Seat Pedestal

Hello. I have a 15.5 foot runabout with walk-through windshield. I have a new driver's seat that I'd like to mount on a swivel base. I believe that the seat has a 4-hole mounting pattern. The problem is that I cannot have a very tall base because then my head is above the windshield in a seated position. The seat needs to be as low to the floor as possible.

I see that there are simply swivels (without the pedestal) that are available. This would satisfy my 3 requirements: 1) the seat stays low 2) the seat can swivel 3) the seat is securely mounted to the floor. My question is: is there physically enough room to screw in the screws that hold the swivel to the floor and then the seat to the swivel? Also, are there quality swivels out there that won't rust after a few months use? Thanks.

Re: Seat Pedestal

Here is a pic of the swivel. I'm also contemplating buying a pedestal and cutting it down a bit to make it shorter. I'm guessing that I have about 3-4 inches before the seat is too high and my head is above the windshield. I'm not sure if those pedestals can be cut though.

Re: Seat Pedestal

I know this is irrelevant to your situation, but I made sure my pedestal seat went high enough that I could see where I was going . . . my head rises a little above the windshield, exactly how I want it! Now I don't have to spend the entire time perched on the backrest of the back-to-back.

Re: Seat Pedestal

Nice looking boat, look at any boat catalog they sell a short solid mount it's around 7 inches. It could be cut and welded.

Re: Seat Pedestal

I had the same dilemma on my 15' trihull. I opted for the swivel base you have a picture of. What I did was take the back-to-back base that was there, cut down the length, mounted a solid wood platform across the top (to mount the swivel base) and bottom (as an attach point to bolt to the deck), then bolted down the bottom of the swivel base to the wood platform, and attached the top to a single boat seat. The base was attached to the deck by glassing in wood with t-nuts, then bolt the base to the glassed-in boards. It leaves the single seat the same height as the back-to-back seat on the port side, but since I cut down the length of the seat base, I have all that space behind the pilot seat. As an added bonus, the back-to-back seat base is a hollow box, so I now have a small dry space for storage under the pilot's seat.

Rgds

Re: Seat Pedestal

I think a solid 7 inch pedestal and that swivel plate will be about right.

You bolt the swivel into the seat (bolts aiming up), then bolt the swivel (bolts going down) to the pedestal top, hopefully you have nimble fingers and a lot of patience.

They make a swivel like you showed with detente positions and a lever to move, that will keep it from free-wheeling.

Re: Seat Pedestal

Thanks guys. Good advice. I think that i may end up with something like what eavega suggested. I can build a mounting box at exactly the right height then mount the swivel and seat. I want to be as high as possible to make it easy to get in and out of the seat, but again, I'm not a fan of being above the windshield, especially on rainy days.

I actually had one of those 7 inch pedestals years ago, but it was too high. I found myself slouching all the time to keep the wind out of my face. I just hope that I can find a stainless swivel somewhere.

Re: Seat Pedestal

Are you back "in country" yorab?

Re: Seat Pedestal

Still in Singapore, but I'll be back for some R&R from June 20th til Jun 30th. I never had the chance to finish up some last minute details with my boat and motor before moving over here one year ago. The seat issue is something that I'd like to finish. I'm also looking into getting some seats made for the bow section that match the other seats. I also need to finish my motor break-in. I'm sure that I'll have a post or two over in the engine repair section in a week or so. It's gonna be odd to "wake a sleeping outboard" that hasn't even been fully broken in yet!

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Good luck, that is a really neat boat dude!

Re: Seat Pedestal

So I was doing a bit more research today and I found the shock absorber products in the pics. One has a single spring and one has two springs. I'm not sure why they are different even though websites give the same product number. Maybe the manufacturer realized that one spring wasn't enough and then added a second spring.

If I mount the shock absorber to the floor, followed by a swivel, and finally the seat, then the seat will be ~4 inches off the floor. That is a good height. This would be similar to making a mounting box, but I'll get the benefit of the shock absorber.

Has anybody ever used a shock absorber like this before?

Re: Seat Pedestal

Well, what I ended up doing was to buy a Garelick suspension system. I also bought a stainless swivel. When installed, the seat height is perfect, ~4 inches off the deck. I attached the suspension system to the deck, then the swivel to the seat, and finally the swivel/seat assembly to the suspension system. I had 2 problems that a bit of engineering solved (though I would have preferred a straight-from-the-box solution):

1) The suspension system was supposed to fit both 12" x ~5" seat hole patterns as well as the smaller ~5" x ~5" patterns. It didn't. It only had the larger bolt patterns as can be seen in the pic. I had to drll holes to allow the swivel to attach to the suspension system.

2) I bought my seats from Veada. They claim to have "standard" seat hole spacing for hardware attachment. I measured and the holes are exactly 5" from center to center. The absolute minimum spacing that the swivel could do was 5 1/2" on center. I had to drill new hardware mounting holes in the seat's bottom board in order to have the swivel mount to the seat.

I'm still not sure what is "standard" spacing on a boat seat but the swivel and seat would not mate up straight from the box.

Yorab
Looks like its been a few years since you made this posted regarding the seat installation.
Just wanting to know if you have the Garelick suspension seat system?
And has it measure up
Is it possible to post a picture of the seat set up in boat
cheers
Brett

Just got this. Sure, I'll post some pics. Travelling now so I'll get to it a bit later.