Are the 2nd and 3rd row bench seats swappable?

[stopsquark]

Hello everyone!

I recently got a 1998 Chevy astro passenger van that I’m hoping to convert slowly.

I was thinking of doing a configuration where the 2nd row seat is facing backwards...

Is this possible to do?

Also are the 2nd and 3rd row bench seats interchangeable?

thanks

Pictures below

[M_a_t_t]

They are interchangeable. I believe the arm rest and seat belt mountings differ though because the slider door on row 2. So they will mount up, but aren't "useable" in the sense of driving down the road.

[stopsquark]

Oh, so they will go in but the seat belts don't work?

I see...

Do you know if the bench seats can be reversed in orientation so they face backwards instead of forwards?

[M_a_t_t]

You can put them in backwards.

[Andejo]

Row 2 has an armrest on the passenger side, but more importantly, a place to attach the Row 2 right passenger's seat belt.

When I bought my van, someone (the dealer? previous owner?) had mistakenly put the seats in opposite locations. The mechanism to latch them in place is the exact same, and they hold in place just perfectly.

The only problem is, like user Matt said above, that the second row right-hand passenger won't have a usable seat belt. All of the other seating positions will work just fine.

I haven't tried putting the seats in backwards yet.

[nosxjeep]

I guess the first question I'd ask is "why are you trying to do that?"

If you are not planning on putting people in the middle and driving down the road, then sure, no problem, don't worry about the fact that only the middle passenger will have a seatbelt (as both outside passengers belts are mounted to the chassis).

In that case, I'd look into getting another 3rd row bench from the JY and use that in the middle as you won't have the armrest and seatbelt guide getting in the way.

Have you tried any of this stuff? You have the van right? Why not just move things around and see what issues you run into? Because while I haven't tried it, I can imagine that the seat backs would start to meet with the front seats and seat positions could be an issue.

But if you want to be able to put people on the middle row with it facing backwards and drive down the road legally... I don't see that happening. Even if you remounted the seatbelts to the B-pillar, it wouldn't be legal in most states (from what I remember reading).

[copperhead]

"
Have you tried any of this stuff? You have the van right? Why not just move things around and see what issues you run into?

Having recently removed my rear seats..I can think of one reason he hasn't done this. I wouldn't recommend trying to do anything with those rear seats without having at least a silver level medical insurance policy.

[AstroWill]

I used to flip my back seat around so we could sit and watch the kids at their soccer games, worked perfectly.

Definitely wouldn't drive with passengers seated that way.