Seat Swivels for F450 Conversion???

[TomH]

I am thinking about a simple conversion on an F350 or F450 crew cab. The rear seat would be removed and if possible, the narrow center front seat. If that cannot be removed by itself, I would need to remove the fronts completely and replace with two seats, leaving a passageway to the rear.

I can find seat swivels for vans, like those used by Sportsmobile, but I can't seem to find anything for truck seats. Does anybody know of something that would work for this application? Though it's built on an F550, does the EarthRoamer have swivels on the front seats? Jay Shapiro's EcoRoamer is built on an F650; he mentioned searching for seat swivels, but never stated whether he found any.

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mc Taco]

Have you been going "around and around" looking for these? :wings:

Sorry. I'm just in one of those moods. Good luck with your search.

 

[Herbie]

Take a look at the recent mini-project I just did revamping the seat swivel design for my van: Here

I refer you to this because there's some detail in there about how my supposedly "bolt-in" swivel purchase didn't really work well, so some custom work had to be done. You could probably do the same in a truck cab.

You'll see that the real meat of the swivel is basically just a big heavy-duty lazy susan with a locking mechanism. Whether or not you can fit such a device into your F450 depends on two things: Whether or not the floor is flat enough to clear the seat in all positions (some smaller trucks have interference with the transmission hump or footwell "features" behind the seat), and whether or not you can make the height problem go away. The swivel plate will add 2-3", depending on construction, so you may need to shorten the rest of the seating somehow (make new brackets, etc.) in order to get things back to a comfortable height. If there is enough room to make these accommodations, any fabricator should be able to help you out cheaply, as its a simple job. (So simple even I could do it.)

Hope that helps.

 

[TomH]

Have you been going "around and around" looking for these? :wings:

Awwww, you're so punny! :victory:

 

[Ford Prefect]

If you troll through the Eco Roamer build thread, you can find the photos. Jay managed to do it, but I do not know how nor where he got them.

I suspect that you could find one to build up, heck even finding an old lazyboy chair that swivles will work for you. The only concerns are listed above.

If you are a short person that will not be a problem really, but if you are tall like me, you may find yourself hitting your head on the roof. (That is no fun, ask me how I know!)

As for the passanger side, I would pull that out and just put in a replacement captains chair. The reason I say this, the chair that you ahve will not have an arm rest on there for the passanger, and it does tend to get a little uncomfortable without an arm rest for long trips.

Good luck!