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Seat failures due to hardware

J

JDA

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I have a 2011 22SFI. I was recently shocked to find out that Bennington did not use seats with internal hardware made of stainless steel on a boat designed for fishing! Presumably fishing includes exposure to salt water! Several of my pedestal swivel seats have failed internally as the nuts and bolts internal to the seats and back supports have literally dissolved! I can’t replace the hardware without removing the vinyl covers from the frames.

Any suggestions on how to proceed appreciated. Is there somewhere like Overtons, etc. where I can order compatible replacements? Recovering seems like it would take too long and be prohibitive.

Up the creek without a seat.
 
Shocked? Hmmm…

I’d wager the majority of pontoon owners are fresh water boaters, although obviously many others are not. I just say that to point out why one earth would you hold the position “Presumably fishing includes exposure to salt water!” I bet most pontoon fisherman are freshwater only, and those that are not get a salt water series pontoon or salt water oriented fishing boat.

I appreciate the frustration, and stainless sounds like it would be a nicer option of material.

Maybe I’m just being testy this evening, and I probably have to chill out. Just kinda stuck in my side. Maybe its time for a beer on my part. :p

Hopefully some other members have some suggestions for you that meet your salt water needs better. I’m kinda of curious overall as I am not a salt water boater, don’t pay much attention to those needs, and now am curious about parts on salt water series pontoons in general.
 
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It looks like a beautiful evening Vikingstaff. You probably should have been out on the lake rather than answering posts!
 
To OP, I'd recommend looking at greatlakesskipper.com for seats.

As for being shocked, I get the frustration, but it's a 13-year-old boat. I'll add that my 2011 looked brand new when I sold it a couple years ago, and had no problems with rusted internals on the seats (or any issues at all - I sold it to family and they still enjoy it). My guess is a previous owner left the boat uncovered in the elements and/or mistreated it.

This is the first I've ever heard of rusted internals inside the seats. Gotta be some hard use there. Hope you find some good replacement parts.
 
I'm working on an assumption here but the swivel seats are likely Springfield Marine or equivalent big-name seat manufacturer. Rust in a saline environment isn't unexpected but if they're totally corroded then yeah that's concerning. I personally would try and go to the manufacturer site and find a parts diagram and replace nuts/bolts, even if it takes a little destructive removal of seat covers here and there. Maybe drill or cut a small hole in the cover to expose the nut?

My guess (again) is there were seats with all SS construction available by the manufacturer but that would have driven your original purchase price up significantly. To Viking's point Bennington probably didn't figure their Fishing pontoon was going heavy into the salt, so they don't over-engineer the boats that don't make sense for 95% of buyers. You fell into the 5%.
 
I wish my boat had everything I would expect it should have been built with … then again it would have cost another $50K.
:rolleyes:
 
I'm having similar issues with my "Saltwater Series" 2014. I have already replaced 1 seat because the internals completely rusted out. But having had boats in a saltwater environment for years it is something that I've seen before. I agree you would think those parts would be made of something that doesn't rust, but they are not. Tried looking on Springfield's site for info on parts/repair and it was less than helpful. A marine canvas shop told me they could probably fix it. He said he was a year out on work. Ordered a new seat and swivel post. Kept the material off the old seat in case i ever have damage to any of the other seats. Oh and shipping on the new seat was almost as much as the seat itself. B.O.A.T. - Bring out another thousand.
 
Not that everyone has time to do this, but upholstery is usually mechanically secured to the seat base (staples? clips?). Can these be removed in sufficient quantity to provide access to the rusted hardware for replacement? Likely just standard bolts, screws, nuts, t-nuts, washers, etc
 
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