Passenger Swivel Seat Install - Sacrificing the Stereo
One of the first and most game changing upgrades we made to the Yeti was a front passenger swivel seat base. This allows the seat to quickly transition to a lounger for the main cabin area from the normal passenger position. The previous owner installed a large amplifier for the two 12” subwoofers in the back which sounded great, but honestly was a bit overkill for good sound. Unfortunately the amp was mounted underneath the stock seat mount which had a larger cavity underneath, so we first had to get the stereo system downgraded to fit our more simplified needs. The van is showy enough and we didn’t want to be the folks vibrating our neighboring cars at the lights or lumbering through the woods with the stereo blaring.
Electrical isn’t exactly my forte, so we headed to our local stereo shops for a few quotes and $200 later had the stereo sent back in time to its mostly stock status. Once the amplifier was removed the process went very smoothly and quickly. The instructions from Sportsmobile were very clear and the threaded body mounts lined up perfectly with the new seat base. I did a quick test fit of the hardware on the base with the van body before removing the original seat base. Everything was pretty straight forward with four lower mounting bolts connecting the base to the van and four bolts connecting the seat to the new swivel base. As I got further into the installation I found that the passenger seat air bag sensor wiring was a bit short. For a while we would unplug and replug the cord when using the swivel, but after forgetting and pulling apart the wiring harness twice we lengthened the wiring. Nothing devastating, but one of those little things we learned along the way. The remainder of the installation was a breeze!
Morgan and I were thrilled with the results and this simple upgrade has been the most impactful to our comfort and cabin chill zone at night or when the weather isn’t its best.
