Technical Swap passenger seat - Homologation document

[campercan]

Hello everybody!

I'm in a quite desperate situation and I hope you might have an idea.

I'm located in Sweden and if I want to change my passenger bench for a single seat. In best case for a captains chair / pilot chair.
Unfortunately, I have to prove that the van can handle this change and that the chair fits to the mounting points.
(This rule comes from the highest traffic agency in Sweden - please don't ask me whom of them had this fantastic idea )
Asking the swedish MOT agent, I need to provide a document from the manufacturer, but the manufacturer points back to the MOT saying they shall pull the homologation documents from their servers and have a look at it. And here I'm stuck.

In the download section I found "New Fiat Ducato. Conversion and fitting-out manual" and it seems to exist a document covering "Seats" and "Seat belt anchor points" and I guess that's what I might need. Is anybody able to share that with me?

Or do you have any other ideas how to prove that you can mount a single seat instead of the passenger bench?

You're my last hope! Thank you for your support!

 

[the green vanper]

Hello,

Try contacting the FIAT call center. The phone number should be available on their website. I needed a homologation certificate to register in Poland the van I bought from Italy according to a PL-EU regulations as an alternative energy powered vehicle and they provided me a written document saying that it is compliant. In fact they were unable to provide the original certificate as is (because it was FIAT Italia who issued the document originally and Fiat Auto Poland was able to provide duplicates / extracts only for the documents they established earlier), but their document was enough for the Polish authorities.

FYI, until 2018 both seats (1 seat or 2 seats) in the triplets used exactly the same mounting points and seatbelts anchor points. The middle passenger seatbelt does not have any external seatbelt anchor points, the seatbelt is attached to the seat itelf. I assume it has not been changed until 2020. The van construction / body is generally the same since 2006.

EU regulations allow the seat number downgrade. Of course officially in PL the seat should be a brand new factory seat, with an appropriate invoice, installed by a specialized company that will take responsibility for the van modification. With such documents you have to go to the MOT equivalent agent that will confirm that the modification has been done on your van and finally you have to go to the department of transport of the local authorities who will change the number of passengers in the registration document and computer system.

Upgrading the number of seats using the original factory seat mounting points / seatbelt anchor points is much more complicated, but still possible.

Upgrading the number of seats when there are no original seat mounting points / seatbelt anchor points is not possible.

Is you van a commercial van? It seems to me it's the case, because most of the profesionnaly converted motorhomes have 2 seats only in the cab. Try checking if the original homologation established by the factory had 3 or perhaps 2 seats and it was changed in the very beginning. If so, it could also be very helpful. In my case my van has 2 homologations. A primary one established in 2011 by the factory (when the piannale body quit the SEVEL factory). And a secondary established in 2012 by the company which installed the aluminium box on top. The number of seat was not changed, other things like weights, dimensions were modified.

 

[jackwhoo]

Contact a single seat manufacturer for the homologation document. If the single seat manufacturer hasn't gone through the homologation process to get a certificate go to a different manufacturer

 

[the green vanper]

ISRI is the manufacturer of the factory installed seats in the triplets. They have homologations for all types of seats, thus it's the first choice of the seat in such a case.

If needed, I should be able to paste photos of factory labels on both single seat / double bench of my x250 over the weekend. One is installed in the cab, the other is in the back waiting for some free time

 

[campercan]

Thanks for all your replies!

It's so frustrating... I have been in contact with FIAT in SE several times and they don't wanna share the homologation documents or give any approval.
The chairs I want to use are pilot chairs with ISRI sticker, so all original. But normal chairs could also be an option.
I've been in contact with ISRI about the pilot chairs and they point to the manufacturer hymer in this case.
Hymer doesn't want to give any information about the pilot chairs, until I can tell them which vehicle the chairs are from. The seller only says the chairs have never been mounted to a vehicle and are brand new...

@the green vanper what is your thought regarding the ISRI stickers? Shall I take yours, contact ISRI once more and hope for them to send me the right documents?

Fiat SE was at least able to provide that my van is built from factory with three seats in the front, so there seems to be only one homologation for my van.

 

[the green vanper]

@the green vanper what is your thought regarding the ISRI stickers? Shall I take yours, contact ISRI once more and hope for them to send me the right documents?

I didn't knew you've already contacted ISRI, so I had an idea that having a product number could be helpful if you talk about a precise seat model.

But yes, if they have some serial numbers (which I doubt), ISRI perhaps would be more willing to provide some documentation. Perhaps there's also a homologation number on them. I don't know. Have not checked the stickers yet

As far as I remember, a producer has to provide a certificate of conformity to a norm, a Euronorm in this case. Don't know how it works with homologation.

I think that the producers of the parts provide the homologations to the manufacturer (in this case Hymer I think), which shall provide a homologation document on the whole vehicle. But I can be mistaken.

I've bought the seats a couple of months ago from an automotive upholstery company, apparently they installed the captain seats in a new, just delivered camper, and my seats have been taken out from this camper. So if they have a serial number, it will be trackable that they were installed somewhere and it was delivered to a dealer and the final client.

The camper owner wanted the captain seats, so I got 2 single seats with lumbar adjustment and one armrest each for a decent price

 

[jackwhoo]

Getting different seats from a manufacture that can provide a homologation certificate with the seats is going to be far easier than what you are attempting.

 

[the green vanper]

So, I made the photos of all four stickers on all four seats. Original ones including the 2 seats passenger bench and the recently bought two single seats with lumbar support and one armrest each.

Good news is that both driver's and passenger's single seat have the same ISRI and FIAT part number! Even thought the base is slightly different (the driver's one has the plastic drawer + bars that hold it).

Another news is the seats have serial numbers and production date on the sticker, too.