One of the most important things for me in kitting out the van was installing a ‘captains seat’ – a passenger or drivers seat that can rotate round on it’s base to face back into the van. In my intial list of requirements I wanted a nice usable ‘office space’, and also a good place to eat or prepare food, both of which could be served by having my passenger seat spin around.
Some trim levels of the NV200 include a folding passenger seat that can be used as a table.
Mine was the most simple passenger seat you can get – it didn’t even have the ability to slide back and forth!
While this may be a nice feature I’m glad mine didn’t include one. It would probably have just made this job a bit more difficult due to the added complexity/size of the seat. This was by far the most useful feature I’ve added into the van so far, and I’m incredibly pleased with how it’s come together!
Equiptment Used
FASP VW Transporter T4 1997 Onwards Seat Turntable / Swivel – Website
Universal Dual Lock Bucket Seat Runner Slider Kit Classic Kit Car – eBay
Makita HP457DWE10 Combi Drill, 18 V, Multi-Colour – Amazon
Mannesmann Socket and Bit Set (130 Pieces) – Amazon
I wasn’t the first person to want a swivel seat in their NV200. Looking around online, I notcied a youtube video of gentleman installing a swviel plate into his V200 with little to no modications. It was a FASP turntable designed originally for VW T4 transporters. With the basic passenger seat on my van simply bolted to the floor, I decided to lift off the seat and see what I had to deal with.
Underneath the seat is a basic metal casing that contains the equiptment for storing the wheel. Once the FASP plate arrived, we lined them up to see if it would fit and as it turns out, they did! It would only require a couple more holes in the swivel plate and case for it all to fit together
The only issue is the seat needs to be able to move back and forth to be able to swivel around correctly. Therefore we ordered universal seat runner kit off ebay and fitted that to the seat before putting it all together. These kits are pretty basic and interchangable. The one we fitted lined up very nicely with the passenger seat and worked flawlessly since then. You’d forget sometimes that it was aftermarket!
Now I would tell you more about the actual process but one day I went to work and came home to find my dad had fitted the entire seat himself! Once the seat runners had been fitted, it was really as simple as bolting the FASP swivel to the seat and then into the van. It only required a couple of new holes to be drilled in the swivel plate.
The only ‘big’ alteration was using an angle grider to take off the front corners of the swivel plate as it was coming into contact with the plastic trim of the door and seat belt casing. This plate probably wouldn’t fit as easily without this (very small) alteration so I’d have an angle grinder ready to use.
Results
I can’t tell you how useful the captains seat has been. Combined with the swivel table, it’s probably the most useful addition to the van and I’d highly reccomend it to any build – campervan or not!
It especially works well when paired with my swivel out table that can be seen in a few photos. This is a motal arm and plate that can be ordered off ebay. I’ll make a post about it another time but you can see it in more detail in this short ‘van tour’ I made for my twitter: