Leather Captains seats for T6 Van

[Red Bicycle]

Hi

Is it possible to purchase VW leather captains seats for installation in a T6 TDI400 van? If so would they have ADR or similar?

Best

[Sunny43.5]

As long as any seat you buy has been ADR approved it will be fine , as the T6 is so new I would not imagine any of those seats would be just lying around. One important thing even if you use captains seat from an earlier model it would be they would need to be the same standard as the current ones . I used to do seat conversions and modifications one thing we learned from the Transport department was to ensure that ANY seats fitted comply with the CURRENT ADR rules . There are several companies around Australia who can do leather recovering with relevant air bag standards and also modify the seats with special foam bolsters , you can buy the folding armrests from VW but expect to pay a premium for them . As they would not be relavant to ADR,s of the seats you can use alternative ones in place . I used folding armrests that I got from a Campervan / Mobile Home company , they used to swap over their standard ones and throw the originals away !! they then used a more padded style so I just recovered their standard ones for our T5 vans .

[Red Bicycle]

Thanks Sunny for the heads up on complying with current ADRs. Im picking up a new T6 this week from the dealer and the one thing that Ive always thought was a let down was the seating - particularly lateral control - I suppose there has to be a tradeoff with ease of entry/exit. I though Id ask if anyone had bought a new set from VW and installed into their Transporter Van?

[Sunny43.5]

Quick answer to that one $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$

[Red Bicycle]

Yes I know - I'll ask the spare parts department just how many when I'm picking up the van - that being said have you seen the prices on Recaro's????

[Sunny43.5]

Its the price you pay for all the development and testing , my old business we used to manufacturer our own designed seats for maxi Taxis for disabled use plus we made double and single folding and fixed seats fror vans etc. Man it was a money burning exercise trust me . We were not engineers just humble motor trimmers but we knew all about seat safety and structure and mounts . We built our own test jig , after we built a seat we would bolt it onto the jig and then used massive hydraulic pulling equipment to put the appropriate loads on the seats . This was measured by a load cell and once we made seat that would withstand the loads we called in an Engineer to document and video the tests . He would sign off on the seat for the ADR's and we could then reproduce them for retail sales . I sold the business a couple of years later as I had new fish to fry , fitting sunroofs is much warmer than standing under a cold shower tearing up hundred dollar notes !! Yes Recaros are expensive and so are the Veedub ones , the only advantage these days is a seat can be literally designed and made to comply with ADR's just using a computer .

[Red Bicycle]

Oh so you can probably tell me then if I could get the original seats rejigged to give good lateral support and re-trimmed in a quality cloth or leather? Would this be an economical option?

Best

[SnowMotion]

We had our T6 delivered with 2 x Captain seats as an option.
We had a Sydney Seat trimmer reupholster them in leather and seat warmers. For a pair of captains seats in leather it was $1100. Seat heaters were $450. We thought this good value.
You are not able to order a leather factory option on a Transporter.
If you don't have arm rests, they should be able to be retro fitted to the standard captains seat. I see the armrests for sale out of the UK for a reasonable cost. As far as I can tell the T6 seats are identical to the T5.1.

[Red Bicycle]

Thanks for that info SnowMotion

Im in the position where I need a van now as my T5 was written off and I have to take whats currently available. I would have loved to have been able to order a van exactly how I wanted it but the lead time is at least 6 months.

$1100 for leather and perhaps $500 for rebolstering per seat would be doable in my mind.

[tdi]

Hey this may sound like a silly question but what are "captains seats"?How do they differ from normal seats?I gather they are covered in leather?What else is different about them?