I picked up a new-to-me navigator seat (and driver seat) for my MCI 102a3
It has a base with four holes (I guess about 10" apart. It has seat belt mounts on the base.
How do I mount this to my floor? I want it to be strong enough to at least give the impression that it's secure.
Should I drill all the way into the tire well below the seat? Is there anything there to hit? Are simple lag bolts strong enough to hold if they're into both my 1/2" plywood and the factory 3/4" plywood?
Best idea I've heard is a 30" sheet of 1/2" iron with threaded holes.... but I don't see myself doing that. My idea is to go into the wheel well and bolt to some steel.
Thanks,
Dave
In a perfect world you left in the stock seat rails, you make a frame that mounts to them and you bolt the seat to the frame. It would be sound, but probably not to a degree that would meet seat belt load safety ratings. In a real world there is pretty much no way to mount a seat in a manner that is actually stout enough to support seat belts (lap and shoulder belts) without significant restructuring of the floor. You can only go so far. I made a frame for mine and bolted it to steel, but I don't have illusions that it would meet any crash safety ratings. The steel is just thin sheet metal that is designed to bolt plywood to.
Brian
Quote from: Tikvah on January 04, 2015, 05:14:27 PM
I picked up a new-to-me navigator seat (and driver seat) for my MCI 102a3
It has a base with four holes (I guess about 10" apart. It has seat belt mounts on the base.
How do I mount this to my floor? I want it to be strong enough to at least give the impression that it's secure.
Should I drill all the way into the tire well below the seat? Is there anything there to hit? Are simple lag bolts strong enough to hold if they're into both my 1/2" plywood and the factory 3/4" plywood?
Best idea I've heard is a 30" sheet of 1/2" iron with threaded holes.... but I don't see myself doing that. My idea is to go into the wheel well and bolt to some steel.
Thanks,
Dave
Dave, it doesn't do much to help you but I had to build a platform for my "navigator's" seat (also known as "The Management Seat") so I located where I wanted it to go, located a 1 x 2" steel tube rail under that area and welded in plates. There's "wiggle room" in the 10" square measurement (I haven't drilled and located the seat yet).
I wouldn't put lag bolts into plywood. I'd do machine screws (hi-grade) with at lease a 2" -- and I'd prefer larger -- diameter thick washer under the floor. What would be better would be a 12 x 12" plate -- it could be pretty thin -- under the floor. Best would be something welded to steel structure under there.
(Edit -- Yeah, I agree with Brian, too. The lever loads with seatbelt would be really high in a "OH GOOD GRIEF!!!" situation.)
Any thoughts on drilling all the way down into the wheel well?
Dave we hinged ours and then attached the seat belts securely, , so if you use the seat belt the seat wont tip, but we have it madde to tip for a specific reason, things behind it..........
I need a good drivers seat but don't want to spend a fortune. Anyone have any suggestions?
Vern you missed a few at Arcadia, I think Dave may have bought some of them, but there were others, just don't remember who had them,
You can use lag bolts but to be safe, use an additional 1/4" or larger braided steel cable from your seat down thru the floor and looped around a steel framing member.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Check to see how the drivers seat is mounted the seat belt is the main item the seat won't go anywhere with 4 bolts, I believe a 3/8 grade 8 bolt has a shear of 10,000 lbs x 4 in a single shear plane like a plate mounted on a floor
I wouldn't have had room to take one from there anyway :)
I have mounted many by going thru the wheel well and use large washers under the nuts, very secure and works well.>>>Dan ( Use nilock nuts and spray an undercoating protectant on the nuts to keep from rusting, )
I have a new FlexSteel drivers seat 6 way power with the base in grey leather not ultra leather with seat belt through the back I am going to list in the spare tire section for 350 bucks if I can figure the photo posting thing out
clifford, if you post it on FB, i can move it over here...
as far as mounting a seat goes, using large washers is a good idea beneath the floor, i would not want to use wood/lag screws. better would be a 12/14 guage steel plate templated to the seat mounting bolt pattern under the floor board, especially the one your wife might be navigating from....
unless your unhappy with her.. then i'd go with the lag screws ... ;D
Quote from: luvrbus on January 05, 2015, 08:18:54 AM
I have a new FlexSteel drivers seat 6 way power with the base in grey leather not ultra leather with seat belt through the back I am going to list in the spare tire section for 350 bucks if I can figure the photo posting thing out
Thanks Donald I will do that today she wants it out of the house lol and has for a while
Dave not sure if your bus is like mine but there is the hvac grill at the stairs that I took off to mount my co-pilot seat .I used a 3/16" plate about 12" sq and bolted to the org seat rail and 2 other bolts through the floor and put in large 3x3" plates that I can get at through the hvac vent at the steps.
dave
hi Dave, I left rails in, to hold seats, sofa, tv & refrigerator, will then cover over and carpet, are the rails or the rail mounts still there to attach to? two bolts to rails and two lags thru plywood would hold, tom, lvmci...
Quote from: luvrbus on January 05, 2015, 08:52:22 AM
Thanks Donald I will do that today she wants it out of the house lol and has for a while
Clifford's for sale seat..
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10848861_1541195276136797_4067541445496820520_o.jpg)
Thanks I going to clean and treat with conditioner and wrap it back up lol she says it leaves the house today!!!
I would love to have it, but I am guessing shipping would be quite expensive.
It is a heavy sucker and would take a 4ft x 32in x27in wide crate to ship it in
Quote from: mung on January 05, 2015, 10:15:35 AM
I would love to have it, but I am guessing shipping would be quite expensive.
Check with Uship, that is what I used for my Allison and power steering stuff and two bus windows. It was $350 for the Allison 740 from Florida to Washington state. You might be surprised. You place a bid for shipping, works backwards of eBay. The bids will come in under the previous bid until you feel like accepting one. I was very happy with the result.
Dave, just to give you an idea of what's under there and the depth(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F05%2Fdba7d6035df8614bef8a7ac0091f48f4.jpg&hash=8c501c36f6634ece7de477e4ae5ad7618a549529)(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F05%2F01eb90d8bf580146eb2393775672f8cf.jpg&hash=d8c3da76b426bdc9544dce33ac5ea721d79c46d8)
1st shot is looking forward, 2nd aft
Jim,
Those pictures are extremely helpful! Thank you.
Does the fiberglass fender-well contact the plywood floor? Is there a gap?
There is about a 2 inch gap from the floor to fenderwell. You should also have the thin metal protection plate on top of the fiberglass wheelwell.
If you have air beams, they are under the floor just inboard of the wheel wells, and you don't want to drill a hole in one by mistake...
brian
I don't think the 102a3 has air beams ?????
I don't think it does either, but 1986 was early for rolling lobe springs. I don't know when the change was.
Oops, no idea why I thought your bus was 1986, it says 1989 right there in the post. Oh well, back to sleep for me...
Brian
Quote from: bevans6 on January 06, 2015, 11:09:01 AM
Oops, no idea why I thought your bus was 1986, it says 1989 right there in the post. Oh well, back to sleep for me...
Brian
probably from looking at my sig.
WOW after looking at the pics. it sure is different then my 1990 102c3 ?? I can get to the front of my seat base from the hvac grill at the stairs . Only 1 year apart and I wouldn't of thought between your 1989 102a3 and mine there would be such a difference
dave
The pics are of an "86". His may be like your c3.
sorry .. but even from 1986 - 1990 there is a big difference
dave
Mine is a lot like the pics. I can get in about 6" from the stairs. I can reach a little through the heat duct.
I have been thinking about how I am going to mount my navigator seat as well. I am thinking about making a hole from the front, then taking some steel 3/8" thick flat stock and weld a nut on it, slide it back to where the seat bolt hole will be and sandwich the floor. Effectively it will give you a way to hold the nut and also spread out the load over a larger area. I am on the hunt for seats as well.
Here is a picture of where I am talking about making the hole. Not sure if yours is the same. (https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F06%2Fe18cc1bb81a10db1c331e43020e4af7a.jpg&hash=3accd95d99199122987fb5d841c8f9b83c616cb0)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F06%2F5031593ee948a5952ac6135b696d7a55.jpg&hash=26d44cf82099dd7bd9b3cc234a3ee784c02fd1a7)
Looks like I also will be on the search for a pair of seats. That way I can weld in some mounting plates before the floor goes down.
Yea I wish I had gone ahead and welded plates in before the floor went down, but then I would have had to get the seats first.
I've got time to shop, plus i will be making a trip to north Indiana in March. I'll just have to find my way up to Elkhart will i'm there.
Dave,
Our passenger seat and bunks all have bolts that go through holes that were drilled all the way through the floor. To reinforce the seat/bunks we cut a piece of 1/4" steel and drilled out holes to match the top plate. Then when we dropped the bolts through the floor (you can see the bolts come through the wheel well) and slipped the 1/4" plate over the bolts from underneath and nutted them on.
It makes a "sandwich" so to speak and in all cases the sandwich straddles at least one piece of steel frame from the bus.
I hope that makes sense?
-Sean
Yea I am thinking a trip to Elkhart as well. My buddy wants me to go with him transport some cars from Chicago area, hopefully we could make it over to Elkhart then.
Dave,
Mounting the copilot seat was something that we put a lot of thought into. We wanted a sliding floor, and we wanted something solid to mount the seat to. We ended up welding a huge setup together. It probably weighed at least 100lbs. We bolted it to the original seat rails that we left in. The concern was that the chair becomes the copilot launcher in a wreck.
The captains chair is mounted to the original frame.
As Clifford can attest, we kind of tended to overthink the conversion. ;D
As long as you have a big red button to launch the co-pilot you are golden!
Quote from: mung on January 22, 2015, 07:30:19 PM
As long as you have a big red button to launch the co-pilot you are golden!
Vern, where do I get the big red button? I need one of those!
Modify one of the Staples buttons so that when you launch her it says "that was easy"
Quote from: mung on January 23, 2015, 05:14:30 AM
Modify one of the Staples buttons so that when you launch her it says "that was easy"
I don't want a big red button, I want a copilot who will get the joke when I talk about an ejection seat!
Is there a Just for James Bond Fans dating site yet? I mean there is every other one out there.
Mung,
Find a junkyard that has a late model Toyota Sienna. The second row seats are awesome. Comfortable, well built, integral seat belt. I have four in my 4104. They all have recliner style leg rests that fold out, adjustable arm rests, recline, and the look great. My Nav seat is mounted right at the edge of the stairway. Nav just uses the leg rest when moving. Folds into the seat, out of the way when parked. Photos on my blog. http://this-old-bus.blogspot.com/ (http://this-old-bus.blogspot.com/)
(Dec. 21st, 2013)
I already have my Nav seat ready to go, I just need to replace the D window behind the door before I mount it.