Transit Custom 270 Ltd Van conversion to campervan ish

[Bobbo1]

Hi everyone just signed up to the forum and am looking for some advice on converting my 3 seater transit custom 270 ltd to a six seater, basically i have got hold of the tourneo custom seats & footplates, i have taken out my load liner hoping to find the positions that the seats fit into when placed in a tourneo custom, no dice i am afraid !! Despite Ford using lean manufacturing methods they didn't put the bolt holes or bolt studs in. I have now found through extensive research the actual positions i need to drill into the floor to bolt the seats down to replicate the tourneo positions. (Question ) the footplates if bolted in place will stand proud of my load liner as there depth is 35mm this difference could be made up with plywood of course, but i wondering if there is more to it, has anyone lifted a tourneo floor up ? can you tell me if there is any additional steel reinforcement or just a wedge blocks? If anyone owns a Tourneo can you tell me if there is any additional steel platting under the van were the seat bolts come through. Any advice would be welcome, i will make this a full blown camper van one day but for the moment just need to stick the seats & glass in.

[Mussels]

You should download the BEMM from Ford Etis, it will explain that you cannot fit OEM seats into the cargo area as the extra fittings aren't there. It says to use aftermarket seats designed for conversions instead, check yourself as I didn't pay a lot of attention to it.
There's a sticker inside one of the front doors telling you where to look before doing any modifications.

[Bobbo1]

Mussels yes mate, i did download the BEMM from Ford Etis and i have read the same thing, question is do i do it, i can't see any visual difference in the floors between mine & a double cab, they mention the floor may need strengthening i didn't know if the construction method in page 173 was for carriage items or the floor construction, that why i was hoping a tourneo owner may be able to shed some light on this. i prefer the ford seats so i am happy to strengthen floorpan if needed.

[ravin beef]

I have a double cab, could have a look underneath in the morning for you if any use?

[Bobbo1]

Yes please if you see any steel plates please let me know, if you can take a picture & post it even better. Thanks for your time.

[Mussels]

Are you trying to fit Tourneo or dciv seats?
The floor of a dciv is a couple of inches higher than a Tourneo so expect very different fitting methods.

[Bobbo1]

I am fitting Tourneo seats Ravin Beef

[Bobbo1]

ok just an update to anyone thats interested, i have now removed my load liner marked & drilled my holes for my tourneo seats found in the B.E.M.M. , cut my 9mm ply floor to shape, just waiting for my 5mm reinforcing plates to arrive to bolt the seat floor plates down into position, Just a tip for anyone trying to convert a custom van, the rear leaf spring positions interfere with the original tourneo seat positions you can move the seat position to the right or if you look very closely the into the chassis you will find the original nut welded to the chassis, i popped an 11.5mm drill bit up through this so i could obtain the standard set up. hope this helps.

[Bobbo1]

Heres a few pictures of my camper van up grade so far if anyone is interested.

[JethroFlint]

Very interested in your conversion, thank you for posting and please keep going.

(By the way, looking at your seat layout, you don't have a single seat going spare do you?).

[Bobbo1]

I am afraid not Jethroflint i purchased all three seats & footplates from Vandemon for a steal of £450 pounds brand new never been used, lucky me ! but they would not separate the set, I asked for a couple of spare footplates (Striker plates as ford call them) but they would not sell them to me either, obviously something there not allowed to do, instead i found i had to pay fords full price & import another two from Germany for £200 ouch!! i have now taken out the bulkhead & insulated the walls, will put in the windows at the weekend.

[loko]

Nice to see a custom having something done to it, keep us updated

[TheBogFlogger]

Any idea how this works with insurance, do you need to have them tested?

I am also going to have this done, but as i a not very handy i will be getting a garage to do it for me, at great expence!!

[Bobbo1]

Thebogflogger, you need to decide what you are trying to achieve, I need to use my van for commercial use so I have commercial van insurance, it's more expensive than standard campervan insurance. If your having the work done by a campervan company they deal with the fit out & usually the change of usage on your v5 form to camper or car, in my case I am keeping the van as a van & am changing my v5 to show the vehicle now carries 6 people. The d.v.l.a have asked me to take pictures of the vehicle before & after fitout then send them in to have the v5 changed. You would still have to follow this procedure to have a van changed to campervan status. Seats as far as these are concerned the seats have been crash tested by ford, so there not your problem, getting them fitted is, there are loads of companies converting transit custom vans & getting them insured is not an issue, in my case I popped down to the local ford garaged & photograph how they did it, there reinforcement is pretty sparse, I opted to beef my seat reinforcement up & use 5mm plate steel, I also picked up some of the original nut positions already in the chassis. Of course if you unsure you can use aftermarket seat products like jany that are already have N ratings but I think the ford seats are better. you will have to go for a specialist insurance though I found my insurance company had no problem with me putting seats in but the mere mention of putting windows in the van means they could not insure me. Work that out!

[TheBogFlogger]

Thanks for the very detailed reply! You answered questions that i had not yet thought of yet! I am goign to e using the van 90% of the time for work: delivering bathrooms & tiles etc, but every so often it would be handy to be able to load up the family! Interesting point on the insurance and windows, strange! I'll be phoning the insurance to see what they have to say about it first!

Cheers once again,

Ste