Mounting a pedestal seat

[Jimmy627]

I have a 1995 Sea Ray 195 br which came with back to back seats on both side's & a Fiberglass Floor. I Purchased a New bucket seat & a Springfield fixed height pedestal with swivel & slide, that i want to install on the driver's side. I went to West Marine & they told me to use & I purchased the Garelick SS Toggle bolt anchors & (6) 1/4 x 20 x 2" SS bolt's. I removed the back to back seat & marked where to mount the pedestal without hitting the shift control when i swivel the seat. I drilled a hole (about 6-8" behind the old front mounting hole's) with a small bit & fiberglass came up & so did some wood. I guess this is the Stringer ? So i checked the old mounting hole's & there was about 1/4 - 1/2" of fiberglass & wood below that. THERE IS NO WAY OF GETTING UNDERNEATH THE FLOOR SO SEE ANYTHING. Next i took a hammer & tapped around the old hole's & the 1 new hole & it sounded solid. Then i tapped in front of the old mounting hole's & it sound's hollow. My Question is : Is it safe to drill the rest of the mounting hole's through the fiberglass & into the Stringer & mount the pedestal to the floor with 1/4" x 1 1/2" SS screw's, or try & mount it more forward of the Stringer & use the toggle anchors with the 2" SS bolt's ? The only problem i think with mounting it more forward is it will be to close to the steering wheel. PLEASE HELP !!!

 

[mphy98]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

I used screw only and have had no problem at all and it gets used real hard for two weeks a year. So go ahead and screw to the floor. I have 4 pedestals and they are all tight. It does help to have good solid floors. I mean decks.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

Go to any hobby shop and by a small bottle of CA glue. CA is cyanoacrylate (similar to crazy glue) and believe me, get it on your fingers and they will stick together. Drill the holes you need for the size screws you are using. Then lightly coat those holes (especially the wood) with CA and let it set up. A little goes a long way. This is called "hardening" the hole. Now insert the screws. They will go in with difficulty so use the appropriate tools. All of the pedestal seats on my pontoon are mounted with stainless wood screws and they work fine if properly installed.

 

[Jimmy627]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

But is it safe to drill holes in the Stringer (if that's what it's called)? The floor is Fiberglass & look's pretty thick (1/4 - 1/2").

 

[mphy98]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

Yes you can drill the stringer, just use silicone sealant on the screw before screwing in.

 

[109jb]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

The floor of your boat is not fiberglass. It is wood with a layer of fiberglass on top of it. Just use large wood screws to mount the pedestal seat base. The CA glue works, but what I did was to drill the holes and mounted the seat (no glue yet). Then I removed every other screw and dropped the CA in the hole that is now kind of threaded for the previously installed wood screw. After that hardened, I used a little slow cure epoxy and put in in the hole and on the screw. The epoxy does a couple things. First it locks the screw in place and it seals the hole so water doesn't get in there to soak the wood. Note that this is a semi-permanent way to do it in my opinion. The epoxy will make it very difficult to remove the screws later without tearing up the wood. That was OK with me.

 

[Jimmy627]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

I checked with Sea Ray & Like i said the floor is FIBERGLASS. They told me there is wood under the Fiberglass floor where the back to back seat's were mounted & it was up to me where i wanted to mount the pedestal. I really want to do the job the RIGHT WAY & if somewhere down the line i want to change the fixed pedestal for a adjustable pedestal, I just can't rip up the floor because the bolt's won't come out because of the glue.

 

[MTribe08]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

Not trying to add any confusion to the discussion, but since I was in your same position a few weeks back, I thought I'd share what I did. I'm sure the route you are taking will be fine, so as long as you protect the holes you are drilling into your deck. Over time, you don't want water finding its way in there and rotting things. I decided to completely omit that ever happening and built a little wood pedestal with T-Nuts on the bottom and then I was able to use stainless machine screws and NEVER had to drill into my deck.

The wood pedestal is bonded to the fiberglass deck with A layer of Resin and fiberglass CSM. Then I put a layer over the whole thing and ran it off the edges 3 inches or so. Its NOT going anywhere and my deck will never be in jeopardy of rotting here because of water intrusion in the screw holes.

BTW..I have a Garelick seat pedestal and a Garelick slider on the bottom of the seat.

Here are some pictures:

T-Nuts on the bottom of the wood base

Wood base secured to the deck.

Fitting the seat in the boat...Its REALLY going to be nice having that! Moves forward and back and swivels around. And bolster is nice if you want to stand up and drive.

Here is the finished deck with Gel Coat over it..I think it worked out good.

 

[Jimmy627]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

I am going to intsall the same exact seat in the boat. I was reading a few post where they said to drill (6) 1/2 hole's about 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" deep, clean out all the shaving's, fill the hole's with epoxy resin, wait about 3 day's for it to harden real good & in the center of them drill the hole's about half the width size of the SS bolt's or SS screw's that are gonig to be used, so they get a REAL GOOD BITE. I really like your idea, but i do not want to have to pull up the carpet (just installed it last year) to glass the mount to the floor.

 

[MTribe08]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

I am going to intsall the same exact seat in the boat. I was reading a few post where they said to drill (6) 1/2 hole's about 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" deep, clean out all the shaving's, fill the hole's with epoxy resin, wait about 3 day's for it to harden real good & in the center of them drill the hole's about half the width size of the SS bolt's or SS screw's that are gonig to be used, so they get a REAL GOOD BITE. I really like your idea, but i do not want to have to pull up the carpet (just installed it last year) to glass the mount to the floor.

Sounds good, just as long as your holes are good and sealed you should be good to go. Post some pictures up! Would love to see your setup. Before I bought my 210 Monterey, I was looking for either a 94 or 95 Sea Ray 200 Signature.

 

[Jimmy627]

Re: Mounting a pedestal seat

I will post some pics. as soon as i get the seat mounted, whenever that is. I still don't know which way i'm going to mount it.