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How-to: Swivel seat adapter installation

39881 Views 65 Replies 33 Participants Last post by  MattyR
My swivel bases from Travois arrived Friday (thanks for the quick shipping Travois!). I tackled the installation this afternoon. The overall process is fairly easy and straightforward. The trickiest thing was giving the wiring harness enough slack. Here's an overview of parts, tools and steps I used.

Parts:
CBTO 21 D2 - passenger ($300)
CBTO 21G2 - driver ($300)
Plastic wire sheath (optional)
Zip ties


Tools:
Socket wrench
10mm socket
E-12 (External Torx)
17mm socket
17mm combination wrench
Tiny slotted screwdriver (used to release factory wire harness zip ties and harness socket clips)
10mm allen key
Knife

Steps:
1. Disconnect battery. 10mm socket to remove battery bracket and negative terminal (see your Metris manual for specifics)
2. Disconnect seat wiring harness (Unclip the yellow and white connectors.) Release zip ties securing harness to seat frame.
3. Remove four external Torx E12 seat rail bolts. Remove seat.
4. Extend wiring harness as far as possible. (I removed the wire ties securing the harness to the chassis under the driver's seat)
5. Feed harness through the center hole in the swivel base. (I added plastic coil wire wrap for good measure)
6. Fasten the swivel adapter to the platform with the allen bolts (10mm allen key)
7. Fasten seat to the swivel base with 17mm bolts and locking nuts. (spin top plate ~45º from lower to access holes)
8. Reconnect seat wiring harness (I repositioned the white connectors with zip ties for additional wiring harness slack)
9. Reconnect battery.

Observations
The adapters seem well made. The seats feel stable and secure, especially when locked in the forward position. The additional stack height of the adapters is noticeable but not bad. Be careful with the wiring harness and connectors. There is not enough slack to start with. You need to create additional slack by disconnecting wire ties. Travois shipped quickly. I had them about one week after placing my order. Spinning the seats around to face backward really opens things up in the van. This modification is going to be great for camping!

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Just installed my swivel seat. After reading the other post I decided I was not going to get the one branded “OKG” being sold by Travois. On their website you can find the swivel by Scopema, but it shows as sold out, but they do have the one made by OKG in stock. After going on EBay I found the Scopema swivel being sold by Travios.... go figure. Short story long; the swivel went in easy, had to cut 2 of the pointy guides off, and used washers to raise the tracks so that the “extra bit” did not hit the swivel. Drove back to Sacramento from Walnut Creek with the new swivel installed, and the seat did not shake or rattle at all. I was very impressed.

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Just installed my swivel seat. After reading the other post I decided I was not going to get the one branded “OKG” being sold by Travois. On their website you can find the swivel by Scopema, but it shows as sold out, but they do have the one made by OKG in stock. After going on EBay I found the Scopema swivel being sold by Travios.... go figure. Short story long; the swivel went in easy, had to cut 2 of the pointy guides off, and used washers to raise the tracks so that the “extra bit” did not hit the swivel. Drove back to Sacramento from Walnut Creek with the new swivel installed, and the seat did not shake or rattle at all. I was very impressed.
Very nice @GBD1968
Do you have a build thread?
I'm seeing some solar panels on top and some " strange " vertical black bars behind the driver.
Very nice @GBD1968
Do you have a build thread?
I'm seeing some solar panels on top and some " strange " vertical black bars behind the driver.
No, I really don’t have a thread started for the build. I pretty much live in my van in the Bay Area (by choice). The 2 vertical bars you see behind the driver seat are 2 belts for work :). I thought about putting some pics up in the van build section, but the build is just not that fancy. I do have 360 watts of solar on the roof and 3 Battle Born 100ah batteries inside. Enough power to pretty much do whatever I need and then some. I am truly amazed at just how comfortable it really is.
Cool van and is it a camper type van?
I just got a passenger side swivel from Travois and installed it in a 2018 passenger van. I had the same experience with the "extra bit" which was satisfactorily fixed with washers. In addition, there was a spike in the bottom of each seat rail that apparently allows for easy alignment of the seat rails on the seat base. There is a corresponding alignment hole in the swivels, but the spike is longer than the distance between the two plates of the swivel, so I had to cut off 1/8-1/4" of the spike. Installation is actually pretty easy. If I had known about dealing with these alignment spikes and had enough 3/8 washers on hand when I started, it probably would have taken only an hour or so.
A couple overall comments on installation:
  • As noted by others, the Allen key needed for the swivel bolts is 6 mm, not 10 mm.
  • Inserting two 3/8 washers between the fore/aft seat rails and the top plate of the swivel at each of the 4 bolts seems to be a perfectly acceptable solution to dealing with the "extra bit"
  • I had to cut off about 1/8" of the alignment spike on each seat rail to fit them onto the swivels. I have not seen anyone else mention this issue.
  • It is a MUST that when threading the wire harness through the center hole that you pull EVERY tiny bit of extra wire you can out of the battery compartment. Otherwise, the wires might be stretched taut and damaged if the seat is ever shifted all the way forward. I pulled back the adhesive fabric on the top of the battery compartment and unhooked one ziptie hanger in order to get an extra inch.
  • The wire that comes out of the battery compartment must go under the bottom plate of the swivel. There is no channel for it, so it's just smashed against the seat base when you bolt the swivel in place. I protected it with some plastic sheathing, and hopefully this is good enough.
  • Tightening all the bolts requires awkward swiveling and moving the seat back and forth, but works fine with a 17 mm wrench and 6 mm allen key.
Seat swivel seems to work great with no obvious instability or noise. View attachment 18421 View attachment 18422
Great mention of having to cut a bit of the alignment pin. That contacts the white stabilizing/interlocking spool if not cut.

I used a die grinder to notch out further the lower plate in order for the harness wire to pass through. And painted w some rattle can , primer and paint in one.

I appreciate everyone who posts and adds knowledge here on the forum. Helps many of us who are not as good writing things out.
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