Replace stock swivel seats with aftermarket swivel
Hey FTUSA!
tl;dr: Is there a way to replace the stock swivels for aftermarket without buying completely new seats?
I think I got ahead of myself on a new project. I got a Ford Transit 2022 and we sprang for the 4-way manual swivel seats, but it turns out Ford's swivels are awful (can't swivel without opening the door, doesn't lock at 45 and doesn't lock firmly at 90).
After some hasty research, I picked up the Amazing Auto swivels from sprinterswivel.com thinking that I could swap Ford's swivels for AA's. Upon arrival, I've now realized that Ford welds their swivels into their seats and I'm unlikely to swap one for another. I've already paid the expensive shipping to get the swivels here, and I'd much prefer to use them rather than return them, but I'm not sure what options I have.
Thanks!
tl;dr: Is there a way to replace the stock swivels for aftermarket without buying completely new seats?
I think I got ahead of myself on a new project. I got a Ford Transit 2022 and we sprang for the 4-way manual swivel seats, but it turns out Ford's swivels are awful (can't swivel without opening the door, doesn't lock at 45 and doesn't lock firmly at 90).
After some hasty research, I picked up the Amazing Auto swivels from sprinterswivel.com thinking that I could swap Ford's swivels for AA's. Upon arrival, I've now realized that Ford welds their swivels into their seats and I'm unlikely to swap one for another. I've already paid the expensive shipping to get the swivels here, and I'd much prefer to use them rather than return them, but I'm not sure what options I have.
- Is there a way to safely remove and replace the stock Ford swivel?
- If not, how likely is it that I can trade my swivel seats for non-swivel somewhere? I haven't asked Ford about my options yet, but I presume they won't do this for free.
- Any other ideas?
Thanks!
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Heads up that the Amazing Auto swivels no longer lock at 45 or 90 degrees. The mechanism has enough stiffness/friction that it hasn't so far been a problem for us though (though we don't have experience full-timing with them yet).
I haven't heard of anyone removing the factory swivel from the seat- you may try taking it to an auto custom shop metal fab and get their advice to do it cleanly and without damaging the strength of the remaining metal. With the swivels welded on, I can't imagine there's a method that will be smiled on by Ford (and possibly insurance in the event of a crash) unfortunately. Apart from that, there may be complications with eventual seat wiring harness routing, but not sure.
There's a chance you may find someone here or possibly an upfitter or repair shop that would buy them, maybe a junkyard. When we were eyeing a Transit for sale with factory swivels, I called to the regional dealers to see if a swap or a buy back was something they'd help with, and unfortunately they weren't interested. And replacement seats (either from Ford or aftermarket) are expensive. We eventually abandoned that.
If you're tall enough, you might be able to get away with just running with both swivels- I think the seat base pedestal is the same as with other seats, so there likely wouldn't be an issue with installation (wiring harness may complicate things though). One nice benefit of the factory ones is since the forward/back adjustment mechanism doesn't swivel with you, you can back the swiveled seat a bit farther into the dash than with aftermarkets.
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