Front Passenger Seat Swivel Plate

[GG Rasafari]

I wanna purchase this swivel base for my passenger seat (05 safari awd). The bolt pattern they have is 12 3/4 x 14". I measured 12 3/4" x 12 3/4" on an '04 and an '05. I though that was odd. Do I drill or is this the wrong one? Hit me back if anybody has any insight. Thanks.

http://www.discountvantruck.com/rvvanse ... tbases.htm

[Moreforles]

on some seats, there's an additional hole, just move the metal threaded clip to the hole you want to use, I took seats from a astro conversion van and put them in my Class C RV, front seats I have to adjust the clips, the rear, swivel bracket had a little different measurements but I got it in there. The other difference is where the seat belt attaches to, sometimes to the seat, a swivel plate or the wall of the vehicle.

[Herbie]

I just installed that swivel plate last week. Haven't even pulled the photos off my camera yet.

My plate had two pairs of holes, offset by what was probably 1-1/4". I assumed it was so I could space the plate over left/right for clearance when swiveling, but it may also have been to accommodate other seating patterns. In either case, if the holes don't line up, it will be easy to re-drill - the plate is just mild steel and the holes aren't tapped.

On my 2003, the spacers provided weren't really tall enough. The slider track is arched, so trying to fasten a flat plate over the top means either using spacers or bending the plate. If I tightened everything down with the provided spacers, it put so much pressure on the slider track that the seat wouldn't slide. I ended up getting a pair of 1/2" or 3/4" steel spacers from my local industrial hardware store to shim the rear up a little. The downside of this arrangement is that my seat sits up quite a bit more than the advertised 1" offset. In fact, I think that number is completely bogus, since I think my seat is like 3" higher, and even accounting for a 3/4" spacer, something doesn't add up.

My other complaint is that it took over a month for Discount Van Truck to get me my swivel. It seems to have been drop-shipped direct from someplace else, so its possible they aren't the manufacturer and were waiting for an order to be filled, but generally my communication from them was pretty bad. If they hadn't been the only ones offering a bolt-in solution, I would have looked elsewhere. Now that I have the unit installed, I may still look for another "universal" solution or do some more customizing (like cutting down or re-making the seat base), since I'm not happy with how much higher the seat sits. Also, the swivel latch is crudely simple. Basically there's a notch in the swivel plate and the "latch" is just spring loaded and rubs against the plate while swiveling. When facing forward, the latch drops into the notch and sort of locks it against turning. Don't know why I was expecting more...

[GG Rasafari]

Thanks guys, that was a lot of great info. I'll keep you posted on how it comes together.