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Topic: Removal of Flexsteel Seats (Read 2225 times) previous topic - next topic

Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Both the passenger and driver Flexsteel seats in our 2003 U295 have developed a tears in the upholstery (see below).  I would like to remove the back of each seat or if need be, the whole seat, so I can take it in for repair here in Tucson.  I did find some information on Barry's website...."Remove chair from coach with 1/2" wrench removing bolts holding seat to motorized seat base."  But in looking at the bottom of the seat, it is not obvious as to which bolts to remove (see below).  Talk about complicated! 

I could simply remove the whole seat by removing the bolts that hold it to the coach floor.  These terminate in the wheel wheel (see below), but this seems more complicated than it needs to be.  But if I go this route, how heavy are these seats?

Any advice would be welcome!
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George Hatfield

  Never ever use World Line Motors of Nacogdoches for service!

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #1 –
George:  I had one of those seam separations on my two front seats.  When I had the coach in Nacogdoches I had Rodney Shepherd from Longview fix them on the coach.  He makes all kinds of repairs.  You cannot tell where he fixed them and they have stayed fixed so far.  Don't know when you will be close to Longview or Nacogdoches but he does work at MOT and I assume Foretravel. His phone nr if any one is interested: 903-235-8267.  I know he repairs dash and door repairs as well.  Tks DAN
Dan & Shirley Stansel
2002 U295 4020 AGDS Build#6054
Towing Buick Enclave & M &  G Braking
Emerald Bay, Lake Palestine, Texas
MC# 16650

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #2 –
George, On my 95 the Flexsteel seats can be removed from the base. You do not need to remove the bolts that go thru the floor.
There are four bolts that secure the seat to the lower part of the frame. When I replaced the seat foam a couple years ago I removed the four bolts and took the seat off, then removed the seat cover.  The bolt in the side nearest the wall is a B.... to get at and remove but it can be done.  You will probably need a good supply of cuss words and will leave a little blood and flesh on the under side of the seat but its not an impossible task.  The right seat is easier as you can swivel it away from the wall more than the left.
Good luck.
Gary B

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #3 –
Gary.... See below.  Are those the bolts you removed?  Or were they higher (toward the surface of the seat) in the chair structure?  Looking under the chair there are several sets of four bolts.

George
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George Hatfield

  Never ever use World Line Motors of Nacogdoches for service!

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #4 –
George, On mine the bolts are above the power mechanism. I don't have a way to take a picture.
Look above the motors and there are two rails with bolts at each end of the rails.  When you remove these bolts the seat can be picked up off the motor mechanism.  Better yet join us in FL where it is raining a little but in the 70's with sun predictted and I will show you.  :) :)
Gary B

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #5 –
On our Flexsteel captains chairs. . .

4 corner bolts fasten chair to tilt motor mechanism.
4 corner bolts fasten tilt motor mechanism to swivel.
1 larger bolt fastens swivel to base.
4 corner bolts fasten base to motorhome floor.

Swivel ball bearing ring is between swivel and base and new ones are available from Flexsteel.

Back fabric / vinyl / leather comes off back of chair by unzipping and pulling up.

Seat material comes off by removing hog rings and peeling off chair.

New foam made exactly for your chair is available at a reasonable cost from FlexSteel.

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #6 –
I recently removed the passenger seat from the "tilt motor mechanism" that Barry mentioned. He described very well the mounting system under our Villa chairs. It was not very difficult to remove the passenger seat. I would leave the lowest base plate, swivel mechanism, and tilt/raise/move mechanism in place.

Raise the power seat all the way to give vertical room. Release the swivel so you can get at the uppermost set of mounting bolts. You may need to disconnect some electrical and mechanical cables. The seat is too bulky for me to handle by myself. Two moderately strong people should be able to move it out of the coach.
J D Stevens
1997 U295 CAI 36' Build #5085
2002 Subaru Outback
Motorcade 16869
Bellville, TX

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #7 –
Quote from: George Hatfield –

....................."Remove chair from coach with 1/2" wrench removing bolts holding seat to motorized seat base."  But in looking at the bottom of the seat, it is not obvious as to which bolts to remove...........................how heavy are these seats? Any advice would be welcome!

George,
Just to add to Barry's excellent summary and Gary/J.D.'s advice:
When our Flexsteels started to fail, we found some nearly new Villas to replace them with (@ZERO COST!). 
Many don't care for the larger chairs, but we favor them over the Flexsteels (quality, component details and size all more attractive to us).
I found it easiest, as a first step, to separate the chair plus motors, slides and wiring from the swivel table, swivel bearing and pedestal (that is through bolted to the floor). 
I believe that each Flexsteel chair (plus motor/slide frame) weighed around 65 pounds. 
The Villas each weigh about 20 lbs more than that.
Complete with bad backs, two of us had little trouble handling the chairs in and out of the coach.  They are just bulky and one has to plan ahead on how to rotate them through the door.
Come to Balmy Florida, and I'll help you take them out of there!  It's only 72 degrees at the moment............but it is nearly 9:00 PM!
Good luck! 
Neal
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Neal (& Brenda) Pillsbury
'02 U320 SPEC, 4200, DGFE, Build #5984
'04 Gold Wing
'07 Featherlite 24'
'14 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit
MC #14494
Exeter, NH & LaBelle FL
Quality makes the Heart Soar long after Price is Forgotten

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #8 –
I really appreciate the photos and information. The co-pilot's seat on our coach doesn't respond to position commands even though there is 12vdc at the connector so I'm going to have to remove the chair and see what's up. Always good to have some idea of what I'm going to be doing. Thanks. :)

Craig
1993 U225 36' Unihome GV with PACBRAKE exhaust retarder, Banks Stinger and Solar Panels.
Toad: 1999 Jeep Wrangler 2-door soft-top.

"No one has ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke."

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #9 –
Craig, reach under the chair at the control location and make sure the plug is tight.
The selected media item is not currently available.Bill&Doris 97 U270 36'
University of Parris Island Class of 66
Semper Fi  Build# 5174 MC#17094

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Bill Willett –
Craig, reach under the chair at the control location and make sure the plug is tight.

Bill... thanks...I will do that... we had a ten year old playing around on the chair just before it quit... so I'm pretty sure it's either a loose or broken wire.

Craig

1993 U225 36' Unihome GV with PACBRAKE exhaust retarder, Banks Stinger and Solar Panels.
Toad: 1999 Jeep Wrangler 2-door soft-top.

"No one has ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke."

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #11 –
Replacing a Flexsteel captain's chair with a Villa has had a few issues.

Villa chair comes with a new base that is taller than some Flexsteel bases, which can cause Villa seat to be higher, which can cause driver to be too far from pedals.

Villa base mounting bolts are in a different position than Flextsteel floor bolts, and sometimes new floor holes are drilled, instead of reusing original bolt holes.

Original seat mounting bolts are usually positioned in motorhome steel floor frame to give seat a secure mount.
New drilled holes for Villa are made without regard to where floor steel frame is located.

Villa may be a bit wider and the driver chair has to be carefully mounted to be sure it can still be swiveled around in the space between couch and steering wheel.

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #12 –
To the best of my knowledge, our coach was  built with Villa seats. I think the originals are in the coach, and in their original positions. Both are large. The passenger seat will swivel. The driver's set is so close to the wall that it will not swivel. It is offset a bit to the left of the center of the steering wheel. The brake and accelerator pedals feel a bit far to the right.

We asked Flanagan at FOT about moving the chair to the right if we replace the flooring. His response was that it would be no problem. He did not consider it to be a problem to drill new holes in order to reposition the seat. His opinion was that the original buyer probably specified that the seat be as far left as possible, perhaps to provide more aisle space.

Barry provides some excellent issues to consider if one contemplates changing chairs.
J D Stevens
1997 U295 CAI 36' Build #5085
2002 Subaru Outback
Motorcade 16869
Bellville, TX

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Barry & Cindy –
......................Replacing a Flexsteel captain's chair with a Villa has had a few issues..................................
Barry,
Our set of Villas came out of a 2000 U320.
What I found was that the pedestals for our original (1998) Flexsteels were perfectly compatible with the 2000 Villa's swivel tables including the pivot bolts, the swivel bearing races and the mounting table/wiring clearances. 
The Villas do sit about 3/4 inch higher (the swivel table actually sits lower but the padding is much thicker, so the end result is that the seat is roughly 1/2 to 3/4 inch higher) (which we didn't need but isn't a problem).  The Villas slide nearly 2 inches further forward than the originals did (which wasn't needed but again is not a problem since the Villa total travel is over two inches greater and the driver's seat will back all the way to the couch in our U270), and they swivel just fine with the original configuration of couch, etc.
While not as beefy as the Villa pedestals, the original Flexsteel pedestals are plenty strong to handle the new Villas with no replacement or modification. 
The only difficult part (and what consumed the most time) was modifying the swivel table detent that holds the chair in the locked forward driving position.  That required careful measurement and grinding of the detent slot in order to make the Villa sit perfectly (squarely) forward.
I think that many people run into problems because they try to replace the pedestal mounts (just to avoid reworking the detent) when it may not be necessary.
FWIW,
Neal
The selected media item is not currently available.
Neal (& Brenda) Pillsbury
'02 U320 SPEC, 4200, DGFE, Build #5984
'04 Gold Wing
'07 Featherlite 24'
'14 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit
MC #14494
Exeter, NH & LaBelle FL
Quality makes the Heart Soar long after Price is Forgotten

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #14 –
Compared to some Flexsteel chairs, new 2011/2012 villa replacement chairs ordered by Foretravel remodel department may have taller bases. The bottom of the base may have different bolt hole spacing.
Some on our Forum had to have a pillow made so the driver can have a safer sitting position. The chair seat position difference was not anticipated by Foretravel before installation.
 

Re: Removal of Flexsteel Seats

Reply #15 –
Today, in order to facilitate what I thought might be a major repair on the AC/Heater fan motor, I dismounted the co-pilot's chair. The pedestal for this chair had not worked since a 10-year-old had played around the area some months back but since the chair was in more-or-less the best position we postponed any troubleshooting.

Til now. Chair off (needs some leather repair anyway) found that one of the connectors on the integral plug had backed out so that the female half of the plug could not make contact. Restored the connection and it works.

Chair is still out pending a decision on how best to repair the torn and worn leather. A previous owner may have had an animal that got somewhat rambunctious in this chair because there are numerous scars, open tears, and at least one "flap".

I'm going to modify the mounting to make it easier to re-mount.

Many thanks for all the tips and tricks.

Craig
1993 U225 36' Unihome GV with PACBRAKE exhaust retarder, Banks Stinger and Solar Panels.
Toad: 1999 Jeep Wrangler 2-door soft-top.

"No one has ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke."