drivers seat

I'm not sure of the manufacturer of the chair but I got it from and office building renovation that I did so its not just your typical cheap office chair I'm sure it was $400-500. Parts on the chair where
thick enough to weld to with no problems. I have not water tested it yet but its pretty solid and an added feature to using the office chair is that it also acts as a shock absorber so it should soak up some of the chop! Well at least for the driver :kicking:

The biggest problem is stopping the swivel part, if your familiar with office chairs you will notice they always turn. The seat already turns but it locks and I think you need that for how quick the jet boat maneuvers. If anyone is looking for more info on this mod let me know but I will warn you now it will be a long post!
Also take a look at bass shops I noticed at Gander Mt. they have pedestals for bass boats, not sure if they have hydraulics but if they do,they might be able to modified. I didn't look at them too closely I guess I just wanted the office chair challenge.

I'll try to be detailed but brief, let see how I do!

The chair I used was high quality and was built real well.
First remove the clip that holds the hydraulic piston to the base. Flip the chair upside down and you will find it.
Remove the seat from the hydraulics, once you do that you can see what has to be kept to keep the hydraulics functional. I cut away as much of the old bracket that I could and then welded angle on it to fasten to the bottom of the drivers seat base.
For the other end I cut the housing off the chair base just above the the part of the base that the wheels are fastened to. I measured the overall length of the housing be for I cut it, on the office chair there is more housing above the wheels then below this will be the opposite when you are done.
On the bottom of the base where you remove the clip you will need to cut off the end of the housing and save it to be reinstalled on the new housing. Mine was actually a big washer that was punched into the bottom of the housing.
With the lenght you got before you started cutting, cut a peice of pipe that will fit over the housing
my housing had a plastic insert in it that I had to remove first before welding the pipe to the housing.
Now the tricky part is that most office chairs swivel this must be stopped because our seats already swivel but they lock which is a must for the quick maneuvers these boats make. I took some square stock 1/4 X 1/4 and cut off a piece 2" long and welded it to the upper part of the chair to the chrome shaft that slides inside the housing. I welded it about a 1/2" from the end, Just to recap now you have the upper part of the chair that you welded the angle to that will fasten to your seat base that has a chrome shaft with you "key way" welded to it and then the hydraulic shaft that sticks out of that.
Now you must cut a key way into the housing you made to allow for the seat to go up and down but not spin
keep this cut straight and tight so the shaft slides nice but with very little slop from side to side. A little slop down there is a lot of slop at the seat. If you had a plastic insert this must also be grooved.
With this all done now you need to make a 8" x 8" base plate I used 2 pieces of 4" X 8" x 5/16 steel and welded them together and drill a 3/8" hole on each corner about 1" in both ways. Now drill a hole in the center the size of the housing, you will have to make a notch after you drill the hole for the key way. (make sure you line all the key ways up I made mine so they all face to the bow. Now weld the housing to the base you just made so it sticks above the base about a 1/2" remember to remove that insert before welding. Slide the pieces all together to check fit, if it all works well (mine took some grinding and sanding to operate smooth) now weld the end on the bottom of the housing which is below you base plate and is actually the pipe extension you welded earlier. This is the end cap with the hole that will receive the hydraulic shaft and clip.
You will need to grease all to parts ones it all works well together. Next you have to drill a hole in the seat base in the boat to stick the housing down thru, I drilled mine back off center to get more leg room between the seat and the steering wheel. If you do this you will need 2 more bolts that use to plug the exposed stock holes in the boat base. Square it up and mark the holes in the base so you can drill the boat base, these holes need to be tapped so don't drill the same size as the bolts.
I reused the stock bolts and they are metric and the whole base in the boat has aluminum in it so you will be able to tap the holes.
Now you need to mount the seat base to the angle. Take the bolt out of the seat base that prevents the seat from sliding back to far and slide the seat off the base. I had to drill a 2" hole in the center of the lower seat base to gain access to the hydraulics relief valve that operates the hydraulics, this may vary depending on the chair you use. You also need to fab a lever that will activate the valve It requires some thought and trial and error. Bolt the angle to the base and slide the seat back on and reinsert the retainer bolt. I'm sure I missed some things but once you start it will come together, I also painted all the metal light gray to match the alum. I'm sure you will have questions feel free to ask.

Tedd

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