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kmorris

Uncomfortable Class A Captain Chairs

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My husband and I bought a well maintained 2005 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40PDQ in February.  Very nice, clean and mint condition. However the captains chairs are cosmetically great but horribly uncomfortable. It is making us not want to go on long trips which is exactly why we bought it.

Unit had 45000 miles.  We will be replacing them this winter.  Have sat in many of the Flexsteel brand and cannot find any we like.  Some seem short in the thigh. They all seem to slip our bottoms forward even with adjusting the seats.  Does anyone have seats they love?  What brand and style number do you have?  

Where did you buy them or if they can with your coach, what year, make and model is your coach?  We live in Cincinnati.

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

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kmorris,

Welcome to the Forum.

There should be a number of RV furniture manufacturers in the Elkhart, IN area. I would google RV furniture. You will find quite a few. Most should have dimensions of their seat cushions. 

We have a 2002 Monaco Dynasty and Flexsteel and are quite pleased with them. I am 6'2" and have no issues. When you google you might add over-sized and that might get you a deeper seat. 

Good luck,

Herman

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The two large manufacturers are Flexsteel and Villa. They make a range of chairs but the hard part is finding enough of the different models in one place to try them all out. Our first coach had Flexsteel and they were ok for 100 to 200 miles a day. Our Villa seats are good for up to 800 miles a day when I need to but usually we do 300-350 nowdays

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In my 98 Fleetwood Discovery it came with Flexsteel.  Has 108K miles and the seats are very comfortable, for up to 550 miles a day so far.

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19 hours ago, dons2346 said:

The two large manufacturers are Flexsteel and Villa. They make a range of chairs but the hard part is finding enough of the different models in one place to try them all out. Our first coach had Flexsteel and they were ok for 100 to 200 miles a day. Our Villa seats are good for up to 800 miles a day when I need to but usually we do 300-350 nowdays

Same with us.  Our previous coach had Flexsteel, they looked great but not very comfortable,.  This coach has Villas, don't look as good, but much more comfortable.

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Villa is very comfortable, my current coach has Flexsteel.....In a 07 DP I changed out my seats at a Freightliner shop for OTR hydraulic seats...WOW!  I'm 6' 8" :)  

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Herman.

I don't have the 07' anymore, mine is now a 10'....bad enough that Linda has a 40 foot DP....we are still trying to figure out what to do with 2 DP's! :lol::rolleyes:

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Bostrom Viking makes the most sought after seats in the OTR industry. I have used many over the years, air ride is my favorite. Just Google the name.

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Does anyone have an idea on how hard it would be to install one of the air ride seats in place of original flexsteel driver seat?

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Herman.  Yes, a 2006 Phaeton 40 DP, CAT 350, 8Kw Onan, 3000 Allison.  She got it 3 years ago! Got rid of the Powergear and installed HWH last year.  It's got 3 slides and she want's 4, she also want's bath and a half....don't ask why! :P:wacko:

Roland.  It can't be too difficult, they took my Flexsteel out of the 40 foot Tour and installed the new seat in an hour. I think the total cost was around $1,600.  That was in 2009 !  I drove the next day, from Seattle, WA. to Rocksprings, WY.  My body felt great...my mind was dead ! :lol:

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If you are a DIYer, it is not real difficult, as with any changeout there may be some modifications required. Such as height from the floor to the top of the seat is the most difficult to achieve in many cases, but careful planning will net good results. One of my favorite changeouts was a driver seat from a junkyard Chrysler 300, less expensive than the new  otr seats, but boy was it comfortable. Also most coaches have a skirt below the seat to the floor just to hide imperfections. In my current bus conversion, I used the original seat, and had it recovered, that was a very good decision, it has an air adjusted height control, although it actually uses a foot pump at the base of the pedestal. I decided that if greyhound was good with letting their driver sit in the same seat 4 to 5 hours, then into another bus for the same time frame to return to their home base in another bus just like he drove to destination, it must be pretty comfortable, and that is correct. The seat has 9 inches front to back travel, 8 inches up and down, coupled with a steering column that adjust from straight up to 60 degrees towards the driver, and 6 inches up and down for height. If one cant get comfortable with those adjustments, it wasn't meant for that person to drive.

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 We have long wanted to change the drivers and passenger's seats in our current coach.  Is it possible to use the Bostrom seats or other conversions in swivel mode?  I would love to have a real driving seat but also want to have the flexibility of rotating the seat for comfortable group conversation.

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10 hours ago, manholt said:

Herman.

I don't have the 07' anymore, mine is now a 10'....bad enough that Linda has a 40 foot DP....we are still trying to figure out what to do with 2 DP's! :lol::rolleyes:

Donations come to mind as I'm without right now. :(

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:lol: So, sorry Wayne!  Linda took out the sofa and put in a Lazy Boy recliner...$90K for hers or $210K for mine!

Tom.  Mine did.  Don't remember the make.

Herman, it's been there for over 2 years now...I looked at it last year, got 2 bunk beds that's been built up in rear and there is only about 3' of clearance to roof...sit up at night ! OUCH..:wacko:

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The biggest issue I have with our coach and seats, you drive so long between fill ups, my lower back starts to hurt. With the gasser 180 miles and you had to stop for fuel, this gave me a chance to stretch. But in a C you only have enough room to sneeze, no room to move your legs due to the dog house, so after a few hours the pain was real, now its just some discomfort.

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Tom, if you carefully shop, in most cases, you can usually use your same pedestal with very little pedestal modification. The last one that I helped with, only had to use an 11 gage plate of steel, drilled holes to attach the plate to the old pedestal, them drilled to attach the new seat, that ped was a swivel type. Can do the same thing to move a seat position in many cases. Joe, yes the Viking does offer an adjustable lumbar support, I've never seen a power leg rest, may have them, just not saw one yet myself. Sue uses a power leg rest, she has a bean bag that she powers :ounder her legs. LOL

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13 minutes ago, kaypsmith said:

Sue uses a power leg rest, she has a bean bag that she powers :ounder her legs. LOL

:lol:

DW loves that power leg rest, if it went away it would'nt go over well :wacko:

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Your pedestal is bolted to your floor with 4 bolts. The seat platform (which swivels) is off set forward. You could remove the seat, unbolt the pedestal and reverse it. Then remount the seat. Your seat would now be 3 to 4 inches further back.

You might have to make some adjustments to the swivel release cable. It would not hamper turning the seat around. But again watch the chair back and the slide.

Herman 

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Yeah...Co Pilots are notorious about leaving the seat in the way of a slide...Ops!  Gee I forgot, does your insurance cover that? :o:o:o:angry:

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51 minutes ago, manholt said:

Yeah...Co Pilots are notorious about leaving the seat in the way of a slide...Ops!  Gee I forgot, does your insurance cover that? :o:o:o:angry:

Glad I don't have that problem, my drivers seat all the way back is almost 1' from the slide, unless the seat is reclined into a laying position. Funny, I still have the warning decal above the switch to put the seat all the way forward :unsure:

DW is notorious for leaving the leg rest open and the stairwell cover closed so I cant get down the staircase to the door :ph34r:

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