My 1989 Suburban with a Westfalia top grafted into it... also dual 360 swivel seats

[chilliwak]

Wow:Wow1:what a cool looking rig DBried!:drool:

 

[dbreid]

 

[dbreid]

Here's a shot of camping with my friend and his (borrowed) Earthroamer at Laguna Seca for the Historics.

 

[justcuz]

Nice!
That reminds me of when my wife and I went and used the back of our 73 Suburban as a playpen for the kids.
Fun times, but got a little pricey and snooty for my tastes.

 

[ibanezer]

This is such a cool truck. Well done

 

[Amphibeast]

LOVE this burb! Damn you for making me want yet to do another build!!!!! lol….. this is by far one of the best… I've always wanted a suburban…. let me know if it ever goes up for sale. Better not. No… please do….. Damn you! NICE!

 

[aaldape]

Awesome conversion... Wish I had the balls to try something this crazy with the roof on mine.

On those 360 swivels - will your seats still swivel with a center console? I have a Tuffy in mine, and was wondering if it would still be possible to get functionality from the swivel adapters in conjunction with the existing sliders...

 

[dbreid]

Thank you! I am pretty sure the seats wouldn't swivel very well with a center console. It "might" work, but you'd have to make sure the seats could slide all the way back first, then open the doors and swivel out and around through the open door. (That is a hard sentence to write and make it mean anything... sounds confusing when I read it, but I don't know how to say it better). And I don't think there's any way you could swivel the drivers with a center console. At least not with factory seats.

 

[jscusmcvet]

So if I read right, earlier in your thread, it appears as if you sandwhiched the swivel from the VW front seats in between the base and the slider of the Chevy seats... is that a correct description. My wife loves the idea of being able to swivel her seat, so I am initerested in whatever detail you can share.

Thanks,

John

 

[dbreid]

Yes. Basically, we took the front seats out, took off the sliding rails (which come out as two sides separately) and then put the swivel in between the seat and the rails. You can see it here:

The thing that my finger is touching is the swivel part (the little "trigger" that unlocks the swivel). The two "channel" looking things at the bottom are the factory rails.

I don't think there's a much better way to do it, as the floor of the Suburban is really irregular, and you might as well use the factory sliders. Then it is just a matter of adding a swivel. We (and by We, I mean Robert at RAK Motorsports...) built a plate adapter thing between the seat bottom and the top of the Westfalia Swivels.

So it is:

Seat
------- <-- Custom adapter Plate
00000000 <-- Swivel thing from Westfalia (we cut it up a little)
+++++++ <- Factory slider rails.
~~~~~~~ <-- Truck floor

Here's the Swivel Mechanism (linking to Van-Cafe, where I bought mine!):

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_882

 

[trbon8r]

Nice truck! Can you tell me about your lift and tire combination? 37x12.50?

 

[jscusmcvet]

Yes. Basically, we took the front seats out, took off the sliding rails (which come out as two sides separately) and then put the swivel in between the seat and the rails. You can see it here:

The thing that my finger is touching is the swivel part (the little "trigger" that unlocks the swivel). The two "channel" looking things at the bottom are the factory rails.

I don't think there's a much better way to do it, as the floor of the Suburban is really irregular, and you might as well use the factory sliders. Then it is just a matter of adding a swivel. We (and by We, I mean Robert at RAK Motorsports...) built a plate adapter thing between the seat bottom and the top of the Westfalia Swivels.

So it is:

Seat
------- <-- Custom adapter Plate
00000000 <-- Swivel thing from Westfalia (we cut it up a little)
+++++++ <- Factory slider rails.
~~~~~~~ <-- Truck floor

Here's the Swivel Mechanism (linking to Van-Cafe, where I bought mine!):

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_882

Awesome. Thanks for the diagram and the link.

 

[aaldape]

Thank you! I am pretty sure the seats wouldn't swivel very well with a center console. It "might" work, but you'd have to make sure the seats could slide all the way back first, then open the doors and swivel out and around through the open door. (That is a hard sentence to write and make it mean anything... sounds confusing when I read it, but I don't know how to say it better). And I don't think there's any way you could swivel the drivers with a center console. At least not with factory seats.

I think what you wrote is the sort of seat acrobatics I was envisioning when trying to shuffle/swivel the seat around if that console was in the way. Might need to swap it out for one of the narrow consoles and find a new place for the radio... Thanks for the comment.

 

[k9lestat]

You could make a console that resembles the dog house in a van. Maybe a little smaller but similar

Sent from my QMV7A using Tapatalk

 

[dbreid]

Nice truck! Can you tell me about your lift and tire combination? 37x12.50?

Lift is pretty basic. Rear shackle flip and ORD front 4 inch springs. You don't need much to clear 37s