Justin Carr

Just picked up a '17 Express 3500 15 passenger that will be used mainly for work. I will be removing 3rd, 4th and 5th row bench seats to install shelving but leaving the first row bench for passengers. Do they sell direct fit captains chair/bucket seats to replace the first row bench? I would like to have more comfortable seating for the family when we go on road trips.

mountainmanjoe

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canucklehead

I have never seen a bucket seat that has the same hook on the bottom, that will fit into the factory connection on the floor of the van. If they are out there, let me know.
I did the same swap you are talking about in my 2002, and had to pull the carpet up, and pull the floor rails that the benches connect to. (not a small job). Then you can drill new holes for the base of whatever bucket seat you are using.
Keep in mind, that the door sill for the sliding or barn style doors come further into the van that the front passenger door sill. That makes it hard to line up those seats, unless you use a swivel base.

983_vanbuilder

Most bucket seats wont just fit into the stock mounts of the bench, however this is what i did. Two bucket sets in the second row



Any other plans for your van?
This is 2 wheels drive that looks sweet with a little lift by weldtec desings

Justin Carr

Nice. How hard was the weldtec lift to install? And what parts did you use? That's exactly the size lift I'm looking for.

983_vanbuilder

That van is not mine, just a nice looking van lifted. I would call them to find out about install time if your going to do it.

honda65

I know this is an older thread but the 2015 I just bought had factory captains chairs for all 8 passengers. I'm getting rid of at least 2 of them, possibly 4. They are almost exactly the same as the front buckets.

StanVan

But how do they fit on?

honda65

How do they fit on? What a pain to find that out. (not you) I pulled up the carpet and there are 6 heavy duty "panels" that are bolted to the floor and the seats bolt into the. Each seat has a wee bit different sized base and thus bolt pattern. It adds about an inch or more to the hight of the floor. I wanted to take the short rear ones and move them forward but I don't think that will work. I may have the front ones cut down. If I think about it I will take and post some pics.

GatorHawk24

honda65,

Was your van upfitted by Adrian Steel? The seat arrangement sounds exactly the same as mine (i have a 3500, long wheelbase with captains chairs throughout). I found that there is some ability to move seats because the heavy duty panels are tapped for both the wide 2-seat frame and the narrower single-seat frame (at least on the driver's side of the van, I haven't needed to move any on the passenger side... yet). I basically used a large, heavy duty needle to probe through the carpet to find the tapped bolt hole, marked it, and cut out the carpet slightly larger than needed for the bolt to fit. I then moved the 2-seat frame from the 5th row forward to replace the single-seat in the fourth row (and I removed the 5th row single seat altogether). This gave us lots of luggage space at the rear of the van, and we still have 9 seats in the van.


Justin Carr,

However, this won't work for vans with stock seats... but, I have watched several videos of people who have built their own sub-floor brackets to attach custom seats in the back of their vans. I think it would be a lot of work, but it is doable.