Patrol - Is Seat Removal Legal?

Hi LPG Pete,

I'm sure you'll get better info than this but if you don't then here's my 2c... Firstly I think the regs would probably vatry from state to state as per normal but generally speaking, temporary removal of the 3rd row seats is fine - the problem comes from defining "temporary". In your case it's bleeding obvious it's temporary but some people argue that once you put a set of drawers in then this no longer constitutes temporary. Sorry prob more info than you asked for but anyway! ;-) Hey have fun on your trip - sounds great!

Cheers
Scoey

hi pete

depends what state your in.

in vic its not provided you do not remove the seat belts, but i have heard of people being done for it in nsw, even though the car manufacturers agree that removing the 3rd row does nothing to reduce the structural strenght of the 4by.

ring the local rta and see what they say.

gra

This subject has been done to death on several occasions and has been the subject of many "urban myths".

Basically the law says that if you remove the seats then you can't carry any more people for which there are seats and seat belts. So if you take out all but the front seats then you restricted to carrying only 2 people - you and a passenger. That's how my Patrol is set up.

Just make sure you put all the seat mounting bolts back in the holes. This is to prevent any exhaust gas from getting into the vehicle.

To my knowledge, there hasn't been anyone on this forum or any other forum that has been prosecuted or "chatted" about having the seats taken out. A lot of stories but no "actuals".

If I ever get booked for it, I'll take it to a lawyer. It's all myth.

Bilbo

G'day again,

Thanks everyone. Gee, that was quick!!!

The seat removal will only be temporary - and I'll put all the bolts back in - which will limit us to a max. of 5 people, but we'll only have 4 and be well under the Gross Vehicle Mass, which is what I was hoping to achieve.

Thanks again to all.

Pete

I think you worry too much Pete
Just chuck the seats and make abit more usable space in the back

I have an ex police 100 series camera car. The police removed the front passenger seat(s) to fit the camera. The camera gear was mounted to the seat mounting bolt holes. They re-complianced it as a four seater. When they put it up for auction they re-complianced it as a six seater. It has three compliance plates now. I reckon the cops would know what is right. By the way this is in Qld.

Mike.

we wanted to remove the seats from the back of a ford trader dual cab at work, until we found out you have to re compliance it so the seating numbers and the compliance plate match.(nsw)