Sunday, October 02, 2005
Over the last few days, as mentioned earlier, I have been looking at making some sort of modification to the seat of my ECV, my scooter, as the existing seat gets pretty uncomfortable after an hour or so. I had a couple of options in design, the main thing being how a new seat would attach to the existing structure of the ECV, by having a stub that would sit in the existing post; or a new post that would sit in the post holder of the existing structure; or adding a support arm across the back that would hold the back legs of a folding lawn chair while the front legs rested in the main platform, or a few other options.
I searched Home Depot, the local Ace Hardware store, and Lowes for various existing hardware, found a few pieces that could fulfill part of the requirements for one or more of the possible designs, but also found that the cost of hardware has gone very high! For instance, a one inch lag head bolt would serve in the first case mentioned above, but cost $10! And I would have to have a plate welded to it to make it work, and then build from there. I don’t weld, so this would be an added challenge, either in finding a welder or buying a welding rig!
As for adding the lawn chair, I did find a location that I could securely attach something to, but it would again get very complicated and involve more expense and finagling than I was ready to get into, so at about this point, I decided I would give up the idea and just get a really thick seat cushion.
The seat cushions I had checked so far were so wimpy, no matter how thick they looked, that they were of no use. Then I had the idea to check out one of those boat cushions that serve also as floatation devices and are thick and firm. Pleased with this solution, I headed out this morning to the Super Wal-Mart over in Inverness and headed to the outdoor activity section. As I spotted the right aisle and turned down it, I immediately spotted a shelf of folding boat seats of considerable substance! One in particular looked good, and was priced quite reasonably, so I stopped, opened it up and set it on my seat and sat in it.
My bum went, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!”
This was exquisite!
I tried the other two styles they had, and both showed that they would not contribute to any long term comfort. I tried the first one again and yes, this was it!
Then I looked up and noticed that beside its location on the display was a mounting plate, and the stub looked suspiciously close in diameter to that which would fit my existing post. But alas, a bit too big, and I contemplated what it would take to reduce its diameter and realized that it would be too much. I then thought to see if I could think of any alternatives that would allow me to replace the post with something that would receive it, but then I noticed once again up on the display, a post made specifically for the mounting plate. And that almost fit the support for my post: missed by a tiny enough amount that I imagined I could file the diameter a bit and make it fit.
So I bought the whole kit and caboodle!
At home, I spent about a half hour filing the diameter and got it to a near perfect fit…
…only to then discover that the mounting plate was not made to fit the mounting points on this seat, and that I would have to drill new holes in the thick stainless steel. Using increasingly larger bits, this took about another half hour, but resulted in success!
So I put the whole thing together and now have a wonderful new comfortable seat for my ECV!
Excited, after a bit of a rest, I headed over to the supermarket to pick up a couple of items, but mainly to give the new seat a test run. I pulled the ECV body out of the van only to discover that I had left the battery at home!
I came home and transferred my banner to the new seat.
-Jud
