Replacing Driver's Chair - Anyone ever done it?

[Alfred622]

The swivel disks of the driver's chair in our SightSeer have gotten bent and it makes it difficult to swivel the chair around. It looks like the whole chair assembly is bolted to the chassis with four bolts. Might not be too difficult to replace the whole assembly - but I have no idea of the torque on the bolts holding the chair assembly.

Also, the chair assembly is not in the Winnebago parts catalog - as it is sourced from another vendor. I was thinking of trying the factory surplus parts depot outside of Forest City for a suitable chair. But.. I'm wondering... is this really a "do it yourself" job or are there gotcha's hiding under the carpet?

[Martind4]

We haven't replaced ours, but we did take both driver and passenger seats out to replace flooring. Our coach has some corrosion on the underside and the bolts didn't come loose easily. I had to use some heat from a propane torch and a pneumatic impact wrench to get them off. I replaced them with grade 8 bolts, larger washers on the underside with lockwashers. Tightened them as much as the 1/2" impact wrench would go. There's no surprises under the carpet, just remember to unplug the 12V power to the seat. Without the corrosion problem, it would be about a 10 minute job, have the DW on top to keep bolts from turning and you working the underside. Maybe you can convince her to work the underside?

[wasoldcouple]

These guys have the best price on seats and sell the bases too. eBay My World - discountvantruck grade 8 is probably overkill, 5 should be plenty, if you cannot hold the inside bolt, use vice gripes or a c clamp on the out side or inside,which ever is easier to get too.

[Martind4]

I agree that Grade 8 bolts were overkill. Our local farm supply store didn't charge too much of a premium for them and I wanted to be certain the seat didn't come loose from the mounting in case of an accident. Mostly for piece of mind.

[1ciderdog]

I upgraded chairs in a 1991 Safari I owned. The new seats (flex steel brand?) had a different bolt pattern so I needed to drill holes and add additional metal bars under the chassis to make sure the seat would not come loose in case of an accident. Also the new chairs were higher & wider than the original chairs - that did not cause a problem in that RV but could be a problem in other RVs. The bolt removal was straight forward as described above - the seats were a little awkward to get through the door, it took two people. You'll want to make sure the seat is latched in the travel position when you bolt it down otherwise it might latch with the seat facing the driver or other position when latched.

[Chief Queen]

I have just replaced both the drivers and passenger chairs along with the couch in our 1998 Chieftain. I purchased them from Camping World and they installed them. Very happy with all three items. Expensive though!!!