Hanging Seats

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Tom in MN
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:42 am
Location: Eagan, MN

Hanging Seats

Post by Tom in MN »

I am looking for an alternative way to hang seats. On every canoe I have built I have hung the seasts from the gunnels usinge carriage bolts, as shown in Gilpatrick's book. The square Stern white guide that I am building has a bit of tumblehome and drilling through them to hang seats looks a bit challenging. I was thinking of expoxying cleats to the hull and mounting the seat on top of the cleats. I have seen this done but am wondering if failure is a real possibility using this method. If anyone has any thoughts on this method, or other methods that do not require drilling through the inwales I would like to hear about them.

Thanks.

Tom
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chrisg
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:31 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Post by chrisg »

I am building Gil's Grand Laker, I will be installing a keelson, and was thinking of using cleats and a center support going down to the keelson, have not quite decided yet, but I too am looking for alternative ways of hanging the seats, another idea I had was to use a sort of half rib epoxied under the seat, would be quite solid. I am not sure if I will build traditional seats or solid benches with cushions.
Tom in MN
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:42 am
Location: Eagan, MN

Post by Tom in MN »

I have already decided to use 1/2" lumber with some stiffeners under the seat and make a traditionally flat board boat seat. I am just concerned that bouncing down the road during travel that the vibration may jar the cleats loose and then you have a loose board flying off the vehicle, or the cleat comes loose while I am running the outboard and fall to the bottom of the canoe. I am leaning toward a large flat cleat to increase the surface area, and then mount the seat to the top of the cleats with screws, but drill over sized holes in the seat that will still allow the hull to flex a bit when necessary. I think if I have a cleat about 10" long, 2" wide and 1" deep that would provide enough surface area to hold securely. My back up plan if the cleats give way would be to use a piece of rope and tie the seat to the scuppers on the gunnels to get home. I was also thinking of attaching 2" closed cell foam under the seats for flotation or build some type of flotation that will go under each of my three seats. I am always impressed with the strength of even a little bit of epoxy when it comes to a stir stick left on the table top, so I feel that I should be comportable with 20 square inches of epoxy and two cleats per seat. I am going to give it a try, all it can do it fail and then I drill holes in gunnels.
AlanWS
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:30 pm
Location: Shorewood, WI

Post by AlanWS »

I have a canoe I made with seats attached to cleats that are epoxied to the hull. One of the cleats did detach, but it took 35 years to happen, and it was easily reattached with epoxy after sanding the surfaces clean.
Alan
pumpkin
Posts: 59
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:18 pm
Location: North Dakota

Post by pumpkin »

My old canoe had seats on cleats. It saw hard use but the seats were never a problem. I bought after it had been crashed hard and the areas from the seats to the stems were solid. All of the damage was between the seats. It is a 16 foot canoe with only a yoke in the center. The seats acted like thwarts. The only hassle is getting the cleats in the right place the first time. I have considered doing the same.

I would keep the foam off of the bottom by a couple of inches to allow for hull flex.

Matthew
Tom in MN
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:42 am
Location: Eagan, MN

Post by Tom in MN »

Well I went with the epoxied on cleat method for seat hanging. I actually glued two cleats the thicknes of my seat board apart, and the seat board slides in between these two cleats to hold it place. I was thinking of a piece of brass angle to secure the board to the top cleat, while it also sits on the bottom cleat to give extra insurance. The seat will also fit on the top cleat for a taller seat for a more comfortable sitting position. I also put in four different cleat positions and thus can add and remove seats very easily with limited tools. I ended up using some cedar pieces 1" x 1" so the weight of the cleats and epoxy to hold them is limited and also basicaly no cost associated with it. And, no drilling in gunnels which was my real motivation. I have not tried them out yet, but very soon.
I hope this works out well, because it was much easier than gunnel hung seats.
Big Woody
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:18 pm

Post by Big Woody »

I'd love to see some pictures of your installation Tom. I am considering how to mount my seats, and think hanging them seems odd, complex, and possibly flimsy. I'd also like to try to mount them without any metal fasteners, to maintain my canoes "stealth capability". :wink

I might also like to mount them in such a way that they are adjustable.
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Patricks Dad
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: Warrenville, Illinois

Post by Patricks Dad »

Hanging the seats from the gunwales is really pretty straight forward and not flimsy. You can use bolts or not. The first cane we built used wooden dowels to hang the seats rather than bolts....

A few pictures at the link below...

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/recei ... 569172e9bd

The holes for the dowels were slightly funneled shaped and the dowels (Walnut) were split and wedged with small cherry wedges to hold them in place. I tested one of these joints with over 200 lbs without failure.

But not adjustable.
Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
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