extending the seat in my parker up about 4-6" or so, id

[Capt. John Deering]

sorry subj. line scrambled......should say any ideas?

depending on how i trim my boat based on water conditions, especially bow up, its tough to see out the starboard side clearly. i don't want replace the whole seat mechanism that attach's to the livewell, would like to just extend it, with some aluminum tubing and a coupler. anybody done this, if so where did you purchase the supplies??

 

[Burtona]

I have something similar on my 21SE. I found a used Parker leaning post that has the same pedestal spacing at a dealer. I cut off the pedestal bases flanges and used a piece of aluminum tube with an inside diameter the same as the seat pedestals OD as a sleeve. It's welded to the remaining pedestal tubes on the leaning post. Then it's attached to the seat pedestals with hex bolts as set screws so I can swap out the seats or the leaning post depending on what I'm doing with the boat in about 2 minutes. I'll take some pictures if you want. Don't see why you couldn't do the same thing to raise the seats up a little. Aluminum suppliers can cut various short pieces of the proper size tube

 

[Capt. John Deering]

thanks, some pics would be great. looking for a supplier of the aluminum tubing and a connector coupling to marry the two pieces.

 

[Burtona]

See pictures. I had to make a slot in the sleeve to get past the brace on the leaning post. I didn't do anything to the original seat pedestals so the original seats attach as designed. To remove the leaning post I just loosen the lower hex bolts (set screws) and lift off then slide the seats on the pedestal. I hope this helps.

 

[DaleH]

thanks, some pics would be great. looking for a supplier of the aluminum tubing and a connector coupling to marry the two pieces.

FWIW I just found an AWESOME metal supplier up here that has just about everything you could want. If you know the EXACT sizes and lengths you need, I could get it and ship it to you. They are but minutes from my work office.

Ahhhhhhhh, do you know what alloy you want? Typically a 5000 sereis would be used for bendabilty, and I believe they stock most of the 6000 series. To me, you'll likely need strength over mallibilty.

FWIW I once took a billet of 3-4" aluminum and machined it to fit the post pase and then to fit the seat side, then bored out the middle to make it someewhat hollow (thus lighter) ... but I have since lost my machine shop access .