Hello all,
Weird but serious question.
I got to return some flat pack furniture items and bring a ladder. My car unfortunately won’t fit (lengthwise) either of these, but if I remove the passenger seat it would.
Question is, if it’s legal to drive the car with these items loaded up with passenger seat removed?
Also, the car can’t attach to a trailer. Hire a ute from bunnings may be possible, but the distance to return furniture is about 60km+
Cheers
Looks like you can, from my reading of the above, but be careful depending on the age, there are side airbags and these will need disconnecting as well
+1 on that. We had an old Mercedes A class and they were designed to take the seats out, including the front passenger seat, but part of the mechanism was disengaging the air bag.
We took the seat out to carry a security door, one day.
In relation to the flat pack furniture it might be worth taking it out of its packaging and seeing if you can rearrange the components. We had that issue the other day trying to get a flat pack into our “newer” A-class where the seat doesn’t easily come out. We couldn’t get one of the boxes in but by opening the box and rearranging the contents we were able to fit everything in.
Thanks for the tip. 🙀
Can you lie the seat flat?
sadly no. It tilts front but not all the way.
Have you tried moving your front passenger seat all the way forward, removing the headrest and tilting the backrest all the way back?
Roof Rack
One of the best $200 I ever spent.
No need place item on the roof and hold with one hand while steering with the other, Make sure you drive a manual lol
mr bean style 🤨
Airtasker guy with a van ?
The chance of getting caught is extremely low and you're not endangering anyone so I'd say just do it!
It wasn’t about escaping the law with minimal possibilities though. Just ensuring that iam not doing anything outside the road rules.
…..until a vehicle accident and then 'it' hits the fan.
Or do you only obey the law and other society rules perhaps when it is someone from your family that gets killed doing something 'extremely low ' in the chance getting caught department…. Wrong is wrong!
You misread what I said. The chance of getting caught is extremely low. The danger to anyone else is non existent, and it appears to be legal anyhow based on other comments.
passenger seat removed?
Removing seats is perfectly fine in NSW. Many SUV comes standard with detachable 3rd rows. Some may have detachable 2nd rows.
Thanks. updated title for vic. 🥂
Not "illegal", but then loading up the interior of the vehicle is unsecured cargo could be a tad dangerous in the event of an accident.
Depending on the age of the vehicle, removing the seat, if it has an airbag mounted in it, will cause the SRS system to throw a fault. It may clear when you plug the seat back in, if not, it's a trip to the stealership to clear the code.
Just do a short hire of a van or a ute and do it safely.
You can also Goget a Ute or van…but it's about $100 a day…you could do per hour also. Ikea have a code for free 1st year membership ($49 last time I checked).
I think it becomes illegal if it is a permanent mod unless you have it certified.
Any changes to a vehicle against the stated details on the Manufacturer's and Compliance plates constitutes an unroadworthy modification. Get a Modification Certificate for any changes first then use it as you describe.
Although the cost of the certificate far exceeds freight costs by other means. Even a Uhaul rental or similar ute for 3 hrs costs less than the Certificate.
While the concept of modifying can lead to non compliance, there are a large number of modifications that are permitted. If you read the link provided above it says seat removal does not require approval for passenger cars. Other things are permissible and aren’t mentioned in the compliance plate.
Then there is permanent vs temporary, like whipping a seat out for a trip or two. Quite common in 4wds when going on a long trip, but then reinstall when back home. It is only an issue when you remove the seatbelts as well IIRC.
I used to do it all the time.
Didn't occur to me it could be illegal.
Thanks all for sharing the knowledge.
I will explore the possibility of removing seat as it’s not illegal. If i find it too difficult will have to arrange something like airtasker.
Also wasn’t aware the roof racks could be a handy add-on and it’s diy!!!. In this instance however it isn’t going to workout. The max weight should be 75kg and the flat packs combined weighs over 120kg.
Cheers!
The rack rating is xxkg at 100km/h. You could easily stack >200kg on a 75kg rack when stationary.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/registration/vehicle-modific…