Let me tell you a tale… a tale of two seats… which became 4 seats… which became 6 seats in the end… but I digress…
Laura and I had picked up some nice seat covers for the cab of Serenity. To make the old seats even comfier, I lined the seats with memory foam… making it pretty cushy for her old Plain Jane classic seats. But as we traveled I had developed a wish for Laura, that she could recline her seat back and take a snooze if she wanted to while we were on the road. I know… she could always climb up into the bed while I drove, but I felt safer for her to have the option for her to be seat belted and sleep while we were moving. Luckily, unlike a lot of the other ToyHomes we had seen, Serenity had space for the passenger seat to recline.
On my way down from Kenai that next day, with new storage pod still freshly strapped on the roof, I pulled into that junk yard (Sarge’s) where I had scored the mirrors for Serenity. I checked and they had plenty of Toyota 4Runners and Pickups on the premise that had the reclining seat function. I even found some SUPER CUSHY seats in a Toyota Camry. I went in and talked to them about the different vehicles, paid them for 2 seats, and they said I could have whichever one I wanted. I went out into the salvage yard with my small travel ratchet set, and quickly determined that it was too small- and I should bring my larger one back out there to gain the advantages of more torque and purchase. Another day then!
So the next day I returned with the proper tools, and a will to shoot for the stars. (A.K.A – The cushy Camry seats) I pulled one seat and quickly determined the mounting hardware underneath was contoured quite differently. So I put the seat back in the Camry figuring it would help out someone else to not have to pull it later, and went after one of the 4Runners.
As I was pulling out the seat, I decided to take a quick measurement and came to a quick realization: the mounting systems were different widths. When they made the seats for Serenity that did not recline- they spaced the mounting tracks 14″ apart. Once they started making the reclining seats they became 15″ apart. Hmmm… I was going to have to drill all new holes anyway. I decided to go after the Camry seats. When I got them home I had to go through quite the process. I had to end up cutting off the original rear feet for the mounting tracks, drill new holes through the rear of the tracks and all new holes in the floor of the cab, and patch the old ones with Gaco tape and re-paint them with bedliner. I had to remove the seat belts clips off of the floor of Serenity, patch those holes, and them mount them directly into the Camry seats as they were designed.
After almost a whole week of modifying, obtaining new hardware, busting and cutting up my knuckles, and problem solving, Serenity had safe, secure, and SUPER CUSHY seats, that also reclined. 😉
Alright! So we are 4 seats in! 2 out of Serenity, and 2 in from the Camry. But plans were not done yet! RJ kept mentioning that she had a hard time seeing over the dash and wheel of The Odyssey. I didn’t notice an issue when I had driven it, but I am 6’4″ and she is much shorter. With me removing the seats from Serenity- we did a comparison and Serenity’s seats were much taller. The Odyssey’s seats sat right on the cab floor. We determined that the mounting hardware was a perfect match.
So as soon as the cab floor was ready in The Odyssey, she would inherit Serenity’s old seats. Thus- 6 seats all together!
Geoff Murphy 2/22/2020