Installing A Passenger Swivel Seat
Having comfortable seating was something I had been thinking about for a while. One thing people do is try to utilize the cabin seats by installing swivel plates on them. This allows them to face backwards or toward each other, making them more versatile. I saw the benefit in making the passenger seat swivel: It could create extra seating when parked by swiveling toward the back and would also open up the van to make it feel more spacious that way. I wasn't convinced, however, this would work for my design because I wanted to close off the cabin from the rest of the van (for both privacy and insulation). I decided to prioritize the swivel seat though because of the benefits. So after re-engineering the design for separating the cabin from the back, I fit the swivel seat in to my plans.
Supplies Used
- Ratchet with T-40 Torx bit drive socket, 5 mm and 6 mm drive hex bit drive sockets
- Phillips screwdriver
- Swivel plate from Eurocampers.com
- Utility knife and zip ties
- 5/16" drill bit and 3/8" tap (and 3/8" bolt)
Installing the Swivel Seat
I purchased an aftermarket swivel plate from Eurocampers.com. The install instructions weren't great, so I figured I would record and upload my process in case others would benefit from my errors. The things I struggled with were finding the car battery (believe it or not) and properly screwing down the bolts for the seat to attach to the swivel plate.
When I opened the hood of the car and didn't see the car battery, I was a little puzzled. But it's simply under a panel in the cabin, below the driver's feet. A brief online search led me to discover that... but it wasn't as easy to find the information as I would have expected.
The bolts for the seat to attach to the swivel plate were difficult because of how they just barely fit. I made the mistake of trying to screw the front ones down tightly in the beginning. You should put them all into place and just barely screw them in a little. Then tighten them down once they're all in place. Because of how I did it, I ended up totally ruining one of the bolts and bolt hole threads. This made the hole useless for a new screw because of the stripped threading. Because of that, I had to bore out a little bigger hole and use a thread tap to enable using a bigger bolt. I don't have that captured in the video and did it the following day. Just don't screw up putting the bolts in at the beginning, and you'll be fine!
