The not-so-definitive guide to Sienna seats

FatBuoy

New member
So, I got all excited about this concept of the Sienna seats for the front of my Chinook RV. (E350)

Read through a TON of the posts. I get toward the end and see there's no mounts available any longer? So that's it? I'm done here?
 

Justgosurfin

Active member
So, I got all excited about this concept of the Sienna seats for the front of my Chinook RV. (E350)

Read through a TON of the posts. I get toward the end and see there's no mounts available any longer? So that's it? I'm done here?

If I’m successful duplicating the brackets above for the power seat bases I might be willing to do a couple extra. But that’s probably a couple months off.


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FatBuoy

New member
If I’m successful duplicating the brackets above for the power seat bases I might be willing to do a couple extra. But that’s probably a couple months off.


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Heck yes! That would be awesome. Please keep me in mind, and in the loop. I don’t suppose MG would be willing to donate their CAD drawings since they left the game?


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Justgosurfin

Active member
Heck yes! That would be awesome. Please keep me in mind, and in the loop.


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A friend of mine who will actually be doing the welding made a couple simple ones by using old slides from another seat as well. I’ll get some photos next time I’m over there

I’ll keep you posted. What year is your chinook?


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FatBuoy

New member
A friend of mine who will actually be doing the welding made a couple simple ones by using old slides from another seat as well. I’ll get some photos next time I’m over there

I’ll keep you posted. What year is your chinook?


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Thank you. It’s a 2000 on a 1999 chassis. I’ve got a good fab guy here in the Dallas area as well. He would just need drawings. I may reach out to MG to see if they wouldn’t mind sharing theirs since they are not going to produce them any longer. Who knows?


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Justgosurfin

Active member
I won’t have any drawings. Im just planning to follow the notes posted above by “Imbecile”

It looks like he’s no longer a member so I’m hoping I can scroll back and find my screenshots with the photos.


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Justgosurfin

Active member
Reposting Imbecile’s pics so they’re here again if anyone wants to make bases like he did.

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Pinnacle Campers

Chateau spotter
 

motovan_mn

Active member
Hey everyone, I skimmed through the thread and tried searching, but didn't find the info I was looking for. Hopefully someone can help out here.

I'm thinking of installing a pair of Sienna seats in the 2nd row (immediately behind the driver/pass seats) of my RB E350 passenger van. It looks like for the footrest versions, people are mounting them offset towards the rear to enable enough clearance for reclining. For example, the weldtec brackets mount to the rear holes of the 2nd row and the front holes of the 3rd row. In this configuration, how what is the remaining length of cargo space behind the Sienna seats?

I'm not sure that we want or need the footrests, so the other option would be to mount a pair of non-footrest seats more or less in line with the original bench seat location.
 

Justgosurfin

Active member
Hey everyone, I skimmed through the thread and tried searching, but didn't find the info I was looking for. Hopefully someone can help out here.

I'm thinking of installing a pair of Sienna seats in the 2nd row (immediately behind the driver/pass seats) of my RB E350 passenger van. It looks like for the footrest versions, people are mounting them offset towards the rear to enable enough clearance for reclining. For example, the weldtec brackets mount to the rear holes of the 2nd row and the front holes of the 3rd row. In this configuration, how what is the remaining length of cargo space behind the Sienna seats?

I'm not sure that we want or need the footrests, so the other option would be to mount a pair of non-footrest seats more or less in line with the original bench seat location.

As someone who spent a bunch of time making brackets to use in the front, I’m not thrilled with the comfort of these seats. You could save a ton of money just finding some second hand ford captains chairs that go right in.


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motovan_mn

Active member
As someone who spent a bunch of time making brackets to use in the front, I’m not thrilled with the comfort of these seats. You could save a ton of money just finding some second hand ford captains chairs that go right in.


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Yeah, I've been on the hunt for some OEM captain's seats for a while. Unfortunately they are pretty hard to come by, at least where I am in Minneapolis. I see a few conversion van captain's seats on car-part but no OEM captain's seats. Luckily putting the sienna seats in the back shouldn't be too hard, especially because I don't have a need to make the sliding/adjustable.

I may still go the OEM captain's seat route if I find something locally.
 

mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
As someone who spent a bunch of time making brackets to use in the front, I’m not thrilled with the comfort of these seats. You could save a ton of money just finding some second hand ford captains chairs that go right in.

Having sat in a lot of seats in my career, from Ford captains chairs to Recaro's and others, I respectfully disagree. I had 2 pairs of cloth 2011 Sienna captain's chairs(ie non-recliners), then 2 pairs of 2015+ Sienna leather recliners...in both 2nd row and for driver/passenger(with footrest function disabled for driver). The cloth captain's were fine to start out with in VandianaJones, but I didn't know better. Then sitting in MG's 2011 Sienna recliners changed my mind about the captain's; the recliners were damn good, although I didn't like the bunched leather look of the 2011-2014's. So in 2015 IIRC when Toyota released the sportier perforated leather recliners, I upgraded to those and they were worth the $ for me. The leather was a bit firmer so more supportive, vs the cloth squishier and more fatiguing. And of course 2nd row passengers were on cloud9 with being able to recline in transit and chill. But yes, I had to mount them (on L-track) quite a ways back in the RegularBody E350, in order to allow the recline function. However, this gave us an area between 2nd row recliners and driver/passenger seats for our furry kids to be secure near us.

Fast forward to the scheel-mann VarioR's I had for driver/passenger in my Transit, and those are just world class seats. Even firmer yes, but understand that firmer seats = more supportive = your body can relax and not have to support itself over a long haul = less fatigue after 8hours of driving. Compare that with the squishy RV seats which feel super comfy at first, like a big cotton-filled bean bag chair, but that means that it gives your body no support = your body has to support itself = major fatigue after 8hours of driving.

Unfortunately with seating, every physical body is different, so perspectives are different, and you won't know what feels best to you after 4hours of driving until you ride/drive on all of these options, which isn't easy/feasible to do logistically. :confused:
 

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