Two ways to hold a seat down
Every seat and every wheelchair tie-down in an accessible van has to be anchored to the floor strongly enough to hold in a crash. Builders do it one of two ways.
Bolted-in anchors. Many conversions bolt the seats and securement through the floor at specific points, and those points are pull-tested. The layout is set the day the van is built. Moving a seat or adding a wheelchair position means new anchor points, and the floor has to be re-engineered and re-tested to carry them. In practice, almost nobody does it. The van keeps its original layout until it’s sold.
Track floor. Continuous metal track runs the length of the floor. Seats and tie-downs lock into it with fittings, and a fitting can sit anywhere along the track. When every point on the track carries the same crash rating, you can move things without re-testing anything.
What changing the layout looks like
On a track floor, a new layout is a parts order. Pick up a contract with more wheelchair riders and you move seats out and add tie-down positions. Lose that contract and you put the seats back. The limits are the van’s seating capacity, its weight rating and the room to maneuver a chair, not the floor.
On a bolted-in floor, the same change means buying a different van, or living with the wrong layout.
When it matters
| Your situation | Why the floor matters |
|---|---|
| NEMT with changing contracts | Rider mix shifts contract to contract. A track floor follows it. |
| Senior living or assisted living | More residents use chairs over time. Add positions instead of replacing the van. |
| Mixed daily routes | Set up for ambulatory riders one season and chairs the next. |
| One fixed job for the van’s whole life | A bolted-in floor will do the job. You’re just giving up the option. |
Four questions to ask any builder
- Are the seats and wheelchair securement bolted through the floor, or mounted in track?
- If it’s track, is every point along it rated to the same crash standard, or only certain spots?
- What does it take to add a wheelchair position two years from now, and who supplies the parts?
- Is the subfloor under the track steel-reinforced and protected against corrosion?
How FR Conversions builds it
FR’s full-size ProMax vans, on either the RAM ProMaster or the Ford Transit, mount every seat and tie-down in a continuous floor track rated to the same crash standard at every point. Nothing is bolted through the floor. The track sits on a steel-reinforced, powder-coated subfloor. Freedman seats with 3-point belts, a Braun wheelchair lift, and FMVSS 214 and 301 crash testing come with the build. FR engineers and builds in-house in Maryland, under ISO 9001.
We’re an authorized FR dealer in Greeneville, Tennessee. See the FR line or ask us to lay out a van around your riders.