Seat Mod Question

I’m thinking about raising my seat about four inches, while I’m at it, I’m thinking about adding a seat that can swivel around. It’s a pedal yak. Would you still be able to pedal a kayak if the seat swivels? I’d almost think it might make it easier since you could roll your hips a little.

Interesting question... The safety of this depends largely on the width of your kayak.

In my mind, the swivel motion would make it more difficult to pedal? It might also create an unwanted rhymic side-to-side tipping motion of the kayak, especially with the higher center of gravity caused by raising the seat. Aside from potentially tipping over, I assume that the side-to-side rhythm will create more drag and make for a less efficient ride? Again, this is simply my assumption... I could be wrong on this.

For what it's worth, I have not seen a swivel seat in any kayak. I have seen just about every other creature comfort, but not a swivel seat. I assume this is because the swivel will be prone to tipping the kayak.

Just my two cents. Take it for what its worth :-)

I don’t disagree with anything you said. My other kayak is a big, stable, KC kayak and I had a swivel seat in that. It worked very well but that boat is a tank. Even if I could just turn my body 30 degrees I could get around my large, fat belly and get stuff out of the milk crate that is mounted behind me.

4in raise is quite a bit that alone would make me a little nervous and adding a swivel seat would add to that. Would you be able to lock the seat in to keep it from swiveling while peddling? What brand/model are you modifying?

It’s a 12 foot Seastream. There is a Seastream Facebook site and 4 inch lifts seem to be pretty common on this boat.

Below is a common seat mod those guys are doing. I want to turn it up to 11

11 inch rise in seat on a 12' kayak? Let us know how that works out for you on a breezy day.

I’m not raising 11 inches. I’m going 4 inches. But possibly with a swivel seat

I've fished a longish pedal drive kayak with a swivel seat for the past year or so.

1. If you want a swivel seat, get the locking swivel base. The problem is you'll often find yourself facing straight forward but your seat will be rotated. Ergonomically this is terrible pedaling posture. Very inefficient being that you don't have a solid surface to brace against thats perpendicular to the direction of force being applied. Less power transferred and increased injuries and fatigue. Thats a lose lose there.

No idea what a swivel mount looks like for the seat above.

2. Four inch risers are not extreme. Most Sit On Top kayaks come with seats that are pretty low. I would advise most people to raise their seat up a bit in a pedal kayak. Much more comfortable when pedaling and fishing at the same time. As for how to raise your seat, the above seat looks just like a pvc job. If that's what you're gonna do I would definitely use schedule 40 pvc. Look in the sprinkler/landscaping section of the hardware store for the dark gray colored stuff. Couple risers/nipples should do the job. This could be done with metal pipe as well but its gonna add quite a bit of weight.

Thanks for the feedback David!

I opted out of the swivel seat idea for now, but did raise the seat about 4 inches using the picture below as a template. I don’t have any pictures of my finished mod, but it’s similar to this one, I took it out for a very short spin and very happy with it so far, Maybe after work I can give it a better workout. It does add a little tip, but nothing I’m concerned about yet,

My beer holder fell off in the forst hour, but I can fix that. Besides that, it was a really great improvement and I’m glad I did it.

Nice work! Curious what is the reason for wanting to raise your seat up?

It gives me a better angle to pedal. It also helps me be able to turn around to get to the crate in the back. It gives me a better angle to cast off to the side, it also helps with the foot room on the floor. If I wasn’t fat, I might not have needed to do it, but I’m real glad I did this. So much more comfortable

Makes sense

The Bluesky 360 has a swivel sea;t and, I just saw some mfgr. has come out with a more standard form kayak with a swivel seat. It might be Nucanoe . . . I can't recall.

But, that these exist doesn't change the validity of Mike's concerns. I have a Native Ultimate FX 12 footer, narrow at just over 30" and if I raise the seat to its higher setting, it materially changes my balance in the kayak. 4" is a heck of a lot of rise to a manned kayak's center of mass.

I'd still go for it. There are swivel bases out there, pretty cheap, too. A handy guy could rig one up and give it some time on the water to see if the added benefits outweigh any negatives. You'll certainly be able to increase casting opportunities. Nothing quite like being in a fixed seat kayak and having it "weather [censored]" away from your intended casting target.

Brad

You could also raise up your crate or whatever your storing behind you. This would make it easier to grab over the shoulder or with just reaching back and not turning your full body.

I pull my rods from behind me like arrows from a quiver. Like an elf from Lord of the Rings. I put them back like He-Man putting the sword back into his back mounted sheath. As a bonus these moves look majestical and inspire others and yourself into battle with our gilled quarry.

I feel like turning around to grab something from behind you is were many a yakker makes an error and goes swimming....especially after giving your boss beer holder a good workout on an outing.

I tried the over the shoulder quiver move once but I snagged a crank bait into the life jacket that hangs over my seat. It was a huge hassle getting those hooks out of the fabric.