Akicita
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When I was at a bus garage last week, I noticed an air seat sitting on the floor, and mentioned to one of the mechanics I was thinking about putting air seats into a Deuce. I lucked out. The mechanic was very much familiar with Deuces and 5 tons from his time in the army. He explained all the functions of that particular seat on the floor. It must have been a top of the line luxury model – way overkill for what I want. That seat was also much too big for a Deuce.
We just spun some ideas around. One concept was to leave the original seats in the Deuce but put air bags underneath and modify the frames the seats are on to allow movement up and down. This sounds like an engineering nightmare to me but the mechanic didn’t think it was too difficult. In order to prevent injury to the driver’s and passenger’s backs, the backrests should be taken off, mounted to flatirons, and the flatirons mounted to the seats so that each seat always moves together with its backrest.
The obvious alternative is to take the original seats out and replace them with air seats. I’m concerned there might not be enough space left between the front end of the seat and the dash for my knees if I go that way. That seat on the shop floor certainly would not have fit into a Deuce. Has anyone done that and can share some ideas on what seats might work ?
The other issue is the air supply. Since the air tanks on the Deuce are small and assist with braking, I don’t want to risk taking too much pressure from the tanks for the seats and taking chances with braking. Has an engineer here figured out what is safe and what isn’t ? I lean towards installing an additional tank for the seats.
Bus air seats are bolted to the floor. All one has to do is remove the four bolts, disconnect the ¼ inch air hose and take the complete seat out. Of course, installing that seat in a Deuce may require a custom base plate. Sounds like a nice job for a fabricator.
If you know a reason why air seats aren’t going to work well in a Deuce, tell me. I should probably add that I’m less of an off-road driver than many of you. I want to drive the Deuce every day and want to have a “Super Pick-Up Truck” that gives me more flexibility than any of the pick-ups I have had.
Any help with this is appreciated. I have already read older posts on this subject on this board.
Keep the rubber side on the ground.
We just spun some ideas around. One concept was to leave the original seats in the Deuce but put air bags underneath and modify the frames the seats are on to allow movement up and down. This sounds like an engineering nightmare to me but the mechanic didn’t think it was too difficult. In order to prevent injury to the driver’s and passenger’s backs, the backrests should be taken off, mounted to flatirons, and the flatirons mounted to the seats so that each seat always moves together with its backrest.
The obvious alternative is to take the original seats out and replace them with air seats. I’m concerned there might not be enough space left between the front end of the seat and the dash for my knees if I go that way. That seat on the shop floor certainly would not have fit into a Deuce. Has anyone done that and can share some ideas on what seats might work ?
The other issue is the air supply. Since the air tanks on the Deuce are small and assist with braking, I don’t want to risk taking too much pressure from the tanks for the seats and taking chances with braking. Has an engineer here figured out what is safe and what isn’t ? I lean towards installing an additional tank for the seats.
Bus air seats are bolted to the floor. All one has to do is remove the four bolts, disconnect the ¼ inch air hose and take the complete seat out. Of course, installing that seat in a Deuce may require a custom base plate. Sounds like a nice job for a fabricator.
If you know a reason why air seats aren’t going to work well in a Deuce, tell me. I should probably add that I’m less of an off-road driver than many of you. I want to drive the Deuce every day and want to have a “Super Pick-Up Truck” that gives me more flexibility than any of the pick-ups I have had.
Any help with this is appreciated. I have already read older posts on this subject on this board.
Keep the rubber side on the ground.