Update time. The MSD coil packs, Thundervolt 10.4mm wires, and new MSD plugs eliminated the rough idle and random misfire.
The biggie - SEATS: Many of you know I have been looking into new seats or getting my seats redone for over a year. My driver's side seat had completely broken down on the lower left and would leave me with a very sore back after just a few hours of drive time - not good. Given my Avalanche is an NFE - the interior was only made for a few years and could not be replaced. I also wasn't keen on using leather again since it doesn't breathe at all and leads to very sweaty backs during long treks. I was only looking to replace/redo my front two seats as my rear seat is like brand new.
After MANY visits to auto-upholsterers - none of them could match the OD green of the rear and I wasn't really keen on just changing the color of my front seats - because then it would look like I just swapped front seats out of an NFE. So, I started researching aftermarket seats (Mastercraft Safety (civilian and military), Corbeau, Beard, Sparco, etc). Complicating factors with the Avalanche seats are: Side Seat air bags and integrated seatbelts - both of which would have to be dealt with for an after-market seat to work. The other complicating factor is the NFE edition has integrated clips in the seats to mount a special day pack on the back of each seat - both of which I have and use as 1) Air inflation/deflation kit and 2) First Aid Kit.
After a ton of research, sitting in and looking at all of the seats, I came to the conclusion that while they are all great seats - they are upgrades from a stock Jeep-type of seat, but not from a top of the line GM vehicle. Comparing to fully featured GM seats they are a major downgrade. Note - I am not looking for a single piece molded race seat as this is also my daily driver.
Then - I read Chris Cordes' article (here on ExPo) about Scheel-Mann seats. So - I started doing some research. I liked what I saw and read. I spoke with Chris and arranged to meet up with him at Overland Expo West and sit in his vehicle to try them out. I spoke with Toby Pond - the Scheel-Mann USA rep and discussed: details, options, my challenges, and potential solutions. we agreed to meet at Overland Expo West and he would help me out.
I came away from Overland Expo West with the Scheel-Mann Vario F (not the XXL as Chris has - we did not connect up, but I sat in his seats because he left his truck unlocked
) as the front runner - but that still meant I had to deal with seat belts and air bags. To give you an idea - my stock GM seat back are 22" tall, the Scheel-Mann Vario F is 24" tall, and the XXL F is 27". If I were 6'3" or better then I would have gone with the XXL F - but at 6'1" - the F fit me just right.
So - after the Expo and ringing endorsements from several people who have these and spend time measured in years in them, I was pretty convinced - then the price - OUCH. They are seriously expensive - as in for the price of two seats I could buy a used Jeep XJ expensive. But, they are orthopedic, 10 way adjustable - for things like femur length and bolster tension that pretty much assures you will have no back or hip pain/fatigue at the end of a drive - no matter how long it is. Also, the cloth in the middle is temperature neutral - it doesn't get hot or cold.
With that said, I bit the bullet - it was hard. Think grandma forcing your 6 year old self to swallow a table spoon of Castor Oil kinda hard. The rest of the challenges were figured out with: 1) Corbeau 3 point retracting seatbelts, resistors to plug into the now disconnected seat harness to prevent the airbag light from being on, and threaded seat belt mounting plates.
The Vario F seats Toby had in stock were solid black with the checked cloth middle - which I wanted. They also had seat heaters - which I didn't really want - but I also didn't want to wait until late September to order them in. So, I now have heaters to wire in. My stock seats also had arm rests - which I actually used, so I opted to get the arm rests for these as well - this introduced the current challenge that I'll get to in a bit.
With that said, the seats phenomenal - the look amazing and feel better (and I haven't fully adjusted them yet). However, NONE of my GM electronics or rails/brackets could be used (was hoping I could) so had to fab new brackets to mount the manual slide rails to. My buddy in his wisdom thought to make the brackets height adjustable (good thing - again reference to the current as yet to be mentioned challenge).
In the Avalanche B pillar two main mounting points - upper and lower - GM left big open areas. So, welded steel into both areas to create attachment point for the shoulder and the retractor. As for the resistor - they are male. Well - GM car harness side is also male. So, my friend made up some female sleeves to go over both male ends - voila - airbag light - OFF.
Now, for the current challenge. I did not account for the fact that in my stock seats, the arm rests fit within the profile of the seat back, whereas the Scheel-Mann's, the arm rest is attached and so sits outside of the backrest footprint. So, with the arm rests attached - the center console is now too wide for the seats to be at the proper height. So, to keep the arm rests and have the seats at proper height - I have to fab up a new center console (yay - I've been wanting to do that anyway).
Here are pics of the seats and brackets upon original install - so sitting up to tall. New console is WIP and I'll post pics of that when done.
