Best pedestal seat systems?

[ShoestringMariner]

I’m beginning to plan my winter rebuild on my old Starcraft SuperSport. I’m replacing the floors and need to start collecting the goodies. I am replacing the sleeper seats with a pair of pedestal mount types. I’m hoping for recommendations on the best, sturdiest pedestal systems. I would like them to be height adjustable and the seats comfortable and of high-quality. A lot of the fishing seats I see are not the good looking seats I see in the new boats. (Appear cheap and uncomfortable)

Also too I would prefer to see the floor mount bases to be as low as possible. I like the flatness of the pin mount system but find the pin mount system to be too wobbly. I sometimes trip over the curved bases in other peoples boats however if I have to learn to pick up my feet so be it LOL.

Thanks in advance

 

[TyeeMan]

If you want adjustable pedestals, or any pedestal for that matter there's Springfield and Swivel ez, , I think those are the only two. From a stability stand point I can only speak for the "taper-lock" style. They have a little lever that locks them into the pedestal mount. They are super stable and don't rock or wobble. The down side is the pedestal mounts may stick up a little higher than you might like. Plan on spending $100-$130 per pedestal. You'll need the shorter pedestals, , I think they go from like 14 inches and rise to 18 or something like that.

Keep in mind that wherever you put a pedestal mount you will need to have an aluminum sheet .060" to as thick as .100" and about 1 foot square under the floor board. This will do two things, 1) give the pedestal mount screws some metal to bight into, and 2) make the area where the pedestal mount is a little more rigid.
From experience, Lund does that for every pedestal mount.

As far as seats go, your pretty much relegated to aftermarket, like what you find in the iboats store.
Some years ago I rebuilt a 17 foot Lund American that had twin consoles, bought it as a project boat. Most of the floor was so rotten I vacuumed it up in a shop vac. But, under each pedestal mount was a sheet of aluminum. My 97 Lund Tyee has the same thing.
Anyway, when it came to seats I had to spend a few bucks to get something that looked nice and was comfortable. I ended up buying my seats at not iBoats.

What's cool about rebuilding a boat is once you have the tub stripped out, it's almost like you have clean slate to some degree. I retained the consoles and live well and such, but there were a couple other compartments that I redesigned to be more usable.

For what it's worth, I rebuilt mine for the long run. Most or all of the wood I used was Medium density overlay. EXPENSIVE but it would last a long time. The floorboards I wanted sealed. The bottom side that no one would see, I went to the hardware store and bought any color paint, something that someone returned cuz the color sucked, didn't matter, it was going to seal the wood. The top side was carpeted with water proof marine carpeting.

While your rebuilding, plan out for interior lighting, and a place for 2 or 3 power ports (the cigarette lighter kind) so you can plug in a spot light, bait bucket, electric cooler, charge a cell phone, etc.

It's a lot of work but it's fun! Good luck!

 

[ShoestringMariner]

That’s awesome. Appreciate the tips and suggestions. I like the lighting and power ideas. Thank you I’m looking at a used set of Ez rides, height adjustable with bases and top slider plates for forward/aft adjustment.
The seller wants half price of new. ($350 CDN) A bit steep for used my opinion, however I’m considering it. It’s exactly double if I order everything off of Amazon and pay tax

 

[TyeeMan]

Yeah those Ez rides look pretty nice but spendy if you have to pay full price. The nice thing with the air lift pedestals is that you can raise em an inch or two from dead bottom and its like having a little sock absorber. Makes a huge difference!