Double Bench it?

[EmpTy]

Moving into the relm of some family off road action I need to accomodate 6 seats. My current Pajero is feeling tired and time to move on. One option is to continue the way of the 7 seater with a Prado or similar with 3 rows of seats and resign to taking a trailor for overnight trips, or go for a double bench ute.
This could be the old 2.8 Hilux chugger, or try convert something.
I have been looking at possibilities of say a 2008 Ranger and get a front bench from a single cab, if I can find one, and dropping that in a double cab leaving me with plenty of canopy space for gear.
Your Thoughts / advice?

[Suza]

I know this problem well. We use a roof basket and another family we go away with who also has the same issue uses 2 roof pods. We used to have a LWB bighorn (3.1td) and that was great for the seating as I could unbolt one of the rear seats and made a cage wall that bolted in the other half of the boot space. We now have a safari and it has a heap of room behind the 3rd row seat which fits a full sized chilly bin and overnight bags ect.

Don't be to scared about going with a roof basket as long as you are aware of what's up there and how it effects your centre of gravity. When on the open road drive accordingly when cornering and you shouldn't have too many problems with it, off road you just plan how you attack sidles.

The other big advantage over a ute with front bench seat is comfort for mum and dad

Over the years we have driven a lot of the west coast tracks and others fully loaded (100 - 120kg on the roof, including rack) and have not had any issues.

[Smurf]

We are in the same boat. The Surf got sidelined and we bought a 7 seater prado. Tow a trailer for the easy stuff, camping etc. And have just bought a cage for the roof. Looked into boxes but they are so damned expensive, unles you get a good deal on a secondhand one.
As Suza says just be aware of the extra height and how it affects your COG and cornering etc.
Bench seat would be awful offroad as there is no support to stop anyone sliding arouns or into the person next to ya.

[wjw]

We are in the same boat. The Surf got sidelined and we bought a 7 seater prado. Tow a trailer for the easy stuff, camping etc. And have just bought a cage for the roof. Looked into boxes but they are so damned expensive, unles you get a good deal on a secondhand one.
As Suza says just be aware of the extra height and how it affects your COG and cornering etc.
Bench seat would be awful offroad as there is no support to stop anyone sliding arouns or into the person next to ya.

We can manage 6 of us and have enough space for food etc for all of us for 4 days in the cruiser, its tight, but because I used different seats for the third row, we have space on either side.