Installing a Swivel Unit on a Van Passenger Seat

  Methuselah in Ohio Camping

My Faithful Readers may remember this photo from July of 2014.  I am modifying  my cargo van for solo camping, with an eye to modular interior units so it can easily be switched back to a basic cargo van at need.   I  want an uncluttered interior that is comfortable inside when the weather is uncomfortable outside.  Last summer I realized that the passenger seat wasn’t really useable as a place to sit when camped.  It is awkward to get in and out of it from the inside of the van.  Commercial van campers have driver & passenger seats that swivel, so I started looking for a swivel unit for my van on the Inter-Webs.   It took me awhile to find any retail vendors and longer yet to find any with good product  reviews.  I got my swivel unit from Shop4Seats.  It was even on sale.
The swivel unit didn’t come with any instructions but it didn’t really need any instructions.  The OEM seats in my van are attached to a steel mounting bracket with 4 bolts.  The seat bolts are permanently mounted to the seat itself.  Warning: the seat mounting hardware is metric. 

Passenger Seat Fittings 

This is the bottom of the passenger seat.  The 4 mounting bolts are easy to reach when the seat is attached.  It takes a 14mm deep wall socket or wrench.  I used a deep wall socket.   I’ve heard that Chevy passenger vans have an electrical connection to the passenger seat that is part of the passenger air bag system.   My cargo van has no such connection to the seat.  A key operated switch in the dashboard turns the passenger airbag function on or off.   (The van half of the wiring does lurk beneath the floor mat.)

 Seat Side of the Swivel Unit

This is the seat side of the swivel unit.  The release lever is under the front of the seat once it’s installed.  The 4 large holes are for the 4 seat bolts.  The unit consists of 2 heavy metal plates with a  coupling permanently holding them together.  The unit is quite heavy, much heavier than the set itself.

 OEM Seat Mounting Bracket

This is the OEM seat mounting bracket.  There are 2 welded in place  bolt studs on the bottom plate of the swivel unit.  They go into the left side OEM bolt holes.  There are also 2 removable bolts.  They go through the bottom plate and into the right side OEM bolt holes.  If things don’t want to quite line up & play nice, loosen the front 2 Seat Mounting Bracket nuts & tweak  the front corners of the mounting bracket in or out as needed.   (The OEM seat mounting bracket uses 18mm nuts.)  Now tighten the seat mounting brackets nuts back down if they were loosened and then tighten the swivel unit nuts. 

                        Swivel Unit Bolted to the OEM Seat Bracket
Here’s the swivel unit attached to the OEM seat bracket.   Pick the seat up, center the seat bolts over the holes in the top plate of the swivel unit, drop the seat into place and bolt it down with the OEM bolts.  Swiveling  the seat some makes access to the seat bolt nuts easier.  I used a wrench rather than a socket for this step.  Voila!  The swivel unit is now installed. 

 Seat Bolted In  & Swiveled to the Rear

Here’s what it looks like with the seat swiveled to the rear.  The swivel unit positions the seat about 1 inch to the left & 1.5 inches higher than the OEM seat position.   To swivel the seat first slide it almost all the way  forward and then pull up on the swivel bar & rotate the seat towards the driver’s seat.  Yes the clearances are very very tight. This is easiest to turn the seat with the passenger door open but it can be done with the door closed.  It can’t be done while sitting in the passenger seat, there simply isn’t enough space.  Its a van folks, not a class A motor home.

 Stock Length Swivel Release Lever

Some of the reviews of this swivel unit didn’t like the length of the swivel release.  Neither did I.  My passenger seat is normally slid all the way back.  This means the swivel lever  sticks out in front of the seat were it awaits the unwary skirt.  (Yes folks, I  sometimes have passengers & they are often 18th century attired women wearing long skirts.)  So I shortened it by about  3.5 inches. 

Shortened Release Lever

Now the lever is only a half  inch past the seat position bar when the seat is all the way to the rear.  No more long skirt trap!  And yes, the short release is as easy to move as the long release was.