Scheel-Mann Seats Installed

[Steve_382]

Originally Posted by Steve Hunt

Got home from Overland Expo East yesterday. Beyond pictures I saw and sat in the Scheel-Mann Vario for the first time. This Big Rig had them and I sat in them for 5-10 minutes as well as a vendor had a pair of Varios in his booth. Fit and Finish was what you would expect for the price...Very nice!
To your question, I can understand wanting the electric adjustment as it is easy/quick but the Vario was fully adjustable, just manually, with an array of knobs. I think you could make the argument that the manual adjustments make very minor adjustments possible that electric doesn't offer. I seized the opportunity and played with them all. I'm sure you can get the adjustment you want just manually. I sure want a pair as well!!

Thanks. I sat in a couple at the show also. But, my electric adjustable seat also goes up and down and the front and rear can go up or down. With me being 6' 1" and the wife at 5' 2" the ability to raise and lower the entire seat makes a difference. I think it might be possible to mount the SM seat on my base, but would prefer to know for sure before spending $4,000 for a pair of seats.

[Twoxentrix]

Originally Posted by Steve_382

Thanks. I sat in a couple at the show also. But, my electric adjustable seat also goes up and down and the front and rear can go up or down. With me being 6' 1" and the wife at 5' 2" the ability to raise and lower the entire seat makes a difference. I think it might be possible to mount the SM seat on my base, but would prefer to know for sure before spending $4,000 for a pair of seats.

Subscribed. I agree with the up/down feature being useful & relevant Steve (for our use). Will tag along in hopes this discussion reveals a simple & viable fitment solution to the OEM electric base.

[Steve_382]

Originally Posted by Steve_382

Thinking about installing Scheel Man seats in our van. It's a 2008 E-350 with a Sportsmobile swivel on the passenger side, so no problem there. But, on the driver side it has an electric base that moves up, down, back and forward, etc. I would really like to keep the electric base. Does anyone have a way to do that? I talked with Toby at Scheel Man USA and he didn't really have a good answer. Thanks.

Just thought I would bump this to see if anyone had heard of a way to install Scheel Man seats on the electric adjustable seat base. Thanks.

[mgmetalworks]

Adapting the Scheel-Mann to any base is simply making sure you have a flat surface with the correct bolt pattern for the slides to mount to. The challenge is making sure you have the seat belt latch in the right spot relative to the occupant and having the whole installation look like it's supposed to be there.

The Scheel-Mann adapts to the Eseries manual base and most common swivels with a simple adapter converting the Ford mount bolt pattern to the S-M bolt pattern. Then there is a "seat belt pre-tensioner anchor" that attaches to the seat to position the Eseries seat belt latch/pre-tensioner in the correct spot. Then there is a cover that conceals the ugly pre-tensioner. The end result is a seat that looks and feels great in the van.

Now take a look at the power seat base. Under the plastic shrouds, that are part of the stock Eseries seat and in no way fit the shape of the S-M seat, the electro-mechanical apparatus that moves the seat up-down-forward-back looks like a pile of scaffolding fell into a pile of broken up battle bots and then got tangled up with a mile of extension cord. I'm exaggerating my point a tiny bit but what do you do about covering the mess that is no longer covered up by nifty factory plastic shrouds? And how do you protect your clothes or fingers from snagging all the raw edges and scissor-like linkages? In order for S-M to provide an off-the-shelf solution, there would have to be all new "shrouds" that look like they fit the seat, move up-down-forward-back without any interferences and come neatly prepared in a kit for people to install themselves. That takes some time and the will and the $ to develop but not enough of any of those exist right now.

Consider this...I started working with Toby at Scheel-Mann in early 2017. I have designed a number of the adapters for the S-M seats and still produce several of them for S-M today. In all that time (and literally dozens of E-series seats sold), I've only had three serious inquiries about adapting the power base. If there were dozens of inquires and multiple lost sales, maybe it would be worth the effort to design something. The power bases are somewhat rare though. I don't see a scenario where there will be a solution made for these that will be available for purchase through S-M. I think those who want to use a power base are going to have to come up with their own custom one-off solution.

I hate to be a party pooper but that's the reality. There is far more incentive to keep up with Sprinters and other newer vehicle models (hundreds of seats being sold into those markets)

[Twoxentrix]

Well mgmetalworks I appreciate your candor, even though you just dissolved all my hopes - they come so highly recommend.
Guessing I’ll be on the sidelines for now, especially since I do love my OEM seats. For some reason they have been the only seats I can actually sit in for up to 10hrs without ever developing any back, leg, or seat pain... that’s not the case in any other vehicle I’ve owned the last 20 years, so I approached this already a little skeptical in making any changes.

[Steve_382]

I don't know. It might not be that bad. Just looking under the seat, it appears like the seat base just bolts into the operator with four bolts. The front ones look easy to get to, the rear not so much because it's hard to get between the cabinet and the seat. Just not sure I want to tackle it. We are kind of looking for a new vehicle anyhow, but thought we might try to replace the seats to allow us to wait until all the van builders, etc. get caught up on orders. The 18 month wait for a new vehicle won't last forever (I think).

[Steve_382]

Originally Posted by Twoxentrix

Well mgmetalworks I appreciate your candor, even though you just dissolved all my hopes - they come so highly recommend.
Guessing I’ll be on the sidelines for now, especially since I do love my OEM seats. For some reason they have been the only seats I can actually sit in for up to 10hrs without ever developing any back, leg, or seat pain... that’s not the case in any other vehicle I’ve owned the last 20 years, so I approached this already a little skeptical in making any changes.

I kind of agree with you on the comfort at least with the driver's seat. I feel better after 4 hours of driving the van than I do after 4 hours in our 2019 BMW X5. The X5 seats adjust in hundreds of ways, have massage. cooling, and heat and I still can't get comfortable for a long drive.

[mgmetalworks]

Originally Posted by Twoxentrix

Well mgmetalworks I appreciate your candor, even though you just dissolved all my hopes -

I just gotta be real.

Someone out there can figure this out. It is not an unsolvable problem.

The pre-tensioner anchor and cover already exist and attach to the seat. The adapter from seat to seat base and all the shrouding is what you'd need to focus on.

[mk216v]

"The electro-mechanical apparatus that moves the seat up-down-forward-back looks like a pile of scaffolding fell into a pile of broken up battle bots and then got tangled up with a mile of extension cord."

[JWA]

Originally Posted by mk216v

"The electro-mechanical apparatus that moves the seat up-down-forward-back looks like a pile of scaffolding fell into a pile of broken up battle bots and then got tangled up with a mile of extension cord."

Comical and yet so, so accurate at the same time yeah?