Just used this guide to install driver and passenger swivels in my 2016 144. It went well! The plastic skirting closest to the doors snapped off in my hands at exactly the right height to clear the base, so that was awesome. My swivels did not match up perfectly with the seat base holes, but backing the screws out 80% of the way and then screwing them in a bit at a time in an X pattern got everything snugged in nicely. Nice tutorial!
Sounds good! Mercedes does not have the best assembly quality, and it’s often helpful to loosen the mounting bolts between the seat base and the chassis before bolting the swivel to the pedestal. Somehow the seat bases can be torqued down slightly out of square
I just finished installing these swivels in my 2021 Sprinter 2500. Worked perfectly with the hand brake kit. The only mod I needed to make was to use my dremel to trim out a bit of material on the inside of the hand brake cover. Thank you so much for your videos!!
Thx for the video. I just used it to install Scopema swivels on a 2016 144. Overall it went well. I did have the passenger side swivel not line up with the factory bolt holes in the base. So I had to use a dremel to open up the mounting hole on the swivel. The plastic side skirts have to be trimmed on both sides of the seat, not just the outside, so that added a lot of time to the job. The cover for the parking brake did not want to go back on fully, something was definitely preventing it from snapping back in place even after I trimmed it several times. But, after all the fiddling, they are both installed and work really well.
Thanks for the report. The reason the swivels may not have aligned perfectly is due to Mercedes-Benz assembly quality. People have found that when various aftermarket swivels don’t align with the holes, simply loosening the mounting between the seat pedestal box and the floor of the van will release the tension and allow the swivel to bolt up. Or so I hear. I agree, trimming the plastic is the most time consuming part. If a person only used their seat on a higher setting, the trimming is not necessary. However to do it right and allow full range of seat motion, the skirts must be trimmed. Thanks!
@@ourkaravan Thanks, one other comment would be that with the seats fully rotated around, and slid back towards the dash, with the doors closed, the seat cannot rotate at all due to the armrest on the seat contacting the armrest on the door. So they don't really allow for any adjustment when they are fully swivelled. They basically have to be pointed straight back and cannot be at much of an angle unless the seat is slid all the way forward on the tracks. Not a huge deal, but something of note for potential buyers.
@@ourkaravan I heard if you get the stock ones, then the metal box below is lowered. That sounds worthwhile. My wife is so high up on the seat it's crazy, even for normal driving
Yes, I have the stock MB swivels with the lowered bases, ordered straight from Mercedes this way. The MB seat swivels are very tall, like 3-1/2" I believe. So my MB swivels on lowered bases sit about 9" off the floor (measured from the driver footwell.). The red van in the video has the higher standard seat base on the driver's side but with the low-profile Scopema it's about 10" high, so only 1" higher than mine. (I also loose space in my pedestal for things like heaters, amps, etc.). His passenger seat has a MB lowered seat pedestal he installed himself, and with the low profile Scopema is only 6-1/2" high. So there you go!
Hi Scott, the van in the video belongs to a friend. He says it's clear eye redwood with semi gloss clear polyurethane. I plan to do a van tour some time in the near future.
All swivel seats have some amount of movement due to the way they pivot from a central hole in the middle. Some seat swivels actually feel loose and clunk side to side, and the owner reports these do not do that. Even my Mercedes seat swivels have more side-to-side movement than a seat bolted straight to a seat pedestal with no swivel.
I had these installed on my 2014 Sprinter & think the installer messed up. Seems there are 2 different length bolts to fasten the plates to the pedestal & then seats to the plates. No install videos mention this. All seems to function ok so does it matter if the shorter bolts are the ones bolting plate to pedestal or is that a safety issue?
Thank you! Very helpful video as usual. Just installed these on my 2018 crew. I have the heater in the floor but had no trouble cutting the plastic handbrake cover with the jigsaw. I am getting a little jiggle on the drivers seat. I double checked and everything’s tight. Just a slight movement on the drivers seat. Is this common or should I be worried?
I suspect the jiggle could be coming from the Mercedes seat base. I would check to make sure it is properly tightened. One of mine required tightening (and I bought it new with no previous owners.)
After doing some research and reading some testimonials about the swivel I found that "the seat only locks in the forward position. It does not latch when facing the rear." This could be an issue for some who want to lock the seat to a drop-down table. Hopefully in future revisions this will get fixed.
I suppose it could be a pro or a con...having the ability to swivel from the rear-facing position without having to unlock is rather nice. Just curious, are you attaching a table to the seat, hence why you would want it to lock rear-facing?
@@ourkaravan Exactly. Also, my engineering brain just seems to think that a lock should be an option. I have the old style on the passenger seat install by Sportsmobile - think that’s the name- back in ‘07 so it’s a bear to rotate. I’ll get a couple like yours when they are back in stock.
I have not installed the 2019+ version but as you stated I understand the newer generation seats have two studs that must be shortened. Those studs are easily removed with an angle grinder or multi tool.
excellent demo with enough detail for us to mimic
Just used this guide to install driver and passenger swivels in my 2016 144. It went well! The plastic skirting closest to the doors snapped off in my hands at exactly the right height to clear the base, so that was awesome. My swivels did not match up perfectly with the seat base holes, but backing the screws out 80% of the way and then screwing them in a bit at a time in an X pattern got everything snugged in nicely. Nice tutorial!
Sounds good! Mercedes does not have the best assembly quality, and it’s often helpful to loosen the mounting bolts between the seat base and the chassis before bolting the swivel to the pedestal. Somehow the seat bases can be torqued down slightly out of square
I just finished installing these swivels in my 2021 Sprinter 2500. Worked perfectly with the hand brake kit. The only mod I needed to make was to use my dremel to trim out a bit of material on the inside of the hand brake cover. Thank you so much for your videos!!
Thanks for the info, and for the kind words!
So great to see your daughter grow
Thank you, your video was of great help as always!❤
Awesome, thanks for watching!
Thx for the video. I just used it to install Scopema swivels on a 2016 144. Overall it went well. I did have the passenger side swivel not line up with the factory bolt holes in the base. So I had to use a dremel to open up the mounting hole on the swivel. The plastic side skirts have to be trimmed on both sides of the seat, not just the outside, so that added a lot of time to the job. The cover for the parking brake did not want to go back on fully, something was definitely preventing it from snapping back in place even after I trimmed it several times. But, after all the fiddling, they are both installed and work really well.
Thanks for the report. The reason the swivels may not have aligned perfectly is due to Mercedes-Benz assembly quality. People have found that when various aftermarket swivels don’t align with the holes, simply loosening the mounting between the seat pedestal box and the floor of the van will release the tension and allow the swivel to bolt up. Or so I hear.
I agree, trimming the plastic is the most time consuming part. If a person only used their seat on a higher setting, the trimming is not necessary. However to do it right and allow full range of seat motion, the skirts must be trimmed. Thanks!
@@ourkaravan Thanks, one other comment would be that with the seats fully rotated around, and slid back towards the dash, with the doors closed, the seat cannot rotate at all due to the armrest on the seat contacting the armrest on the door. So they don't really allow for any adjustment when they are fully swivelled. They basically have to be pointed straight back and cannot be at much of an angle unless the seat is slid all the way forward on the tracks. Not a huge deal, but something of note for potential buyers.
That’s true for the factory Mercedes Benz swivels as well.
thanks a looot!!!
My pleasure!
Nice! I put in the same ones!!
Good choice. There are things I like about these more than my Mercedes-Benz swivels.
@@ourkaravan I heard if you get the stock ones, then the metal box below is lowered. That sounds worthwhile. My wife is so high up on the seat it's crazy, even for normal driving
Yes, I have the stock MB swivels with the lowered bases, ordered straight from Mercedes this way. The MB seat swivels are very tall, like 3-1/2" I believe. So my MB swivels on lowered bases sit about 9" off the floor (measured from the driver footwell.). The red van in the video has the higher standard seat base on the driver's side but with the low-profile Scopema it's about 10" high, so only 1" higher than mine. (I also loose space in my pedestal for things like heaters, amps, etc.).
His passenger seat has a MB lowered seat pedestal he installed himself, and with the low profile Scopema is only 6-1/2" high. So there you go!
Van looks absolutely fantastic. I tried finding what your ceiling is and how you installed it. Is there a video you have on that or is this new?
Hi Scott, the van in the video belongs to a friend. He says it's clear eye redwood with semi gloss clear polyurethane. I plan to do a van tour some time in the near future.
Great vid but what I REALLY wanna know is….Do these swivels REMAIN SQUEAK-FREE OVER TIME? My old swivels are heinously squeaky.
2 years later and no squeak
I need these for my 2017 Transit
They most definitely make a version for the Transit. 👍
Great vid as always ! Does the seat shake after assembly? It looks a little wobble.
All swivel seats have some amount of movement due to the way they pivot from a central hole in the middle. Some seat swivels actually feel loose and clunk side to side, and the owner reports these do not do that. Even my Mercedes seat swivels have more side-to-side movement than a seat bolted straight to a seat pedestal with no swivel.
I had these installed on my 2014 Sprinter & think the installer messed up. Seems there are 2 different length bolts to fasten the plates to the pedestal & then seats to the plates. No install videos mention this. All seems to function ok so does it matter if the shorter bolts are the ones bolting plate to pedestal or is that a safety issue?
Thank you! Very helpful video as usual. Just installed these on my 2018 crew. I have the heater in the floor but had no trouble cutting the plastic handbrake cover with the jigsaw. I am getting a little jiggle on the drivers seat. I double checked and everything’s tight. Just a slight movement on the drivers seat. Is this common or should I be worried?
I suspect the jiggle could be coming from the Mercedes seat base. I would check to make sure it is properly tightened. One of mine required tightening (and I bought it new with no previous owners.)
After doing some research and reading some testimonials about the swivel I found that "the seat only locks in the forward position. It does not latch when facing the rear."
This could be an issue for some who want to lock the seat to a drop-down table. Hopefully in future revisions this will get fixed.
I suppose it could be a pro or a con...having the ability to swivel from the rear-facing position without having to unlock is rather nice. Just curious, are you attaching a table to the seat, hence why you would want it to lock rear-facing?
@@ourkaravan Exactly. Also, my engineering brain just seems to think that a lock should be an option. I have the old style on the passenger seat install by Sportsmobile - think that’s the name- back in ‘07 so it’s a bear to rotate. I’ll get a couple like yours when they are back in stock.
Good to know, thanks for the suggestion
Any idea why on the 19+ model sprinters you have to cut off the studs off the slider rails? Appears the 07-18 you don't have to like in your video.
I have not installed the 2019+ version but as you stated I understand the newer generation seats have two studs that must be shortened. Those studs are easily removed with an angle grinder or multi tool.
Is it possible to swivel the driver’s seat with the handbrake on or does it have to be off in order to be low enough that the seat can turn?
I confirmed that once the seat is swiveled 180 degrees the handbrake can be applied.
I have a 2020 sprinter crew with electronic driver/passenger seats... is that brand compatible with my seats?
Scopema only lists the air suspension seats as being incompatible, but make sure you confirm before ordering.
works on my 2019
So this one is higher quality then the leisure lines?
Did you watch the video where he compares them? It’s like, totally on the video bra.
@@Qwiv thx
Is leisure lines a brand? I’ve never heard of it. This one is really nice, there are things I like about it even more than the Mercedes Benz swivels.
@@ourkaravan leisure lines is the one that most people get on the FB group “promaster build out”. It’s in the UK.
Ah okay. I have never seen that one in person so I can’t comment. My experiences have rested with Sportscraft, Scopema, and the Mercedes Benz swivels.
First!
Great install Ken!
Dang you even beat me to it
Digging the patch behind ur head...aim high
I’ll let the van owner know !
@@ourkaravan Airforce?
Not I but my friend that owns this particular van was in the AF