001 E350 15 passenger van. We also have an 05 Armada, but we are adopting #7 soon (hopefully!) so we are going to outgrow that and have to go back to the land yacht. It has all outboard shoulder belts, with lap in the middle. So my options (I think) at this point are:
**retrofit the current seats with headrests,
**buy seats from an 08 or newer that have shoulder belts in all positions and retrofit those with headrests,
**buy seats from a dodge sprinter or similar and figure out how to install those in the van
OR ... win the lottery and buy a mercedes sprinter.
Any other ideas? I have looked and looked for something used to buy in the Sprinter realm, but we really need to keep it under $20k for the budget fairies to be happy.
**retrofit the current seats with headrests,
**buy seats from an 08 or newer that have shoulder belts in all positions and retrofit those with headrests,
**buy seats from a dodge sprinter or similar and figure out how to install those in the van
OR ... win the lottery and buy a mercedes sprinter.
Any other ideas? I have looked and looked for something used to buy in the Sprinter realm, but we really need to keep it under $20k for the budget fairies to be happy.
Keeanh
Well-known member
Hijacking this thread as I am investigating similar options. Are there people on here that have actually retrofitted large passenger van bench seats with headrests? We have a 2001 E350 15 passenger van. We also have an 05 Armada, but we are adopting #7 soon (hopefully!) so we are going to outgrow that and have to go back to the land yacht. It has all outboard shoulder belts, with lap in the middle. So my options (I think) at this point are:
**retrofit the current seats with headrests,
**buy seats from an 08 or newer that have shoulder belts in all positions and retrofit those with headrests,
**buy seats from a dodge sprinter or similar and figure out how to install those in the van
OR ... win the lottery and buy a mercedes sprinter.
Any other ideas? I have looked and looked for something used to buy in the Sprinter realm, but we really need to keep it under $20k for the budget fairies to be happy.
I would retrofit the existing van since you already have it. As far as I know I'm the only one on the board who has done it, but it was easy. All you need are bench seats with headrests from the scrap yard. My favourite is Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager / Chrysler T&C. And someone who knows how to weld. Cut the metal sleeves for the headrests off the old bench and replicate the welds onto your 15-p bench. If this is something you're actually going to do, start a new thread and I'll put in all the details I've picked up along the way.
Here are mine. Since I took these pics, I found another colour Dodge headrest that matches better so it clashes a little less now
.
Here's the original thread. It's not 100% accurate because I was still figuring stuff out then, so if you're going to do this we should talk more.
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=199245
AutoShopMama
Member
Sorta silly question ... which forum would it technically go in?
AutoShopMama
Member
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