Baby car seat and van

[Piapea]

My DH want to buy a van. He needs it for work and would like to use it at the weekends to get away. The problem is we have a very young baby. Converted vans do not usually have isofix as the back seats fold down to become a bed. He is set on getting one similar to the attached pics. As you can see the back seats are all the way to the rear of the cabin.
Would it be safe to attach a car seat with a seat belt on a seat like this? The main problem I can see is that it would be too open in front of the car seat. Does having the driver and passenger seat directly in front add some protection? I would think so but maybe the seat belt is enough.
If anyone has used a car seat in a van like this or knows anything about the legalities of doing so I would greatly appreciate an opinion :)

We have a van with a rocknroll bed , and when we take our toddler grandson out the carseat goes in the front (airbag off). While it's not ideal, it's not on a regular basis (usually he's in the back in my car)..our van has three seats at the front.
I find the rear seats uncomfortable to sit for any distance as they are longer in the seat (to make the bed when unfolded) and they just don't feel as safe somehow.
But that's our van (a converted Mercedes Vito)
Your best bet is to go and try some out.

I would speak to a child seat professional, as the seats need to have some kind of safety certification but not sure exactly what it is. I'd try the In Car Safety Centre - you can give them a call if they are not local to you. Since you haven't bought the van yet, they should be able to tell you what you need to look for in terms of child seat safety.

The seat in front is not needed, I know that. But there do need to be certain structural properties to the seats when they are folded up so that they don't collapse down under crash forces.

Oh or good egg safety would be another one to contact.

We have a camper, we just use the seatbelt fixing for car seats when we use the van. You can get isofix in some drop down bed seating, but I think it is usually retrofitted and requires completely seat replacement in some cases.

We have a camper van and sit three abreast in the front as there’s no isofix and it’s not very common to find / retrofit.

DS (4) is in a booster seat - the Joie Trillo worked best for our setup - it clips in using the seatbelt and is pretty sturdy.

Not sure how it would work with a tiny baby carrier, but they’re only in those for a really short time. By Xmas it won’t be an issue!

Thank you for all of that advice. I think I have a clearer idea of how it will work now :)

Hi @Piapea - did you get sorted with this? We’re planning to go away for a bit in a van with our son when he’ll be 5months old and planning to just strap the car seat into the middle seat.

If you’ve found any better set ups, let me know!