AMAZING Spinning Seat Stealth Van Mod!!! 

Faroutride.com shows these swivels and a way to lower e-brake

Disassemble that e-brake handle assembly so you can look and think about it for a while and also lower the drivers seat and see how you like it without the risers. Wouldn't it be nice if the stand for the e-brake could be shortened.

It's great to see another person that is able to work on, fix and maintenance there own stuff. I really enjoy watching your families self reliance, keep up the amazing work your awesome.

relocate the emergency brake lever?....Custom bracket...

The "doo hickey" is a mounting point for a child seat strap.

sir Wrangler if your unable to lower the hand brake when your van goes to the dealer for your 4x4 fitting out you should see if they can fit a centerconsole handbrake lever. they are rotated 90 degrees and pull towards you instead of up from beside you.

I wonder why the swivel manufacturers don’t put the latch leaver on the upper swivel? That way you could have multiple detents and the latch would always be in the same position no matter where the seat was facing.

Cody, the main thing speaking as an electrical engineer I would strongly is to put insulating covers over the battery terminals to avoid accidental short circuits, short circuits across battery terminals is a dead cert to cause a battery to rupture, also have a fuse as close to the positive terminal as possible again to protect against shorts

i am very impressed - well done

Following your series, learned a lot already. Thanks!

Great video on the van seats. Almost looks like the drivers seat is up higher then the passenger. Then what do I know. I’m sure u will come up with a plan your good at that. like that u carry your gun with u while your working. I always have mine on me too, in my yard and out and about ( legally ) and have for the past 23 years. Look forward to watching the ESPAR install.

Nice, love seeing this Van develop! Thanks for sharing :)

The piece you cut off looks like one of the anchors for the "latch" system for a child safety seat.

Lower the ebrake lever yourself

That "doohickey" on the back of the seat frame is probably the bracket that you hook a child's car seat up.. many of them have (or had, I think there is a new system now) a belt with a hook that would go over the seat and clip behind the seat on a bracket similar to this. Keep up the great work Cody. This is a very interesting series

Very nicely done! Thanks for sharing!!

I would never have guessed you are 6’4”

I laughed hard at the "Galaxy 8 that blows up on planes" line hahaha

Liking and saving all of these videos for future reference. You always make quality videos and projects so this will be a useful reference if I get the opportunity to do a build. Also, I like that you carry in most of your videos.

Loving the van build, keep up the good work.

I think the loop you cut off is for attaching a child car safety seat.

you will have to make the table really tall might be to tall for the back seat people

That dohickey was a carseat harness anchor point.

Love to see this series.

You can lower the emergency brake and get rid of the riser. There are instruction on fordtransitusaforum.com The thread is Driver seat swivel install by freeriden.

I like finding all the tidbits from your other videos that make their appearance. I'm glad you still have your Glock handy... and some Soylent in the door.

Looking good!

Love the van mod videos! Would you do a review of your firearm collection?

Thanks for continuing the van series!

Great video!

converting to metric? great videos, thank you for the van content!

Hey there, love the project. I'm not sure if anyone has answered the question yet I but believe I know what the bracket you cut off is for. Those seats are the same seat for the stripped van as well as the people carrier. Since the stripped van only has two seats in the front, legally you are allowed to put a car seat in the front (it will have a smart seat occupancy sensor, or a manual airbag override). The bracket was for the top anchor strap on a front facing car seat. Hope that helps answer the question.

I believe that the small metal piece that you cut off was for a car seat latch system. there is normally a strap that goes over the back of a seat and clips on behind it.

That bar that needed grinding off may have been a tie-down point for a infant carseat.

I have only the passenger seat that I want to swivel in my van. Do you have a link for those swivels? I would take that brake apart and see if it could be moved over or back or forward or shortened to clear. Makes me appreciate my foot brake a bit more. :)

it was for a childs seat is my guess

He likes the seat raised because it's more comfortable on the knees. That's my guess. When I'm in a car my legs are more parallel to the ground and after a while my legs get uncomfortable. With the seat raised it's more like sitting in a proper chair.

I think that thing you cut off is for attaching the strap of a child safety seat, which I think Jack might not need anymore lol =)

Nice to see you have the ol Glock in it's holster again

in regards to modifying the parking brake handle, it is far more involved than just cutting a few inches off the mounting bracket as it is still a cable and mechanical advatage that allows you to apply the brake, if you move the mount down then you change the geometry involved

I saw on another video about a Sprinter van conversion that had a kit with the seat swivels that moved the emergency brake more towards the center. That way the seat can stay at almost stock. Hopefully someone will come up with that for that Ford. By the way I carry every day. Our Sheriff's department is great, but they have not assigned a deputy to watch over my wife and I. So it's up to us to protect ourselves. It's the same everywhere, people just haven't figured it out yet.

Have you considered what would happen, with this mod, during an airbag deployment?

e-brake relocation???

My two cents. I'm 6'7" and every vehicle I drive, the first thing I have to do is lower the seat to the floor. Even then the rear view mirror on the windshield often blocks much of the view of cars to my right at stop sign intersection where the crossing street is slightly elevated. As you mentioned being the first to a stop light is like a humor show for my passenger s as I crane my neck forward. If I'm lucky there is a light mounted on the vertical pole which saves me the trouble. Anyway, my take away is that tall people need our seats to be lower even though it is less comfortable and harder on my lower back on long drives.

I am not a christian... i dont believe in any gods... BUT i believe in good craftmanship! Greetings from Germany.

Get longer pedals and cut a hole in the roof

the factory swivels operate from the rear, I like those, where did you get them? we convert 2500 to 3000 a year

That van is going to be awesome. Greetings from Andreas on Off Grid Sweden

Awesome video I enjoy watching them

Great video thank you!!!!

Modified my Vandura many years ago and being 6' 3" redrilled the seat box max to the rear . Had to adjust the seat max forward before rotation but what a difference on long commutes . Thanks be

The E-brake is moved straight down about 2 3/4". To clarify the rubbing on the sheet metal; the housing passes through 2 pieces of metal. The top has a solid grommet that keeps it off the metal and centered. You can see it from my 6th pic down. The second pass through (only visibly from below) doesn't use a grommet. It is just over sized, and with the factory E-brake location, the housing passes through the center (with 1/2" clearance around it). Since you're lowering the E-brake significantly, you have to push that much of the cable & housing through the floor (unless you wanted to take the time and shorten the cable & housing). When you push this extra through the floor, its fine because it will just have more slack under the van. This does however, make it off center on the second pass through and touch the metal. With long term vibrations, this will undoubtedly wear through the housing. I haven't done it yet because I didn't have plug in power for my jig saw, but simply making the second pass through larger to re-center the cable should do the trick. I'll post a pic when complete, I won't drive much till then to minimize wear.

Bottom line is you are having fun and making it the way YOU want . I have had swivel seat bases in my class C and my class B motor homes . I personally have not actually used the drivers seats utilizing swivel . On my class C that was a Ford chassis , the seat mounting points were offset away from the door . So that factory original position was offset about 4" to the right , so leg was against the dog house . Oh , also the armrest was minimized . After first trip I removed swivel and made a new base mounting plate and centered the seat to the steering wheel . It made it much more comfortable to drive . My wife had to use something to keep her feet up so the blood did not get cut off while riding .In my class B I also never use the swivel on the drivers seat , but the passenger seat gets swiveled to form the single sleeper up front . Did you mention the charge controller for lithium batteries ? Have heard of some bad results stemming from incorrect charge controllers . Would love to upgrade to lithium/iron batteries in our motor home , but overall cost is a bit prohibitive with a controller .

As a welder, I can testify to things accidentally catching fire.

Very Nice!!!

cool video bro, yeah, that'd be nice to have, the swivel seats, Ford ought to make the Windshield taller and mount the seat belt to the Seat instead of the wall, in order for that swivel to be an option, and still have for tall people, or make it so the seat can raise and lower, something at least.

Cody I’m pretty sure that bracket is for a child seat or booster seat. I have the same van for work. Great job.

Adapting that emergency brake is the best option, to remove the need of that additional height that is. I’m not a car guy with the knowledge of how to exactly do it but it wouldn’t take much for a shop to do. Just fashion a bracket to mount it lower (and out of the way even when engaged and taller due to the arm being up) and make sure the line has the correct tension (if it’s a cable) or adapt the linkage correctly.

I really like the swivels, but sitting too high may affect where the air bags deployment area hit your body. Finding a shorter mounting lever for the brake and shortening the adjustment arm, that goes through the floor, or cable, whatever it is, is an idea I'd play with. Always having to hunch over to see a traffic light will get old, fast. I'm watching this van build closely, since I'm at the point in my life to start traveling the country. Thanks for sharing and wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Regards, Briz

My aunt has a dodge mini van that the second row bucket seats swivel around and it has a table that goes in the floor. You also can ride backwards because they lock in place and the seat belt is attached to the seat.

the 'more flammable' lithium based batteries are self sustaining at iirc at about 150c, and the ones you have there about 300c, but over-volt a cell it will still go into runaway, and then you get a chain reaction as the heat from it sets off the next cell. i love these batteries use lithium in everything i have.

Relocate it or get rid of it all together when’s the last time you used your emergency brake on a automatic transmission?

With the seat up that high, will your legs still be able to fit under the table? If you have to raise up the table, will it be too high for the people sitting at the bench?

Finally getting a hand on the thomas fire here 👍

Please try to lower the e-brake system. Your head will be dangerously high not only for visibility, but safety in event of a crash. Additionally, you'll struggle to find an ideal height for your table with the seats at such different heights.

Did you mount the seat swivels upside down? If they are mounted as shown on the website, the red handle is always between your knees.

Pick up seat idea is genius might have t look into that

That loop on the back of the seat frame is for the 3 point harnesses that are on baby seats.

the bracket you cut off is an anchor point for a child safety seat (there because the are packages like yours) that do not have a rear seat for them )

Do they make a spring loaded mount to lift it above the brake, and lower when you sit in it. You wont be sitting in it while you swivel, so it should work ok. Or maybe an airride type of spring like a semi.

Perhaps you can create some sot of Parallel hinge that lets you lift and lower the seat on the hinge, that way you can drop it to the original height, and also raise to clear around the hand break and hen drop it back again?

Amazing video. Keep up the good work

If all else fails you could relocate the parking brake UNDER the van by eliminating the handle and pulling the brake cable with a linear actuator. A three position toggle could serve to retract or extend the actuator. Just make sure you incorporate a switch as needed to illuminate the BRAKE light on the dash. Once installed you could remove the shim from beneath the driver's seat and return it to the level of the passenger seat. Harmony would be restored.

Thank you for your explanation.

Adding another arm rest and do the swivels lock into place when turned around?

Hello, am sure you can simply remove the plastic cover which is why the riser is there. Double check the clearance behind it but am sure it will work without the riser if the cover is removed

With the drivers seat, if you removed the riser (or made a smaller one e.g. 1") would it clear the emergency brake if it was all the way down? If it does, could you put the van in gear (or park, if it's automatic), drop the break down so you can swivel round, then pull the brake back up?

Raise the floor. When they do conversion vans for wheelchair bound drivers, they raise or lower the floor as needed to accommodate the chair.

What about the wires for seatbelts, do you have to make them longer?

Its awesome to see how it is coming together, my dad made a small wood foot stool for my mom as she is only 4f5", her feet never reached the floor in his truck, maybe you can do that for mrs W?

Now you don't have to turn the entire vehicle around when the kids misbehave! (I crack me up!)

I have found many of the cheap tools have come up in quality a little. They still aren't great quality but many are good enough for something you don't need often. If you need something for a single job they will work & you have that tool for occasional future uses. I still go high quality for regular use tools but for specialty things that you rarely use, some of the cheap tools are good enough. Like that cut off wheel. If you use it once every few years it's good enough. A tool used for light home projects will get less use in a decade than a commercially used tool will get in a few days. Twenty years ago, cheap tools were so bad they just weren't worth anything & some still are that bad but now, many are good enough for light duty. I bought a $29 router a few years ago to do cabinet doors. It worked great & I still have that for another project. It wouldn't last long if I used it frequently but it gives me that capability for occasional projects. The point I am making is the cheaper tools are finding a niche in the market.

I also just noticed that the window in the back is in I went back through the videos and I don't remember you installing it or talking about it really. It just appears haha. Can you touch on that topic for a second in the next video maybe? Did it alter the supports at all?

get yourself some lithium polymer batteries. defiantly not safe at all haha. these are the ones in like rc cars and stuff, they just blow up if you look at them. but they are so powerful!

Honestly, forget the riser, you really don't need the emergency brake with an automatic, yea it does relieve some pressure from the transmission but people have been doing it for decades without issues so i think your fine. If you need the functionality you may be able to drop the emergency brake down a bit or just it differently. In Europe most transits are manual so you should look into that and see how it works there with those seat swivels since they're european.

There's got to be a way to lower that emergency brake. It should just be a mechanism that pulls a metal cord, so it really shouldn't matter too much where it's positioned, especially if you're only lowering it two inches. It'd be worth it to me to have the swivel if all I had to do was cut two inches out of the metal mount for the e-brake and weld it back together.

I guess, the metal loop at the seat is for a ratched strap to hook on. To secure load in the back of your van

Okay. Lifepo4 batteries if shorted, will smoke for like an hour and then burst into a very minimal, almost like a cigarette lighter type fire near the connector.. So if you're sitting in the car and see smoke underneath the passenger seat. You have lots of time to disconnect it. Best case scenario, the connector if it's a weaker material, it'll just melt off and the battery will disconnect itself. Also keep in mind that if one cell breaks, the rest of the cells will destroy that one broken cell beyond repair.

Well, you could just adjust the pedals and place a small spacer board under your feet to solve the issue, some simple woodworking and boom our done. also might be usable for other items or important documents too. That's what i would honestly do but im not there so just my two cents

i believe that the "dohicky" you cut of is a mounting point for a babyseat.

I have a fever and the only prescription is more HEARTRACER!! Can we get an update on the family ? Btw thank you for the Van videos it really helps as I am planning my own adventure van build 😜😃😃😃😀

Maybe an electric e-break mounted on the side of the drivers seat is what you'll need.

those are great for family trips

Galaxy Note 8 has probably one of the safest batteries in the world.... after the Note 7 fiasco :P

Maybe you should just have the passenger seat swivel and leave the driver seat stationary. Just see if you like it. Just a thought.

We in europe, we first of all use the metric system, so that's better. And then for these conversions we have the fiat ducato which has the emergency brake on the left and lowered so it does't botheres you at all. But there are fords and mercedeses out there which have 'em on the right which still work so there should be a conversion braket for it.

Relocate the ebrake handle?

We use that very same little heater to warm our bathroom before taking a shower.

How often does the hand gun get in your way while working?

It’s going to effect the height of your table as well. For your legs to fit under the table it’s going to need to be tall, maybe too tall for Jack to eat at comfortably.