Chinook RV

An easy option to change colors / materials is to buy aftermarket seat covers.

I like sheepskin for its comfort both winter and summer, but actually ended up getting some fairly inexpensive grey suede covers... under which (and on top of the original cloth seats) I put carbon seat and back heater kits, with the temp control switches mounted on the inner seat sides.

I wired them to the lumbar support power leads (I don't use them) which are already at the seats and which have their own dedicated fuse under the dash. I then jumpered that fuse location to only have power in "engine run" mode, so that leaving the seat switches turned on couldn't accidentally drain the battery after shutting the engine off.

How are the Sienna seats attached so they swivel?

What year Toyota Sienna did your seats come out of? Are they powered?

HoosierB wrote:What year Toyota Sienna did your seats come out of? Are they powered?

I think they are from 2004- current second row seats. That's the best part, they are not power so it so easy to install them.

pdemarest wrote:How are the Sienna seats attached so they swivel?

You have to buy a swivel base, Ujoint 4x4 out of NC makes custom brackets made to mount them as front seats in a ford e350 chassis.

Those are the same bases that I bought (from another vendor). *REALLY* nice bit of kit.

But the manual factor is one reason I decided not to go ahead with the Siennas: In the end, I just didn't want to give up my power driver's seat. Not that I mind adjusting manually, but the power seats give adjustments that the manual ones don't have (raise front of seat cushion, for example, or raise or lower whole seat). And too, I just like to move it around a bit when driving on longer trips, which is handy to do with power..

That said, they were really nice seats. And if my original Flexsteel driver/passenger seats were worn out or uncomfortable, I might have made a different choice.

Haven't had much time to work on the Chinook. I did install a TV and today I test fitted my new wheels! Need to machine up some spacers for the rear hopefully this week.

Slow lately on the camper mods, been working on getting some of my motorcycles back together to sell.

Question for everyone, I'm about to build an onboard air system, should on power it of the coach battery or the house bank? Thoughts, suggestions?

That Chinook is a beast. Holy cow!

Compressors for air tools can draw a lot of juice, assuming that's what you're asking about. Since crank batteries are not deep cycle, and for other reasons, I think ideally you would run off of your deep cycle house batteries, and set yourself up to combine to your crank battery during heavy use. That way you can just run your engine for periods of heavy use. But you'd need a manual combine rather than the stock momentary push button.

Been slowly collecting parts to overhaul the roof! That includes two new 100 watt solar panel's, new Maxxfan, brackets to build a roof rack,etc. Finally got around to stripping everything off the roof and will be preparing for painting the roof before everything goes back on. Well maybe everything...

Fighting with the wife over putting back the AC unit or not. We rarely hookup and don't like running the generator so it's kind of pointless. Out of our three x-country trips last year and all our local trips with the chinook we used the AC once to cool down the dogs after a hot mid day hike. That is he main reason she wants to keep it, for the dogs haha. Honestly the main reason I want to get rid of it is for aesthetics. I hate how it looks atop the rig, also right down the center would be a way better spot to build the roof rack to hold the surf boards. If she wins I will most likely buy a new AC unit, one of the low profile ones.

Last thing I need to order are two marine deck hatches. One for the bathroom where the current vent fan is shot. The second one I'm going to cut a new hole in the roof 19 x 19 as access to the roof from inside and a nice skylight to let lots of natural light in. Think I'm going to go with Lewmar low profile deck hatch, a little pricey but not sure of a good alternative.

Here's the roof stripped...

Great roof photo!

Speaking of letting in light, I've sometimes thought that it's too bad the wedding cake top isn't an inch or so taller...

... as then there'd be room to install some long thin marine portlights along the vertical edges, to let in light and optionally air.

Something like this: