I would be! I am looking at buying rails at the moment.
Fitting Caravelle seat rails
- Thread starter Coradia63
- Start date
Hulkiebear
New Member
They are yours if you want them.
Hulkiebear
New Member
Weston super mare, I don’t mind posting them if you pay for the postage. Just give me a fiver for a beer for the trouble.where abouts are you?
I am in Hertfordshire.
That would be great if you could post.
Let me know how much you need for posting and I will send you.
My email is dominic4@gmail.com
That would be great if you could post.
Let me know how much you need for posting and I will send you.
My email is dominic4@gmail.com
How did you get on mate? Will be particularly interested in your floor!So I watched ebay for nearly a year looking for rails and seats at a reasonable price
Got my LWB rails singles and doubles with bolts for £384 (thats not a typo!)
And the Caravelle front captain seats and tripple rock and roll seat bed for £1655
Now I've finally come to fit them, I have the luxury of not needing the van for a week, so took everything off to check exactly what brackets I need... glad I did as mine already had most of them fitted! Not sure if its just because mine is a LWB... but it seems like I need another type of bracket for 2 of the bolts?! the same type that are used for the lashings. Got the remaining brackets turning up on Monday.
As for the floor... Going custom rather than second hand... but I'm going to try something special for mine
Things I've already learnt...
- The OEM exhaust is a pig to move enough to get to the rear fixings, seeing as mine wasnt looking very healthy I've used it as an excuse to fit a stainless system
- The heat sheilds can be bent enough to get to the centre bolts without dropping the prop on a 4motion
- Get a load of heatsheld washers (20-30) and self tapping 8mm screws with washers (20-30) mine hadnt aged well and what I've taken off wont be going back on
I'm pretty sure the wheels of the seat run on the aluminium part of the rails. SO I doubt it.
Thats great thanks, I suspected that might be the case
I am planning to fit rails to my van. However this time only 2 rails as I want to use a California double bench seat.
However my van is a LWB and the Cali rails are very short, so my plan is to fit either the outside SWB Caravelle seats (or the LWB version.)
Basically in the photo below I would fit the left rail, then miss out the inner rail and hope to fit the right hand Caravelle rail, labelled 1, in position 2.
If so, can anyone see any problems why this would not work, and can offer any help with part number for the rails, brackets, nuts/bolts/rivets that I will need?
Thanks
Credit to @Coradia63 for the photo from earlier in the thread.
However my van is a LWB and the Cali rails are very short, so my plan is to fit either the outside SWB Caravelle seats (or the LWB version.)
Basically in the photo below I would fit the left rail, then miss out the inner rail and hope to fit the right hand Caravelle rail, labelled 1, in position 2.
If so, can anyone see any problems why this would not work, and can offer any help with part number for the rails, brackets, nuts/bolts/rivets that I will need?
Thanks
Credit to @Coradia63 for the photo from earlier in the thread.
I have a LWB van that I stuck 4 of the SWB outer rails from your picture in, works no bother with the cali seat - it would be fine using the two rails in the position you show in the pic. The only reason I stuck the 4 rails in was for lashing points when the seat/kitchen is out.
I fitted them at the forward position in the van (so rails finish where they should at the front and bigger gap at the back) and just made up a couple of brackets to hold a 'parcel shelf' for the back of the bed as in the photo below.
One thing I didn't appreciate is the cali bed is a bit of a pain in the hoop to remove as the handle fouls on the driver seat base when you go to remove it. If you are planning having the seat in and out frequently and don't need it right forward I'd consider having the SWB rails positioned where they end at the right place at the back and you have the gap at the front - would make removing the seat less of a faf.
I fitted them at the forward position in the van (so rails finish where they should at the front and bigger gap at the back) and just made up a couple of brackets to hold a 'parcel shelf' for the back of the bed as in the photo below.
One thing I didn't appreciate is the cali bed is a bit of a pain in the hoop to remove as the handle fouls on the driver seat base when you go to remove it. If you are planning having the seat in and out frequently and don't need it right forward I'd consider having the SWB rails positioned where they end at the right place at the back and you have the gap at the front - would make removing the seat less of a faf.
I have a SWB with cali bed, the one and only drawback I have is that I can’t open the fridge door with the ‘standard‘ camper furniture layout. Not a show stopper but requires a small amount of planning for breakfast in bed.
Just saying as if you position the rails as far back as possible on a LWB you should have access to a fridge.
Obviously dependent on approved anchor point location for the rails.
Just saying as if you position the rails as far back as possible on a LWB you should have access to a fridge.
Obviously dependent on approved anchor point location for the rails.
Thanks. I was planning on fitting them in the forward position, as this is where the Vans I have seen the conversion done have them. But what you say gives me food for thought, although I dont envisage taking the seat out that often. How badly does the handle foul on the seat base, bearing in mind mine will be mounted nearside rather than offside like yours. Interesting to see you can remove the kitchen as well. How does that fix down? Any pics? Did you make the brackets of bought them and made the top?Maybe start a new thread.
The other option is mount the OEM Cali rails which are 17cm shorter than the Caravelle ones in the same position at the back as yours so they would stop 17cm further wawy from the front seat. Decisions decisions.
The bed board I have seen would prevent the seat moving any further back even if the rails went further. The other option is to get LWB rails instead as they are the same price as the SWB ones. I like the idea of a clean floor in the picture from @ldm82 though.
Edit: Looks like a LWB has enough room with the rails in the forward position:
The bed board I have is removable on two rail T bolts or it can be tilted vertical.
When removed I can get the cali seat all the way back to the tailgate, when tilted it gives better access to the cupboards and slightly more space to move the seat back.
New Wave Custom Conversions are now doing Verso conversions with a removable slatted bed support, see below
Built by New Wave Custom Conversions, they don’t do them anymore as part of the Verso conversion but may manufacture a one off if asked I guess.
Obviously if you are away from home it’s not as versatile as the latest roll up version they are doing as it still has to be stored somewhere.
It’s very strong, I‘ve had it stacked roof high with wine. It could also be removed from the van and used as a low table on a site.
@Skyliner33 two very good points about the Cali bed.
Whilst I’ve not had to remove it yet, I found that when I was installing it and sorting the floor, lifting it in and out meant loosening off the front seat bases (or maybe just one - it’s been ages) and tipping them forward so I could release the Cali bed from the ‘exit’ slot on the rails.
And as for the fridge.. I ended up installing a toploader for this very reason.
Good points again. Maybe it would be better to install the 17cm shorter Cali rails so that the rear end is in the same place as the Valle rails and the front would be 17cm further away from the front seats making the removal much easier.
as for fridge, the vans I’ve seen and the one in the photo I posted the seat definitely slides past the front loading fridge. But top loader is something to think about.
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