Savana/ Express zéro offset swivel seats?

[Jo_Duval]

Hi,

Does anybody know if it is possible to have zero offset swivel seats in a gm van? I have discount truck direct swivel seat bases. They were cheap and they swivel, other than that they are garbage. Very hard to swivel and about 5” offset from original position which makes for not so pleasing driving position.

What have you done to remediate this if zero offset is not an option?

 

[Len.Barron]

I don't think you can do it with a stock seat, the steering wheel is tough to avoid, if you try and move back to create clearance you have the b-pillar moulding/structure to deal with...I'd like to crack this nut as well..

 

[grampswrx]

Can you not buy the sportsmobile ones? My 1998 smb has 4 swivels in it and I’m pretty sure they were installed at smb.


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[Jo_Duval]

I can try to look at their product. I have swivel seats, the passenger spins 360 degrees. the driver is limited by the steering wheel which is a bit more than 90 deg and plenty enough for me.

i just Hate the offset it created while driving.

Can you not buy the sportsmobile ones? My 1998 smb has 4 swivels in it and I’m pretty sure they were installed at smb.


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is yours a ford ? maybe the seat/ door panel configuration is different than on the GM ? i might have to unbolt the platform clamp it down with vise grips and see, maybe it can be modified.

 

[Herbie]

Hi,

Does anybody know if it is possible to have zero offset swivel seats in a gm van? I have discount truck direct swivel seat bases. They were cheap and they swivel, other than that they are garbage. Very hard to swivel and about 5” offset from original position which makes for not so pleasing driving position.

What have you done to remediate this if zero offset is not an option?

It really requires a custom pedestal. I, too have a Discount V/T swivel in my van, but I had to make new pedestal/riser brackets to drop the mating surface down a couple of inches to compensate for the thickness of the swivel plate. Offset side-to-side is unchanged. I voluntarily moved my seat rearward about 2" since the Astro/Safari passenger legroom area tapers a LOT at the doghouse, but could have had no offset to the rear.

As far as "hard to swivel", the castle nut is probably too tight. Pull the cotter pin, back the nut off a quarter turn or so, and insert a new pin. I also used a cutting wheel to add a second notch in the plate so the seat would lock in the rearward position. Not for driving, but because I found it uncomfortable to have the seat swiveling around when I had it aft facing.

My whole write-up, with photos, is here.

 

[Scotty D]

I dont think the astro ones are the same as the express . I know the seats are not interchangeable.

 

[Herbie]

I dont think the astro ones are the same as the express . I know the seats are not interchangeable.

Obviously, but the swivel plates have a similar style of construction, it's just the hole spacing that's different. My point is that something has to give. You can't sandwich 2" of stacked steel between the seat and the pedestal and expect that everything will be in the same position at the end. For me, the optimal (and safest) solution was to build lower mounting pedestals.

 

[Len.Barron]

I've been playing with the idea of customizing the swivel to make the center of rotation to be to the rear/inboard to get the seat to shift immediately away from the door and steering wheel...just throwing spaghetti at the wall at this point..

 

[rockbender]

Did you get the correct swivel for your van? The swivel should be such that the driving position is the same as stock (yet about 1" higher), but the seat will shift towards the center of the van when facing rearward. ie. the swivel point is NOT centered directly under the center of seat/pedestal.

I bought some from seats4less and they were fabricated incorrectly. It took me quite a while to figure out how they were supposed to work and why I couldn't shut my doors with the seats facing rearward. I ultimately built my own out of a used generic R$V swivel making sure the swivel point was located appropriately.

 

[Len.Barron]

Bought a pair of Roadtrek swivel front seats today, the bases are serious beef...they must weigh close to 25lbs by themselves. The swivel point is in fact to the inboard and rear to pull the seat away from the steering column, door panel/pillar.

 

[whith]

Very interesting, did you buy them directly from Roadtrek?

 

[Len.Barron]

No, they are out of an 06 Roadtrek 190 that had collision damage and was totalled. I'm going to pull the top plates off them to see how the spindle/bearing set up works and put some fresh grease in them. I'll take a couple shots of that and post them up.
Still not sure what the switch on the side of the seat is for...maybe a heater or lumbar pump?

 

[whith]

That'd be great, thanks Len. My guess is that the switch on the side is in fact for a lumbar pump.

 

[Len.Barron]

Put some time on the seat bases today, pulled the top plates off and greased the bearings, they have dual tapered bearings, very "trailer spindle-ish", they use a dual offset design, the seats themselves are 5/8" inboard and 1.25" aft of the stock position, then the swivel center is also offset( 7/8" aft and 1 5/8" inboard) here's some measurements for any who want to try and DIY duplicate them.

 

[Len.Barron]

Fuse box clearance and access might be an issue, since my rig is a 2000 it never had a body fuse box under the seat so I just put it where it would clear (custom mount for the airbag module also): even with moving it I had to cut the back out of the fusebox cover in order to get it out and that can only be done with the seat at full inboard swivel; you also have to trim the stepwells back to get these bases to sit flush on the outboard flange. You can see the underside of the drivers base is cut out to allow some minimal clearance for the fuse box.