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New Seat


PhanDad

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Last fall my Homelite T12 seat looked like this:

Seat_012.jpg.f393174cfc12af364a092e003875b8ef.jpg

 

Found this generic tractor seat at Lowes for $40:

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But it only had these mounting holes:

Seat_007a.jpg.1a6a819eb0e40bd2164e99fd7ceec112.jpg

 

None of the holes were suitable for the hinged seat brackets, so out came the drill and threaded rivet kit and now we have the required mounting holes:

Seat_008.jpg.40ac4ae1279ebbec2cc6f264b2e0dfc8.jpg

 

Then bolt on the brackets:

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And bolt the seat to the tractor: 

Seat_010.jpg.fccb59d14625171053931f1e67dfeff7.jpg

 

When I first mounted the seat, it was tilted backward too much for my taste (very noticeable compared to the Simplicity seat). Luckily the Homelite seat pan has the drop off in front and I was able to reverse the bracket that mounts to the seat deck so the the loop is down rather than up. That solved the problem:

Seat_002.jpg.f7a142e5f1c7b3432f2bfc4cc6fe55af.jpg

 

As an aside, I was only able to use 5/16" bolts for the front 2 mounting holes because I only had 2 5/16" threaded rivets left. The company that made the kit is no longer in business. Anyone know where you can purchase threaded rivets?

Edited by PhanDad
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Auto body paint and supply stores generally carry a fair assortment of clinch nuts, thread inserts, etc. McMaster-Carr and MSC most likely have them also. I admire your skill at drilling holes in the seat frame without punching through the upholstery. ^
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That is a comfortable seat.Nice job on installing it. If none of the above that Roy mentioned have them in stock,try stopping in at your local body shop or semi tractor dealership.
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Bill, thanks for the great idea! I will do some investigative searching for these rivets. I have never heard of these until 3 minutes ago. They would definitely make uni seats more useable on older stuff. How much different is the rivet gun?
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Joe, The rivet gun is special - it uses mandrels that thread into the "rivets" to compress them. The "rivets" I have are aluminum. Don't know if they make steel ones, but you'd probably need a bigger gun to compress them. Here's a pic showing the gun, some mandrels and "rivets": 

Threaded_Rivet_0002.jpg.7482985e6fc84741899c85bc4dbcb2e0.jpg

There are two types of "rivets", one for thin metal that bulges out over the back of the metal like a regular rivet and another that sticks inside a solid wall hole.

Edited by PhanDad
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Interesting. Any thoughts on how to work with the newer seats that have the molded plastic seat pan. They have all the holes already drilled in the seat pan but they only add the nuts on the holes required to mount the seat for the particular application. I located some barbed T-nuts at the local hardware store that seem to match the ones that are installed in the seat, but I'm not sure if they simply press them down into the plastic or if they have the barbed nut hot before they press them into place and let the heat of the nut melt the barbs into the plastic seat pan. After what I spent for a new high back seat from a late model Conquest/Prestige I'm not in the mood for experimentation and risking cracking the plastic seat pan. Anyone have any thoughts.
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the T nuts are typically designed for wood applications. I would take the initiative and either gently heat the plastic with either a hair dryer or a heat gun or I would grind the barbs off and let a compression (belleville) washer give you the staying power for you. A lock washer will cut into the plastic. A Belleville washer is convex in shape and flattens out as you tighten it up. The spring steel that's used for these types of washers gives you a highter static torque rating when torqued to spec. It nearly doubles the holding power with the same torque. This should resist the vibration associated with our tractors and keep your nuts tight against the bolts. IMO
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