Distance between booth seats?

[opus]

Can someone give me an idea? I have 2 bus seats facing each other. No cushions on them, just the frames. What would be a good distance between the 2 front edge of the frames? We'll put some sort of a table between them.

[lornaschinske]

Stop in a restaurant with booth seats a comfortable distance away and measure it.

Alternatively, decide how deep you want your table. I like a deeper table (when we have a table) to allow for things like placing a whole pizza on the table and still sit and eat on the table. Tables are often 30 to 36 inches deep. Seats (where your butt goes) tend to be 18" deep plus any allowance for the back cushion. I also like the table to overlap the seat by 3" on each side.

If your dinette will be used as a bed, then allow a minimum of 72 to 74 inches - seat back to seat back - (mattress length and at least 35 wide to fit a standard mattress cushion... then you can just cut up a foam mattress or topper for seat cushions). As for seating two people side by side... most are 36 but 42 to 48 will seat 2 persons side-by-side more comfortably if you have the room.

[Diesel Dan]

I'm putting in my dining booth right now using bus seats. My booth takes up just shy of 3 windows on my bus. If I remember, I will measure the distance between the seats tonight. I'm tall, so when I sit, my knees come out to about an inch short of the midpoint between the seats. That ensures that I won't be knocking knees with another tall person across from me. My table will fold down against the wall, so I can't have any overlap over the seats. So that's how I made my measurement, based on knees not colliding, but keeping it as compact as possible. I have a 3/4 size bus, and a family of 5, so I need to conserve space.

[opus]

Originally Posted by Smitty

Have a person set directly across from each other in each seat.....move seats until there's enough leg room. Build table to fit.

Smitty

No restaurants without driving a distance. We sat down and I think 20" front of seat to front of seat should be right. Of course more would be better but thought I would see what everyone else's were before I started drilling.

[bus-bro]

How about putting the bottom cushsions on the seat frames, then space the seats a seat cushion's length between them?

[opus]

You mean a cushions width? Long would be a good 3', no?

[bus-bro]

Ready made bed. Try it.

[Diesel Dan]

So mine turns out to be 30" between the seats. The bottom seat cushions are 15", and I happen to have two extra seat cushions (my bus only came with 4 seats). So I could easily convert my booth into a bed suitable for a person 5' tall or less (basically a kid). This actually happened somewhat by accident really. My main thing was just to center the space relative to the window. I've got a bit of OCD about symmetry. Anyway, it turned out perfectly, and pretty much by accident. That is a rare occurance for me, but I'll take it!

[Diesel Dan]

Originally Posted by Smitty

I'm talking about the seats in your bus.....

You must be small folk I bet 30-36" is gonna be more like it.....20" between the seats? I'd barely fit in there alone.

Smitty

Yeah, I would say 30" is the absolute minimum. I'm really having to compress things due to limited space, and I felt like anything less than 30" would be too tight for comfort. Even at 30" I'm sure there will be lots of accidental games of "footsies" being played under the table.

[opus]

I did 26", seems fine at this time. Everything I am doing in kinda permanently temporary. We take it on a trail run the weekend of the 14th. I am sure I will have a list of things to change...lol.