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Removing the rear seat for good

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#24 ·
surfstar said:
Nope - at least on our passenger seat. It hits a max recline and not because of the rear seat.
We haven't removed the Rav's rear seats, but used to remove the cushion out of our VW wagon for more space - quick to do, and also took out the seat backs of our Prius Prime (requires tools) for more space a couple times.

Every time we break it down to: we want an efficient, cargo carrying enclosed vehicle, that seats two - we end up defining a minivan. The Sienna hybrid is likely to be a replacement vehicle for us at some point. Don't need PHEV for road trips. Maybe we can grab one in a couple years when used prices crash!
Click to expand...
I don’t know what alarms may ring but would it be possible to remove front and rear seat backs only and leave the cushions?
 
#25 ·
In NL we can order RAV4 Van. Nothing like that in the US?

www.toyota.nl

Toyota RAV4 SUV-functionaliteit en technologie | Toyota.nl

Volledig uitgerust met vierwielaandrijving voor elk avontuur. Ontdek het vandaag! Touchscreen multimedia. Verkrijgbaar in 2WD en 4WD. Ruim interieur.
www.toyota.nl www.toyota.nl

Anyway, since a 'van' can be ordered, it should be possible to convert a 'regular' RAV4.
 
Discussion starter · #26 · (Edited)
Thanks, no doubt to me that someone else in world might want one, interesting that the Dutch would be the ones. Or the phrase " There is an A** for every seat" or lack thereof applies: ;)

It looks like instead of a crash bar they have a rear wall behind the front seats. Then again, those walls frequently are to reduce noise from coming forward or to keep heat and cooling in the front with the rear open? I wonder if there is Dutch equivalent of the "If this Vans a rocking don't come a knocking" bumper sticker available?

I could see to a fleet owner that the extra up front cost would be offset by "green cred" and lower around town cost. The fed were buying Volts at one point and when they got traded in and hit the auction market, it was running joke that most of them had been plugged in rarely it at all. Apparently unlike the Rav 4 there was way of tracking IC hours versus Electric hours on a volt.

I am not that concerned with the rear seat electronics, generally there are seat sensors that sense there is weight on the seat and on a sensor on the seat belts to know they are engaged, no seats equal no weight on seat. I do not have rear heated seats but expect that would just be another click connector. Even the front seat is usually set up not to fire the airbag unless it detects a certain amount of weight. I would have to pony up the bucks to look at the on line tech manual wiring logic to see how smart or dumb the front seat wiring is. If it is just an on/off sensor its easy just remove the seat and unplug it and the seat heater. Replacing the front seat with another would be far more difficult and potentially dangerous proposition as the air bags are aligned specifically for that seat configuration. I have a few months to ponder it, as its too darn cold to work in my garage.
 
#27 ·
peakbagger said:
Replacing the front seat with another would be far more difficult and potentially dangerous proposition as the air bags are aligned specifically for that seat configuration.
Click to expand...
FYI it's not airbag positioning as much as the entire SRS system locking out because it detects an open circuit on the missing airbag / can't initialize. Look at the codes and imagine the errors you'll throw: Toyota Airbag Module Reset - MyAirbags Blog - Airbag Reset & Seat Belt Pretensioner Repair
 
#28 ·
Following this as I too plan on removing the rear seat for added cargo volume and to bed a platform above so as to have a nice flat floor.
On my mazda I removed half the split bench rear seat to keep it as a 3 passenger vehicle and it worked great.
I cannot see any problems as far as open wiring harnesses go. I read something online about being careful not to spill liquids on the rear seats as fluid could leak onto the electronics. With the seat removed that problem would be easy to remedy.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
Well at least there are two of us. Seeing the very small photo of the Dutch van, the wheelwells do eat up a bit of width. The various older Rav4 you tube videos where folks convert then for camping usually put in a raised platform and put storage underneath to reduce the impact of the wheelwells.

When I do it, I will take my time and make it reversible.
 
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