Changing seats in an older Dodge Caravan - anyone done this?

[StaceyinLA]

I am making a trip to Disney with one dd and her husband and baby, and it's possible my dd from VA and her 2 kids will come home with us. We will be a seat short so it will not be possible unless I can modify my van.

 

I am wondering if I can replace the middle buckets with a middle bench. Does the middle Dodge Caravan bench seat 3? Do they have any that seat 3 that will fit where those buckets fit?

 

Just curious if anyone has done anything like this...

[bettyandbob]

I'm counting 7 in your post. my 99 caravan seats 7. 2 seats in front, 2 bucket seats in the middle and 3 on the bench in the back.

 

If I recall correctly, minivans with benches in the middle seat only seat 2 on that bench, so replacing 2 buckets with a bench will not get you more seating.

[StaceyinLA]

That's what I was thinking, but I guess I was just wondering if there were any that would seat 3, and whether or not one that would seat 3 could fit there.

 

We are one seat short for the trip home. My dsil's niece is making the trip with us as well, so we will be 5 adults and 3 car seats coming back if dd comes. It's possible we will just rent a car, or dd will come in her vehicle and her dh will fly home from Disney, or I'll talk my husband into getting my new vehicle a little early.  :lol:

[KungFuPanda]

I'm guessing it can be done.  However, can it be done locally for you at a humane price?  I'm about to modify a 2012 caravan.  They rip out everything behind the front seat, the replace the second row seats with narrower ones.  My son's wheelchair will fit between these and the third row will be gone.  We'll actually have room for a second wheelchair  passenger behind my son.  That said, the company who does this offered jump seats in the back to give us more seating.  We don't need more seating, but I got the impression that the additional seats were mounted further back on the sides and folded up.  The most seating they can give you is 7 passengers plus your wheelchair passenger.  However, only the front seats are original to the vehicle.  

[PinkInTheBlue]

Where would you put suitcases for that many? Just curious :)

[StaceyinLA]

Well, it's a grand caravan, and since we won't have huge suitcases, some smaller bags could go under kids' feet.

 

I don't know - it's all really just talk I guess since it probably can't happen.

[Kerileanne99]

I'm guessing it can be done. However, can it be done locally for you at a humane price? I'm about to modify a 2012 caravan. They rip out everything behind the front seat, the replace the second row seats with narrower ones. My son's wheelchair will fit between these and the third row will be gone. We'll actually have room for a second wheelchair passenger behind my son. That said, the company who does this offered jump seats in the back to give us more seating. We don't need more seating, but I got the impression that the additional seats were mounted further back on the sides and folded up. The most seating they can give you is 7 passengers plus your wheelchair passenger. However, only the front seats are original to the vehicle.

This. It CAN be quite expensive to midify them. We have an older (97) Dodge Grand Caravan that is fully modified for my wheelchair. In fact, because it has a automatic fold-down ramp and hydraulics to lower the whole vehicle, it has no middle seat at all...just open space with places to anchor a chair or two.

We are getting a new van next week and looked into the possibility of getting a new bench seat installed in that space so we could give the van to my sister, who needs a vehicle. We checked several places and were ultimately told that the best and cheapest way to do it is to get a second rear bench from a salvage yard, as it can be installed relatively easily.

Ultimately we decided it wasn't worth the cost (they would also need the ramp taken out!) and hassle of driving the van 1,500 miles away. So I cannot guarantee that this works, just that it was suggested by 3 different places we enquired:)

 

I think we are better off to find someone who could use the van as is!

[StaceyinLA]

I was thinking of doing that (getting the rear bench from a salvage yard), but my rear bench (it's a broken bench so it's in two pieces), doesn't fit where my buckets fit. The brackets are not the same distance apart. If they were, that is exactly what I would do!

[Jill G.]

On 1/16/2014 at 2:11 PM, StaceyinLA said:

I am making a trip to Disney with one dd and her husband and baby, and it's possible my dd from VA and her 2 kids will come home with us. We will be a seat short so it will not be possible unless I can modify my van.

 

I am wondering if I can replace the middle buckets with a middle bench. Does the middle Dodge Caravan bench seat 3? Do they have any that seat 3 that will fit where those buckets fit?

 

Just curious if anyone has done anything like this...

I have 2- bucket seats and a bench seat from a 1997 Dodge Caravan. They’re practically new because we’ve had them in storage and not being used for over 20 years. We just sold the van but we still have the seats

[sgo95]

Zombie...

[Ellie]

On 1/16/2014 at 1:11 PM, StaceyinLA said:

I am making a trip to Disney with one dd and her husband and baby, and it's possible my dd from VA and her 2 kids will come home with us. We will be a seat short so it will not be possible unless I can modify my van.

 

I am wondering if I can replace the middle buckets with a middle bench. Does the middle Dodge Caravan bench seat 3? Do they have any that seat 3 that will fit where those buckets fit?

 

Just curious if anyone has done anything like this...

What year?

My 2004 Caravan could swap the three-person bench and the two-person bench, and I'm pretty sure one of the things that made the Caravan so versatile was the ability to use any variation of seats, so yes, I would think that the three-person bench would fit where two buckets were.