Seating in any of the RV side by sides

What I would like to do is find a really cheap, used leather office chair from a local thrift store or Craig's list and modify it to have it fit the RV.

Has anyone else toyed with this idea? This picture is really close to the look of the Van's seat already.

Yes, someone has toyed with this idea quite recently:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=123563

Interesting but before I would do this, I would make sure I could answer these questions first:

1- Safety. Does it meet any type of standards of engineering for use in an airplane? How will it react in an accident? Fire? Fumes when exposed to airplane conditions? Sun light exposure? Hot days?

2- Practical. Will it fit? How much does it weigh? Are the angles close enough to match the floor and back of your plane? Modifications needed? Worth having a plane with office seats in it?

On the surface it looks light a realy nice fit when you remove all the base and arm rest. Even looks like the proper shape.

You will get answers about ho the seats are not fire rated and the smoke from them will kill you. It may be too late by the time the seats catch fire if you are in the air so any seat or bale of hay would be about the same.

Inflight is not the only place to think about fire. If you have to put down in a field and rip a wing off or tip over, fire is a real strong possibility. These planes are not the quickest to get out of - especially when they have flipped and that is a large percentage (guess only) of the accidents.

It is your airplane and you can put what you want in it. We all make choices on our perceived risk associated with our choice.

I went with leather seats from Abby and am very happy. They were not cheap, but I feel they were a good value for what I got.

In looking at the seats you show, they look pretty bulky. The cockpit is not that big and with those seats, it may get a bit tight in there. With the sloped seat hole, you will need some serious modifications with those seats.

Maybe look at some boat seats. They are much cheaper and the bumps you hit in choppy water are every bit as hard as rough air. There are some real good seat design plans to make your own.

It is real money we are all spending and if you can find a way to save some and be satisfied with your choice, go for it. That is why we build rather than buy!

practice seat found

The chair....



The price....



Yea, it's missing a wheel, but I don't need no stinking wheels. Gonna give it a try. Who knows?!

As for the particulars of meeting standards - I'm not concerned. I'm already going to be flying an airplane that doesn't meet the "standards" hence the "special" airworthiness certificate.

Weight - we'll see.

Fire - I believe that if the fire is small enough, the fire extinguisher will put it out, if it's too big for the extinguisher - I'm a goner anyhow.

Accident - I haven't seen any data that would indicate that the pilot or passenger of a plane survived the crash because the seats were of a particular standard. That data my exsist.

Fit - I will modify it to fit and use boat foam under main seating.

This is all an experiment at this point. My goal is to have them look like they were made for the plane.

..... again, we'll see.

Go for it Mike. If you need any dimensions of my seats, let me know. I tend to agree with you about the fire issues. Have fun - that's what it is about.

Robert,

Totally agree with everything you are saying. Just pointing out some possible ramifications of mounting an office chair in your high performance aircraft.

What cha gonna do bout the split where the stick goes?

I've gone through three "leather" office chairs at home. Every one has been made from "top grain" leather, which is just the top, cosmetic layer of the leather bonded to something else underneath. Every chair has died in about two years, as the leather starts to split near the stitching and eventually rips somewhere.

I'm very fond of my Classic Aero leather seats, and have no regrets about the cost.

Resale

Those $8 seats will probably affect the value of yor plane by more, perhaps multiple times, then the cost difference of two seats designed, fabricated and intended for RVs

I'm willing to bet a repurposed office chair will not be as comfortable as "real" seats designed for the airplane, particularly on any long cross-country. I'm as cheap as the next guy, maybe cheaper, and don't regret for a minute the $ I paid for seats.

My opinion. Certainly worth a try and if it works for you, well, you've just saved 15 tanks of fuel.

Greg

I've ridden in too many certified planes with broken down seats, and plenty of experimentals with homemade seats that leave much to be desired after 30 minutes much less 3-4 hours. There is not a lot of room to adjust/move around in the RV and comfort was a priority for me. I was taken back by the $$ that my Oregon Aero seats cost, funny that I can't say they're super comfortable but I can tell you I can sit 3 hours plus and not ever once think about a pressure point or readjusting my seating posture. Like when I borrowed a friends lightspeed headset for a 6+ hour flight to Florida, they weren't remarkably comfortable but I never once remembered them being uncomfortable. I haven't regretted my lightspeed purchase either.
I'm all for DIY and home building, but I'm guessing you'll spend more $$ and way more time on 2 or 3 iterations to get an acceptable result.

Good Luck!

The great thing about an $8 used office chair? If it works and you like it, you just got off REALLY cheap putting seats in your plane. If it's a complete failure... well... big deal. You risked and lost the equivalent of - what - one trip around the pattern? Not bad.

Having said that... Mrs. Dale and I have logged a lot of hours on the Harley, many of them on long haul trips. Our original seat felt great, for the first couple-few hours. Then not so much. Its replacement feels very firm when you first sit on it, and you're sure it's going to get uncomfortable. It never does. 700+ mile days on the bike and we're still not worn out. So, I'm a big fan of firm seats. Most of the fancy looking office chairs I try are squishy. Of course if you weigh less than me, and most people do, you may have different results.

MikeyDale said:

What cha gonna do bout the split where the stick goes?

Click to expand...

The split in the seat for the stick and the crotch strap opening will be part of the modifications. Hopefully, (the reason for the experimental chair) there will be enough leather to make the needed mods and still have it look good. Thanks for bringing up that point.

Snowflake said:

I've gone through three "leather" office chairs at home. Every one has been made from "top grain" leather, which is just the top, cosmetic layer of the leather bonded to something else underneath. Every chair has died in about two years, as the leather starts to split near the stitching and eventually rips somewhere.

I'm on my first office chair in my house. It comes from Office Depot. No wear signs at all but, then again, I don't work out of my home. I will bet that I will spend even less time sitting in the plane than I do sitting in my home office but thanks for the info.

I'm very fond of my Classic Aero leather seats, and have no regrets about the cost.

Click to expand...

The interesting thing I have discovered is that when it comes to home built aircraft there is this time vs money thing that takes exists. Either you have the time and little money or you have little time but plenty of money. I'm sure this isn't always the case but most builders I have talked to fall into either of these two categories. I think $1000+ for just sewing cloth to the foam you provide is a bit steep, IMHO.(http://www.classicaerodesigns.com/w...=14&ProductCategory=RV-9&ProductCategoryID=14)

Paul K said:

Robert,

Totally agree with everything you are saying. Just pointing out some possible ramifications of mounting an office chair in your high performance aircraft.

Click to expand...

Yes and thank you. (I forgot to say that). Sometimes our best plans fail because we don't always think them through. You brought up some very good points and I will mull all this over before putting the finished product in the plane.

Thank you all for your great insight, response and information. This is the kinda stuff that makes this a fantastic website. Thanks again.

I am an Oregon Aero customer. The owner is my neighbor, but he moved in long after I bought their seats. I can not say enough about how important your butt is after a few hours in the saddle. You can fly all day and not feel any discomfort.

However, I admire those do it yourselfers.

Black may not be my choice. Much worse in an RV than in a car sitting out in the sun. OUch!!

Robert M said:

The interesting thing I have discovered is that when it comes to home built aircraft there is this time vs money thing that takes exists. Either you have the time and little money or you have little time but plenty of money. I'm sure this isn't always the case but most builders I have talked to fall into either of these two categories. I think $1000+ for just sewing cloth to the foam you provide is a bit steep, IMHO.(http://www.classicaerodesigns.com/w...=14&ProductCategory=RV-9&ProductCategoryID=14)

Click to expand...

Hi Robert

I understand wanting to save money, and I'm all for it. Since you referenced our company though, I'd like to clarify a few things. It costs more than most people would think to operate a business that produces custom, labor intesive products with specialized materials. By the time we pay for everything, there is very little profit left over. Just as an example, the cloth that we use costs us close to $40 per yard. It's a top quality material though, and each lot is treated and independently tested to ensure that it meets FAA flamability requirements.

Because of the way it's made, the Vans foam you linked to requires us to take a few extra steps we don't do on our other seats. We do offer an option that's more economical than upholstering Vans foam. It's our CA-1 seat in cloth for $734 a pair ready to install complete with foam (these include the same high quality cloth I mentioned above). Plus they have some features the Vans foam doesn't. I don't think you're going to find a product comparable to the CA-1 at a lower price.

I think it's great that you're experimenting with off the shelf components. I've been involved with homebuilt aircaft since the early 90s, and I think that that's what experimental aircraft are all about. There will be a number of compromises using an inexpensive office chair in a side by side RV, but those may not be big issues for you based on your needs. We understand that not everyone will choose our seat. That's okay. I can say without any reservation whatsoever though that we offer a wide variety of price options for customers that are very fair based on what it costs us to produce these products.

If you have any questions about getting your office chair to work, feel free to give me a call. We've done over 2000 RV interiors, with the majority being side by side. I'd be happy to give you a heads up on the issues you might run into, and some possible solutions. Good luck with your project.