Boat seat pedestals
 

Ok, i'm converting my fold down sleeper seat on the drivers side to an original Mariah bucket seat that i picked up on the weekend for a very good price. The seat had a Springfield slider base attached to it & after a few emails back & forth with the mfr. it appears i may have to buy the base/pedestal/slider unit package called a Springfield 'Mainstay' model 1250301 http://www.springfieldgrp.com/produc...5&subcat1=.htm
cuz the opening on mine is 3 1/4" rather than 2 7/8" or 2 3/8" posts used today. To make a long story short for anyone who has a similar size boat to mine, what height is your driver seat from the floor ? (inches will do rather than that damm metric stuff). Does anyone have a pedestal where the post goes down thru the floor? Has anyone else done this conversion or replaced their pedestal? I like the idea of having a gas assisted seat (with swivel & slide) so my fat arse doesnt hurt going over those big waves. ;) Anyone have any other ideas? My boat is about 1.5hrs away in storage... so i dont have easy access to it.

Wow, that's quite a project to take on. However, we'll try and walk you through it all. In the "Original Mariah Manuals & Supplements" section, there's a hardware diagram which shows the structural reinforcement under the seat, which you should definitely think about doing.

Keep us updated, and congrats on being able to score an original Mariah seat, those things are impossible to find!

Awesome project! Don't forget to take photos along the way. How about one of the seat itself, so we can see what you found!.

After looking @ the diagrams that WetWilly posted, this doesnt appear to be an easy task. I would love to have buckets as well, the bench seats just arent high enough. As much as I dont want to, I'am always sitting on top of the seat to see over the windshield.

Which ... speaking of my seats, I have to get in there to tighten up the bolts come spring time.


Good luck with it ! :wink_thumbup:

Thanks guys. The measurements will be very helpful. I have the seat taken apart right now because i want to re-upholster it in white, rather than the ivory colour it came in. The only issue becomes the Mariah stitching in the upper area but i think we can save that small panel & use it in the new covering.

I'm not convinced (yet) that it going to be that major of an undertaking. My thoughts are that as Mariah built these boats they would have simply included the metal backing plate in the floor construction in their boats as they came with either seating configuration. At least i'm hoping so! I guess the only way i will know for sure is to drill a pilot hole or make use of someone's metal detector. :) The actual work will have to wait until spring when i get the boat from storage but for now i'm going to get the seat re-done and order a proper pedestal set up. I'm emailing back & forth with a rep from Springfield Marine in an attempt to get the right unit to maintain the swivel & slide functions and get the correct seat height. They have another model that the pedestal post is designed to go down thru the floor 5 1/2" which gets me the correct heights but i'm a little leery of using....

The same guy i bought this seat from had another one on E-Bay last summer (early August i believe). I saw it & placed a maximum bid on it but i was heading off on vacation the next day and couldn't follow the progress. Apparently i lost out by $5. :(

Judging by the evidence I've seen in my boat, these boats are built somewhat universal, to accomodate the various packages they offer. I would imagine the 12"x12"x3/16" metal panel is located beneath the seat in the same area. I did notice on that image from the brochure, that "Aluminum floor backing plates are added to secure ALL seat bases"... I think you're OK!

Next time you get your hands on the seat, see if there's a manufacturer name on it anywhere, it'd be great if we could find a source of OEM seats!

Since i've got the seat all apart I had a close look at the fibreglass portion & the cushion sections and i dont see a mfr name anywhere. I'm guessing they had a their own molds for the seats?

btw.....does anybody know the size of the screws used to attach the base to the floor ? I dont want to go too long........

I bought a Springfield Mainstay air ride pedestal so now all i have to wait for is some warm weather & getting the boat out of storage. I had to get the bucket seat re-covered and it should be ready within the next week or two. I stopped in there yesterday & they had done a wonderful job of restitching the Mariah name into the seat facing. I'll post some pics once i get into the project.

me too! :)

Hey Mike, any updates on this project? I am thinking of doing the same thing myself.

I still have some fiddling around to do but the install is finally done. I haven't had a lot of time recently cuz my better half has been ill but i'm still working on it.
What i found was that the air ride pedestal left me sitting too high so i had to go with a standard fixed height pedestal. I touched base with my contact at Springfield who then recommended a 'Swivel-Eze' fixed height pedestal but when it came I found out that apparently 2 3/8" at Swivel-Eze isn't the same as 2 3/8" at Springfield! Springfield then made me a new pedestal and shipped it out free of charge so i was able to get her installed just prior to last weekend. Now i have two pedestals extra.... :(

The job itself wasn't that difficult. I used a 'stud' detector to find the edges of the aluminum plate then set the pedestal in place where i figured it would be comfortable, marked the holes and drilled thru the plate. MariahTrooper gave me the measurements of the hex head bolts as 1/4" x 2 3/4" L so i limited the depth of my drilling to that length and used the appropriate size drill bit. I used all stainless hardware to install. All in all it took me a little over an hour to complete the job.

Thanks Mike

Good idea using a stud finder to locate that plate, was wondering how I would do that. What length pedestal did you end up with?
Hope to see some pictures of it when you get the time as I think I am going to go ahead and do mine also.

Thanks again
Ron

I used an 8" pedestal but i think the ideal height would have been a 7". When i get a chance, i will take & post some pics.

Re: Boat seat pedestals
 

Interesting read.

I have been having a problem with the seat on my New Mariah. a 2007 SC23. Do you think the detail will be the same as the diagram in wet willys post?

Wifey is getting fed up with spinning seat!!

Re: Boat seat pedestals
 

Re: Boat seat pedestals
 

Hi Mikeyt,

I'm planning on swapping my existing pedestals for height adjustable ones on my 1997 Shabah 180SE. The present seat is only approx 6" of the floor. I'm hopping to install a THRU-DECK design from Springfield. I figure I could cut a hole in the metal plate but I'm just worried about the clearance between the floor and the hull. Do you (or anyone) know how much space in under there.

Thanks for your help,

Captain D