Perfect Table set up for factory bench seats

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slamit

www.cacampervan.com
Its always been a challenge to get a place to hang out and eat in a van with factory seats. You went ahead and purchased swivels for your front seats but you still do not have a good solution for a table between your factory bench seat and the front seats. Boat pedestal tables are too small, put a hole in your floor and a speed bump that is a dirt catcher in your floor.

Everyone knows the Lagun table is great. It swivels out of the way, you can mount any type/size of table on it, and you can position it perfectly to get optimal use. The challenge was there has not been a way to mount it on a factory seat. The seat legs are angled, use thin metal, and its a small nightmare getting all the angles right even if you could mount one. So 20 hours later and several prototypes finally have a great solution for the ultimate seating set up on a stock factory van.

Here is an above view to show how flexible and perfect the table is. You can put a bigger table and off set it as well if you wanted more table space. It swivels around and moves forward and back- plenty of you tube videos on how great they are.

I will make some additional posts on how it all works, the bracket, and the install process to get everything perfectly aligned. (way harder than it looks)

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S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
The images below show how I got the mount out of the way; in between where you would sit as well as how it all attaches to itself to be put away easily. You can also see how the mount is perfectly vertical and neatly tucked just at the edge of the front seat so it's out of the way of your legs.

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S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
Lagun table is great but it needs a flat surface to be mounted on which is not easy with a stock seat. The mount has to be out of the way and not hindering someone whom is sitting down. So the bracket itself was designed to wedge in between the seat legs. It had to be made out of solid steel, needed to be able to be simply mounted, and a person needed to be able to get it aligned at 90 degrees so that the Lagun mount would be in the right position.

So given these needs after several attempts at fabricating a mount I ended up with a mount that would wedge in between the legs and only require a few bolts. Some of the challenges like drilling straight holes for proper alignment and getting the mount perfect was a big project. What looked easy was far from it. I ended up making it out of square tubing. You can see that the welding and fabrication is high end. It's SOLID.

You can see in the pictures that none of the angles are 90 degrees...and how it wedges up into the legs which are far from 90 degree angles and not the same on top of that.

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S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
To install the mount 4 holes are needed. I would recommend a step drill to go through the Sprinter seat legs-you are working with sheet metal and regular drill bits sometimes don't work so well but can be used. 3/8 bolt/nuts are used to mount the bracket.

You start first positioning the bracket so it just outside of the edge of the seat. ( See last pick on positioning of the bracket to edge of seat) Then you drill the bottom mounting holes of the bracket (inside holes on bracket first) about 7.5 -7.75 inches high from floor as seen in picture. Insert lower bolts and loosely tighten. Then proceed to mark and drill top holes by using a square to make sure the inside of the bracket is a perfect 90 degrees to the top of the seat legs and mark position of top holes to be drilled. You can also check to make sure your bracket is a perfect 90 to the floor...it should be as well. The bracket was designed so that you use little to no shims if properly mounted.

After you drill inside holes...proceed to drill outside holes carefully in the same position. The square comes in hand to make sure you drill the outside holes in similar position and spacing. The oval support tabs spread the load and can help you align your holes. Again start with bottom then to top.

Once this is all done simple bolt the bracket in place. The hard part of this (if you can call it that) is just taking time to drill 4 holes in the right position. You could even tape the bracket in (as it fits that perfect) mark you holes, double check, then drill. It's 4 bolts/nuts.

Last step is to bolt on the Lagun mount...all the holes are pre-drilled for you on the bracket.


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If you have a welder and steel cut off saw and a lot of patience this design can be duplicated I am sure with someone with a fair degree of metal fabrication skill and the mount to help mock up positioning. It's about $50 bucks in materials and about 4-6 hours of fabrication time or more first time around to get all the angles right. Even with a jig it still takes a few hours to do a mount to raw metal. (cut and weld) For DIY welders out there this is more than enough information for you to go at it for sure with your own design! For those of you whom don't...send a PM if you are interested in one for your van if you don't have the time or tools to build your own.

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wmcbride

New member
slamit said:
To install the mount 4 holes are needed. I would recommend a step drill to go through the Sprinter seat legs-you are working with sheet metal and regular drill bits sometimes don't work so well but can be used. 3/8 bolt/nuts are used to mount the bracket.



You start first positioning the bracket so it just outside of the edge of the seat. ( See last pick on positioning of the bracket to edge of seat) Then you drill the bottom mounting holes of the bracket (inside holes on bracket first) about 7.5 -7.75 inches high from floor as seen in picture. Insert lower bolts and loosely tighten. Then proceed to mark and drill top holes by using a square to make sure the inside of the bracket is a perfect 90 degrees to the top of the seat legs and mark position of top holes to be drilled. You can also check to make sure your bracket is a perfect 90 to the floor...it should be as well. The bracket was designed so that you use little to no shims if properly mounted.



After you drill inside holes...proceed to drill outside holes carefully in the same position. The square comes in hand to make sure you drill the outside holes in similar position and spacing. The oval support tabs spread the load and can help you align your holes. Again start with bottom then to top.



Once this is all done simple bolt the bracket in place. The hard part of this (if you can call it that) is just taking time to drill 4 holes in the right position. You could even tape the bracket in (as it fits that perfect) mark you holes, double check, then drill. It's 4 bolts/nuts.



Last step is to bolt on the Lagun mount...all the holes are pre-drilled for you on the bracket.





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If you have a welder and steel cut off saw and a lot of patience this design can be duplicated I am sure with someone with a fair degree of metal fabrication skill and the mount to help mock up positioning. It's about $50 bucks in materials and about 4-6 hours of fabrication time or more first time around to get all the angles right. Even with a jig it still takes a few hours to do a mount to raw metal. (cut and weld) For DIY welders out there this is more than enough information for you to go at it for sure with your own design! For those of you whom don't...send a PM if you are interested in one for your van if you don't have the time or tools to build your own.



View attachment 92222
Click to expand...


I’m interested in one for sure please PM me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
I want to again say...anyone can take this info and can weld up their own mount...based on how I did it. I tried a bunch of different versions to end up with this one. It was a bit of work to get it so that it did not torque the legs and make the mount so the table would not flex all over the place and for it to be out of the way and easily mountable. It has to be very solid using this mount. The leverage the Lagun puts on the mounting point with a big table is a lot. Wanted to make it as well so that it's easy to bolt on and align as well. It took me 12-13 hours to figure it out and get right. Takes about 3 hours to build one now with a jig. (If you have a buddy and have to determine how much beer you have to bring for his work)

Here is a video I put together so you can see exactly what it does (Lagun Mount) so that it's better to understand why this position for a table is ideal if you want to take the time to build one on your own. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3ovee4gxbc&feature=youtu.be
 
GeorgeRa

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
Nice work, congratulations.

I ordered a Lagun mount a couple of month ago from UK as well. It is indeed a high-quality mount. Mine will be mounted to the 8020 galley’s front right corner for front seats. I have all materials needed just need to find time to do it.
 
S

shouldbeasy

Member
Lagon makes quality products it seems! I found them while doing some searching for marine hatches and was quite pleased at the variety of options they have for their tables.

Once I get my interior sorted out, I'm sure one or two of these will make their way to my rig.

Thanks for the write up! Step bits are my new best friend...
 
S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
GeorgeRa said:
Nice work, congratulations.

I ordered a Lagun mount a couple of month ago from UK as well. It is indeed a high-quality mount. Mine will be mounted to the 8020 galley’s front right corner for front seats. I have all materials needed just need to find time to do it.
Click to expand...
Yes, when you have a galley or cabinet no special mount is needed, just use the mounting plate that comes with the Lagun table mount. Super easy...a few nuts/bolts through some wood. This is also an easy way to extend your galley. You can as well mount off wall...but the table is then on the side but need to reinforce the wall mounting area to support the Lagun table.
 
S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
Some have asked so I will put this in email string. I have these custom made mounts for $350 including hardware and painted black. This is mount only. Yes it's a lot of $, however they take 2-3 hours to build as they are hand made one at a time and that's with a jig that cuts that time down a lot. These are way harder than they look to get to fit perfect. No welding to install. I had my fabricator build the mount...the first one took 3 tries to get right. Cost me over $1000 to figure it out. Anyone familiar with custom fabrication knows how expensive it is to get done, let alone finding someone whom can even know what to do. These fit perfectly, are out of the way and built crazy strong. You would be surprised how much flex you get. One of the reasons it took three tries to get right. The table stores perfectly behind the bench seat on the drivers side. You don't even need to use shims to install the Lagun table system.

I put enough information here that if you have a welder and some patience for sure you can figure out how to build one...just might take you a few tries for sure and you still need a mount and table.

I don't know why anyone with swivels and stock seats would not have this in their van...it transforms the front into a perfect hang out area. I use this all the time in my van with my family. Have this set up in every van I have owned.

For under $700 bucks (if you mail order table and mount) You can really transform your van and make it useful with stock seats. WAY better than a pedestal table.

If interested PM me with phone number.
 
H

Hatteras Jim

Member
This is how I added a table to our build. First of all, my wife and I are 5'4" short, so what works for us may not work for larger (full size) adults. We tried a few collapsible tables and the problem was always storage of the tables.

First thing - I added a single rear seat that came with a fixed pedestal (needed to do this anyway). The seat slides but does not rotate. Around the base, I constructed a storage area for tools, oil, coleman fuel, propane, jumper cables, spotlights etc. I already had a passenger swivel seat up front.

Next, I took a piece of scrap "starboard" (marine plastic) 3/8" thick and cut it so that when the door is closed, it will swing up past the floor (about 25.5" L and 20" W). Using aluminum hinges, I rivi-nutted them to the door frame with 1/4-20 bolts. Remove the door piece so you have a clear view. Counter sunk the elongated nuts into the starboard surface. Also routed a smooth round over edge on the table. A bungee keeps it from rattling during driving. I thought cleanup would be easier on the plastic, as opposed to regular plywood.

The table support is a hollow curtain rod with a rubber plug on the bottom. The rod is stored to the left of the table and held in place with a top piece I got from Walmart ($6) and I fashioned a receptacle for the rod from starboard, painted it black and screwed it to the rubber door stop at the bottom.

The table has a bolt protruding from the center near the edge, and this fits into the table support. When the table is folded down against the sliding door, I drilled a hole for the bolt to slip into, in the inside door support. Bolt length is such that it does not exit the door on the outside (done that somewhere else once). We have used this setup for over 3 years and 20k miles and never had a problem. It's great for games and dinner when it is cold or raining. Now, I wouldn't trust a 15 pound pot of spaghetti on it, but for a 2 person dinner, it works for us. Since both seats slide, you can adjust how close you want to be.

Pedestal seat was less than $200 (and we wanted a rear seat regardless), and the rest of the material was scraps. The rod holder for $6 was the only thing I really had to buy. Happy to elaborate if needed.
 

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150vanlife

New member
Just wanted to chirp in on this thread. I purchased the swivel table mount that Korey at www.cacampervan.com sells and it installed perfectly. After finishing up the swivel seats this was next on the list and I think it turned out great.

See attached image.
 

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S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
I finally got more of these made, ordered in much higher quantity, and a better fabricator to get the price of the table adapter down for much less than what it would cost to hire a fabricator to build one. Of course if you can weld and have a lot of patience you can make one for $20 in materials! Send a PM for more info if you want one. If you have a Swivels and factory seats this system works great, way better than a boat pedestal mount. Adapter only. You can get table and mount best price through teak marine uk. Gets to your door in 3 days!
 
S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
Some install pictures to show how to install. You want the mount to be 90 degrees to floor, have the mount clear the seat, and make sure its level to the ground. You can use the Lagun bracket to help hold in place if you need a 3rd hand. (see last pic)Mark top holes...carefully drill a pilot hole...use self taping screws, then check alignment, do the same on bottom. If you really mess up using self taping screws or want a totally bomb proof mount, you can use through bolts through the entire seat, but I have found this is not needed unless you over tighten or mess up the self taping screws. You can also use rivnut as well if you have one. Super easy, just take your time.

It is located on the outside opening...why? No interference with cup holder and this tends to get the table in a better position. You can off set the table as well or make a custom table of your own. I use the "medium" table supplied by Marine Teak...its a very reasonable price.

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S

slamit

www.cacampervan.com
I have these now in stock now all the time...lower price $250+ shipping. Includes mounting hardware. You would just need to buy a Lagun table mount and a table. This is for the adaptor for factory bench seat only. If you have another seat, you likely can figure something else that would be similar. These work really nice and keep the floor clean. Easy DIY...an afternoon for the entire install including swivels, or if you have swivels these are a must. Way better solution than converting your rear bed to a bench/table set up, a lot faster and easier for a stock sprinter seat set up. PM me if you are interested glad to send more pics or others you can talk to who use the table/seats with this system.
 
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