Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:11:51 -0800
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Installing Volvo Front Seats
In-Reply-To: <d7ab470e1002221302v9ba120fh9ea6a16f60d78311@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
I installed seats from a '93 Eurovan in my '87 Westy. Seat height increased by about 1" and I found that acceptable. Don't know if there are heated versions out there, what year vans you might find them in or how much trouble they would be to convert but the EV ones have armrests and are much more comfortable than even the low-mileage, low-wear original Westy seats in my van. If you have a non-Westy Vanagon you might not notice any height difference in the EV seats. Westy seat bottoms are made thinner for use on the swivels, which eat up some of the vertical room between the seat pedestals and the ceiling. Vans without the swivels don't have that problem.
The EV seats required fairly simple surgery to the seat to remove the "turned down" edges of the rails in order for the rails to fit the Vanagon seat tracks.
Also, there is at least one thread on thesamba.com about installing heating elements in Vanagon seats, so this may be a suitable alternative to fitting seats from a different vehicle if the only thing you want is heat, and not the additional improvement in comfort and fit as well.
Stephen
--- On Mon, 2/22/10, Annie <lsandrsn@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
From: Annie <lsandrsn@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Fwd: Installing Volvo Front Seats
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Monday, February 22, 2010, 4:02 PM
Darn! I have to remember to hit 'reply all' to this group! LOL here's the
message I was trying to send to everyone, not just to Scott . . .
~Annie
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Annie <lsandrsn@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: Installing Volvo Front Seats
To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
I'm looking for a good seat mod too . . . but for me, I think a seat like
you mention would be too high for me to be truly comfortable. I'm about a
foot shorter than you, Scott - 4' 11" - so that's probably not good for a
Volvo seat. What I really liked were the seats in my Subaru XT that I had
15-ish years ago. Those were comfortable and had controls to adjust all
kinds of things from seat height at the the thigh to the angle of back and
rear of the seat. I kinda like the seat in our '86 Jetta as it does adjust
somewhat like that but it's not real comfortable and I don't think it would
be all too great in the Vanagon.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a seat to fit a short person like me
and yet not make it difficult to reach the pedals adequately? My van is an
automatic so I don't have to worry about the clutch. I do have power
steering but no cruise control.
TIA
~Annie Anderson
{ writer <http://asamediagroup.com/copy.hmtl> *
designer<http://asamediagroup.com/design.html>*
blogger <http://annieandersonblog.com> }
On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 12:41 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> fwiw,
> I have installed a Volvo 740 leather seat in the driver's position of a
> vanagon. ( I'd even sell that setup I think, for the driver's side )
> What I found is that ...
> like many seats, thye are 'taller' on the bottom, compared to Vanagon
> seats.
> Vanagon seats are unusally close to the floor, compared to many cars.
> I got this seat fabricated onto vanagon seat tracks, but it was not easy.
>
> Took me a LOT of work to reduce the 'bottom height' of the volvo 740 seat
> enough. Lots of cutting and welding.
> What I ended up with is acceptable.
> When Im sitting in the seat, my eyeballs are about 1 1/2 inches higher
> than
> would be normal, and I sorta like that.
> I'm 5 foot 11 1/2 inches tall, with slender medium build.....
> clearance from top of thighs is adequate, but not overly generous - what
> was
> with a manual steering , steering whee - with PS would be h better.
> There was no way the seat would ever fit on top of a seat swivel.
> I never want one of those for the driver's seat anyway - don't like the
> sligtly loose feeling, or the weight - seat swivel is very unneeded on
> driver's side in my opinion - unless you want to seat two kids facing each
> other in front, with the small table between them, which is what Westfahlia
> had in mind, pretty sure.
>
> I had heated Audi leather seats in a Vanagon once. Got all the switches and
> wiring harness for it right out of the donor Audi car.
> They're 'kinda cool' ....
> but I don't think I would spend hours engineering them in again, ....not
> for
> practical reasons, for 'bling' reasons yes ...
> way cool. I'd invest more energy into making the cabin heating system
> better, for really cold temperature operation.
>
> I almost felt heated seats are distracting. At first I was waiting and
> waiting for the heat to be there....
> and sorta forget they were on.........then after a while it was 'why does
> my
> butt feel funny?" ....
> 'oh right - my seat heater is on.'
> And maybe I didn't like wires with electricity going through them so close
> to my body,
> as one might feel about an electric blanket on your bed at home.
>
> and for sure ......re volvo 740 seats ( I'm so burnt out on Volvo 240's
> having work on a million of those tanks I don't even like sitting in one
> anymore ....) but ....a Volvo 740 leather seat, is about FIVE TIMES as much
> seat as a Vanagon is..
> I noticed immediately when I got my first vanagon ( my 'good car' at the
> time was a mercedes benz ) ....that the seats are undersized a little -
> less
> under-thigh support than would be normal. 'Almost' a bit mushy too.
>
> Scott
> www.turbovans.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "BenT Syncro" <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 7:16 PM
> Subject: Re: Installing Volvo Front Seats
>
>
> On Feb 21, 2010, at 6:39 PM, C B <cunegonde.van.westfalia@GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I have found the needed seat slider tracks, so it's time to install
>>> the
>>> new-to-Cunegonde Volvo 240 manual adjust seats - with bun warmers.
>>> Anyone have some suggestions on best practices for mounting the
>>> salvaged
>>> sliders onto the Volvo seat supports, and any potential problems
>>> with my
>>> passenger side swivel base? I assume the driver's seat won't swivel,
>>> because
>>> the much larger Volvo seat interferes with the kitchen cabinet and
>>> steering
>>> wheel.
>>> Also, can I re-use the Volvo bun warmer switches, and suggestions on
>>> how to
>>> wire? Perhaps with a relay and direct wire to aux battery?
>>> --
>>> Bretts
>>>
>>
>>
>> I am not familiar with the Volvo tracks but if you have swivels on
>> both sides, that's the best place to install your sliders. The
>> installation would be reversible then should you wish to at a later
>> date.
>>
>> The seat warmers are tricky if you retain the seat swivels. You will
>> need to have enough slack in the wires so they don't break when
>> swivelling the seat. You might consider buying a heated seat switch
>> designed for the Vanagon to simplify installation. IIRC, they are
>> still available new from VW or used from a couple of vendors in Europe
>> who sell on TheSamba and Ebay.
>>
>>
>> BenT
>> Sent from my mobile device
>>
>
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