I've owned several Caravans and a Voyager, all late 90's and early 2000's models..

Just bought a 05 Caravan tonight. I've always loved the versatility and reasonable gas mileage these minivans get and never had serious reliability issues.

I bought a minivan that I thought had Stow and Go, but only seems to have it for the far rear seat. I wanted the versatility to have a passneger van when needed as well as a cargo van and on that rare occasion- a camper and I was looking forward to the Stow feature. Any of you who have removed the bench seats from your Caravans like I have know what a pain in the butt that is.

My back row folds down into the well OK, but I have a BENCH seat in the middle, and though the floorboard has a recess in it similar to where the seats fold up into in the rear, there is a support bar across it... Besides, the middle seats have larger head rests and don't appear to do anything but fold down (but not into the flooring)

Did Dodge make this 2005 model with only REAR Stow and Go? If so I am disappointed. Got a reasaonable deal on the van and assumed (yeah I know) that it had full S-n-G...

My other question if anyone possibly knows, can I replace the bench seats I have with a pair of split seats that would fit into this configuration? It is frustrating to have this recessed area that looks like it was contructed for s-n-g but not have the seats for it.

Any help would be so appreciated!

 

I can't see any reason you can't just install the stow-n-go seats to make it all work.

 

I'm not sure if the floor configuration will allow for the seats, the mounting brackets that is.

Going to go to a junk yard and see if I can find a pair to try out.

 

If you get the complete units, I'd bet the van will accommodate the mounting points.

 

Sounds like somebody swapped in a middle row bench on a stow-n-go model. I had no idea you could do that! If you have the flip-up panels in the middle row and a divider down the middle it sounds like you have the right bits on the floor, you just need the seats... I don't suppose the seats are down there and they just added a bench seat on top with the seats folded down? That sure would be lucky (if that is even possible)!

 

The seats are not in the compartments unfortunately...

The van was used for transporting students, so I think the owner must have swapped "up" from the two buckets to a bench seat..I called back the previous owner and unfortunately they know nothing...

The bar across the storage compartment was the giveaway- no way were bench seats fitting in. I was hoping it was some knid of after market manuevering instead of Dodge trying to save a buck by not including the Stow and Go seats on all models-it's a DGV but a basic model.

 

It isn't dodge trying to save a buck, somebody swapped that bench seat in. I suppose 3rd row access is a little better with a bench seat and IIRC the opening is on the passenger side which is also the safer side to have kids entering/exiting from so I guess it makes sense given it's past life. Probably you just need the seats and any mounting hardware and you should be good to go. I'd hit up a local wrecker for a set if you want to do the swap back.