Another seat thread
 

my 2013 savana passenger has a 6 way adjustable power seat....

From what I know, there are only two main options with sub options for each main option. Doesn't matter if you have a passenger or cargo. It's all the same.

Vinyl or Cloth - that's it.
Manual or Power.
Colour.

Personally, I do not find the seat to be bad at all. Even the manager who sold me the truck was suprised (Cadillac Dealer). I think the problem people complain about is age. From what I read, the foam begins loosing it's properties and the seats slowly get uncomfortable. The good news is, parts are widely available. You can buy brand new foam rather easily.

I am approaching 50,000 Km. My seat has never bothered me. That armrest on the door though...

I lifted the front of the seats with about 3/4" of washers. Made a big difference.

You have a 2017. They redesigned the armrest on the door panel, that's why.

Yes Canucklehead, please post pics of the powerseat. As many as you can.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...b132756b15.jpg

My seat is basically same as this one. The power control is between you legs while sitting. Single arm rest, and I don't think it has airbags inside the seat. They are in the roof rail.
The wire connector with the red clip on it is the airbag weight sensor I think.
And ditto on that piece of crap arm rest. It squeaks, and digs into your elbow relentlessly.
Another option to changing your seat to a power one, is to pay have have your seat re-foamed. I bought a used 92 ford explorer a while back, and the seller had this done prior. the difference in firmness, comfort and support between the re-foamed driver seat and the factory passenger seat was massive.
My cruze that I bought has padded arm rests right where it needs to have it...What a difference.

We (at least I) wanted to see the mechanism and any possible mechanical/physical differences. I imagine the base is the same. I am imagining the seat cushion and fabric is the same with the exception of some slits for wires. It is just the slide mechanism I think that that changes. Manual / Power.

That picture you posted is of a newer model van. It has the newer style arm rests on the doors.

If you have seat air bags, there is a tag the say so, along the outside edge, on the seam at about shoulder lever, or just below that. In the pic above, it would be just out of sight.

canucklehead thank you for posting the pics
please tell us exactly what the 6 ways the seats move are
does the bottom of the seat tilt up/down or just raise up and down

my feeling is my seat needs the bottom tilted up from the back if that makes sense

went to a chevy dealer and ask parts about buying a power seat, they gave me a list of at least 1100 in stuff for one seat- so far seeing none on ebay

but dealer wanted me to talk to a van outfitter in phoenix who they thought would have more input
plan to do that my next trip up there and will report back on if anyone makes aftermarket seats with airbags that can be plugged in etc

Forward/Backward
Front Up/Down
Rear Up/Down
All Up/Down (just moves both front+rear motors at the same time)
Back-rest tilt is manual

so to be clear there is no way to tilt the bottom/sitting part of the seat?
it just goes up and down

and it sounds like you can move the whole seat or just the back of it? or just the bottom?

not sure if this would help or not

hoping to get by the van outfitters friday...

the parts for one seat were quoted at 1700 from the dealer in phx
steep for one seat but if i thought it would solve the problem i would probably do it

15 minutes sitting in this thing and it is bothering me, must be fixed...

If you prop up the front or back two legs on chair, does it tilt?

Okay. Here is a semi-detailed version on what the three buttons do.

The left button, (while sitting reaching down...) Raises or lowers the rear of the seat rocking you forward.
The right button Raises or lowers the front of the seat rocking you backward.
The centre button when moved up or down raises the whole seat platform up or down. When moved left or right moves the seat platform forward or back.

I am 6'1 and have the seat platform almost at the bottom of its travel, as I always have felt the seating position in these vans is a bit too high.

If you raise the front of the seat, then manually adjust the recline of the seat-back forward, you can raise your knees if that is what your looking for. You have to sit tight to the back of the seat to get any lumbar support, since they are not great in that area.
If you have the 6 way, there are tons of combinations to test before finding whats best for you. My 2002 had power seats as well so I have never driven a express savana without them to comment on what you have.
Hope that helps.

Be prepared for the "slop" that the power seats come with.

tell me about the slop on the power seats, what does that mean?
doing searches for chevy express power seat on ebay i saw a few ads for a part that eliminates track movement, is that what you mean?

i noticed my manual seat seems to slip a little sometimes when driving but i can not seem to make it do it pushing back/forth on the seat, been meaning to have that looked over at the dealer


so the modifying company in phx does not change out seats...

monday or tuesday i plan to stop at a seat rebuilder/recover place and see what they think

saw some sites about changing seats shape on google so that may be something i can have done

also going to email some of the online gm parts places and see if someone has the entire seat to sell me, the dealer in phx gave me a list of 7-8 parts to buy, seems i could buy an entire seat even if the airbags have to be programmed
if not the first search on some gm part sites beat the dealer in phx by 600...

i think the power seat sounds like it would make a difference, but of course hard to say for sure

it is not something i noticed right away but in a 300 mile drive it is horrible

also emailed the weldtec people to see how they handle the airbag situation

thanks for all the help

Maybe take a look at the construction and go from there. You have an airbag. Keep that in mind.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...c25254c2dc.jpg

This is what you are sitting on.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...d7c74c403d.jpg

...

Watch the video


The Heated Seats are what I keep planning every time I go around full circle over the idea of Power Seats. I wouldn't mind the front and back tilt, but for the cost and because I have now have seen the slop in person... 'Manual' seats are just fine. I think you should concentrate on the foam or some personal health issue. I used to have sciatica really bad. I know what back pain is like. I got stuck in a doorway for over an hour once. It was too painful for me to move. I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I can laugh now about it. It doesn't hurt when I do. :)

Yes they have some lurch. I heard about kits to fix it but haven't tried.

i dont have a personal issue when driving any of my other 3 cars, so it is not me

it may just be me in this particular seat, that is the way it is on all cars
do a google search for car seat uncomfortable and you will hit a million links

but it will have to be fixed, i drive a minimum of 125 miles a day up to 300, so the seat will have to be swapped out or changed somehow

Well... as Joe explained to me.. van seats sit more upright due to your position in the vehicle. Maybe that is your issue? Your back does not like sitting upright. I am slouching back in this chair as I type this right now. If was sitting here bolted upright for extended lengths of time everyday... I would probably tire and not relax around here on these forums so much. I do not know the solution. It'll come to you at some point.

I don't know if that's true or not, but maybe that's why mine is better after I kicked the front of the seats up, close to 3/4"

I've always liked captains chairs. The recliner style seats make me tired and cramped. Everyone has their personal preference.

$2 and 15 minutes

I was thinking about this problem driving home. The problem of the guy here with his back. Another guy here uses washers to change the angle of his seat. I have installed a 3/8 sheet of MDF under the seat in the past for a trial. This had the unintentional effect of lifting whole seat 3/8 of a inch. I could actually notice that 3/8". It even leveled out my two arm rests so that they where the same height making them more comfortable. Why doesn't the guy with seat problems go ahead and spend $2 on a handful of washers? It takes a 15mm socket and rachet to remove the seat. Four nuts. Stack the washers in place. Put the seat back. That would probably fix his problem. Two dollars and fifteen minutes.

And I didn't remove the rear bolts to put the washers on the front, I just loosened them.

wanted to update this

took the van to an upholstery shop in tucson i have used before

they looked over the seat several times, put me in the seat several times to see how i was sitting etc

this is what we came up with

i dont think this will relate to everyone
a taller male with narrower hips and longer legs may not be bothered by the seat

but i am female overweight with a big butt, 5'6"

if i sit back into the seat i am running into the side supports on each side and they are super hard, like they have no padding on them
this wont bother you if you end up between the side supports with thinner hips

the left side of the seat bottom at 8500 miles is already starting to sag which is ridiculous - and i actually have running boards and lift myself onto and out of the seat each time..

the bottom of the seat is tilted back a good bit and i am sitting low into the seat, like a soft couch you cannot get out of
this could be alleviated with the power seat i think by tilting up the back

i am reaching a lot for the gas pedal leg wise unless the seat is pretty far forward and a big bend in my knees , again it looks like designed more for a taller person

they did agree that putting washers under the back bolts to lift that part of the seat up needs doing, slight possibility it would make it a lot better but probably wont totally fix it
they want to add padding in the center of the bottom part, possibly more springs in addition to tilting up the back with the washers and lift/support the bottom part of the seat closest to the back with even more padding
want to build up the lower back part of the seat in the center and try to reshape and pad some on the side supports

so basically make the bottom part flatter and higher in the back
and make the top part more flat, shape the sides and pad the sides better

this is what i was thinking from how i felt sitting on it so hopefully it will work

he thinks i may have to consider getting some pedal extenders also, that i am reaching too much for the pedals if i have the seat back with any extension in my legs....

all my other cars have a wider/flatter type seat and i have no problems with them

without the pads in there today i can barely see over the steering wheel i am sitting so low and back...

interesting that stanvan lifted the front of his seat...

i may try to drive a power seat van end of the week and see how it feels but i really think a lot of it is the shape of the seat for me

That may explain your issue. I do think these vans are made for a taller person. At 6', it fits me like a glove. A tight glove, as I carry my extra weight out front, and there's not much movement of the steering wheel. As for the adjustment I made, it seemed to me that it was leaning forward to the point I felt I could slide off the front.

The side of the seat wearing down at 8500 mi is wrong. And that should be a warranty issue.

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for being honest. It made me laugh in a good way to see your situation. Lift the rear of the seat and see what happens. I do not mean to disrespect the people placing their time into you, but they do have to sell to earn their living. By the way, the hardness of the unfinished interior hurts me at times too. That is what is, an unfinished interior. The upfitters build on top of what we are given from the factory which is just merely a base. There's no sense in the complaining I read about in regards to rough finishes, flashing, etc. Just be thankful that this is not a 'base' rough finish vehicle from 1942.

I think there is a bracketed size of person that fits these seats, neither my wife nor I fall into that bracket... I'm 6'-4", 260 lbs (I'm not quite as in-shape as I'd like, but I'm not fat), and my wife is 5'-4", 110 lbs, and we both complain that the seat is uncomfortable, and the seat height isn't great for either one of us (which is why we are really considering a power retro-fit and possibly a front seat replacement). My wife can't get high enough to see, as well as she'd like, over the dash... I also wasn't impressed with the squishiness of the seat bottom, so I bought new foam from www.theseatshop.com . The foam is noticeably more dense than the stock foam (I shared pictures in another thread). This improved the feel of the seat for me, and raised the seat height slightly for my wife (but she still uses an extra memory-foam pad to get another inch of boost). However, the new seat foam exacerbated my problem with being able to see stop lights and thing up high when I drive because now I sit a little taller, too. We also feel like the lumbar support is terrible. I might just stuff some foam in that area as a temporary fix. I guess I'm glad that this isn't the case for everyone because that means that the seat designers had someone in mind when they developed it, but I think it works for a narrow population of people.

I've used these in the past in cars that had sh***y seats. Very inexpensive and effective.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...c74c128e82.jpg

As I was searching for this image, I noticed that there were a lot of different products out there for re-profiling car seats.

sorry so long updating this

had the seat worked on at a seat shop and they repadded and resprung the bottom of the seat and did some changes to the top, it helped a little but not much

did a LOT of research and considered the explorer conversion seat, you can pull your seat or airbags and send them to those guys, they will build you a seat with your airbag set up in them, with shipping etc looking at about 1500-1600 for one seat and 6-7 weeks wait time

would have done this but sat on some new explorer seats and did not like them, lot of money for a seat you do not like
sure it would have been better than the stock seats but not sure from an insurance standpoint it would make any difference and i did not like it

looked at some aftermarket conversion type seats that are 600-800, all were 6 week wait time with a lot of the companies having questionable bbb reports etc

finally decided to go with a scheel mann seat for the drivers side

this will have to disconnect the airbag in the seat, it is very unfortunate that all these manufacturers are building these vans with no decent seat upgrades or options and putting airbags in them

i am pretty annoyed with this whole thing
my options were this or sell the van

with all the insulation/modifying inside etc i hate to sell it less than a year after buying

the scheel mann is on order and takes 7-9 weeks to be made and get here
i bought the seat and the custom components to install it in a chevy van from
base-fab.com

right now trying to leave the van parked as much as possible, will update this once i get the seat installed

Hi,

I know this is an old thread but…

Can you post about your experience with the Scheel-Mann seats? Photos and comfort review?

Thank you so much!

Best,
jason Dietrich

sorry i dont have any photos, not driving that car this week and super busy

the seat did not solve all my problems with the van, i dont know what it is about the position of the seats in here but for me it has been a big issue

have some problems that only show up in this van and others that are always much worse in here.....

need to sell it but refuse to pay 50,000 for a ford transit, waiting a little longer for the market to stabilize

all that being said the seat is very nice, well made, very supportive
i do not think you would regret buying one at all, you can always move it to another van/car later- may need to buy different base plates
if i had to do it over again would probably get the power seat and seat heater options in it

think they were also going to build a swivel type bottom frame so you could turn all the way around, not sure if they ever got that done for this van but probably

good chance this seat will end up in my transit , will try the stock seats first and if i dont like them will put this in there

hope this helps some