Passenger Seat Swivel
When I built the White Turtle III I did not want a seat swivel. The main reason was that I was putting the house battery under the seat and I could not have a swivel and the battery. Well I decided that I want a second battery and the weight of the battery at the back so I could now add a swivel.
The cost on the seat swivel is HORRIBLY expensive for what it is!!!! Almost $600!! But when you want something that works it is better to invest the money then try and make a lesser product work. In this case a lesser seat swivel is $400 so for $200 more I got a product that works properly.
I went with a Scopema seat swivel. Rated very high by everyone that uses one.
First impression is IT IS HEAVY!!!! Take a friend to pick it up!! Just kidding about a friend but it is heavy. Second impression is that it comes with NO INSTRUCTIONS. Good thing I had read about others installing them and knew a couple sites to get instructions from. Even the instructions that I found were horrible!!
I figured to install it would be about an hour. Well with having to move the battery it was more like 8 hours for the entire project. Now for projects like these I enjoy the process as much if not mare then I enjoy the final product!!! I love taking my time when I am doing it. Add to that the fact the weather was perfect and I had a blast!!!
Timeline
- 1 hour to make up the new #1 gauge cables with heavy duty ends
- 2 hours to run the new #1 wire from the fuse panel to the new location of the battery
- To redo the switch and the wires from the van to the house system about another 2 hours
- 2 hours to relocate the battery to the rear of the van, clean up and put everything back together
- 20 minutes to put in the swivel
Now like I mentioned earlier the seat comes with NOTHING to explain how to put it in. I was able to find instructions on-line here.
The instructions are BASIC and I also did a number of searches to see how others did it. I can tell you that many people have issues with the bolts lining up. One person mentioned it is because when the seat bases are welded that they expand and contract and are slightly off between different vans. But the best advise I found was to put in the bolts and if they did not all go in take them out and try a different combination. It took me three tries and they all went in without drilling the swivel like some have done.
The other thing that is an issue and not mentioned is the child safety seat anchor behind the seat. When swiveling it is in the way. Some say cut it off but I hate doing this as someday I may need it for some other reason and I wanted to keep it. So I bent it out of the way. Still there but the seat works perfect.
A couple extra notes:
If you read other posts you are going to find a lot of information about the swivel that is wrong. One post will tell you that the seat swivels with the door closed. IT DOES NOT without scratching the plastic on the door. To do this some have cut the seat glides but it seems like a lot of work for this.
Others will tell you that you can leave the jack under the seat. I only tried quickly and so far it is REALLY tight and does not seem like it will work. I will try later when I have more time. There may be a combination that does work.
Others say you need to hammer or pry the seat base to fit the swivel. You do not (see above about the different combinations of bolts).
So how do I like it? So far I love it!!!!! Having a comfortable place to sit is amazing!!!!! Plus it really does not take up any more space. The seat is already there so may as well use it.
Now I need to rewire the house battery over the summer to add another battery for winter, a house charging system from 110v and maybe an inverter. But that is another project!