Slider seat in a Magic

[MagicPaddler]

I like looking at the projects that are shown on this site and an impressed with the talent. Comparing them to similar projects I have done most are done better than mine. I do like my slider seat better than most other instillations I have seen. My wood is not the nicest and it is unfinished but I like the way the slider seat functions. I wanted a gunnel hung slider seat and I did not want a seat support running across the canoe in front of the seat. With the gunnels being narrower away from the center of the canoe it makes it difficult to keep the supports parallel. I installed a thwart at the back of my seats travel and made mounting brackets that mount the supports outside the gunnels in the cheeks of the tumblehome.
[URL="http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd254/Magicpaddler/Canoe/P1020361_zpsdue6xx1h.jpg%5b/IMG"]http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd254/Magicpaddler/Canoe/P1020361_zpsdue6xx1h.jpg[/IMG[/URL]]
[IMG][URL="http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd254/Magicpaddler/Canoe/PICT0055.jpg%5b/IMG"]http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd254/Magicpaddler/Canoe/PICT0055.jpg[/IMG[/URL]]
I used it for several years as it is in the second picture. My only complaint was that to slide the seat it was aluminum sliding on aluminum. It was difficult to slide and if grease was added it was a mess. The other day I noticed that aluminum slid nicely on PVC. I wrapped a piece of flat PVC cut from a gutter around a piece of thin wall conduit a little smaller than the support and held it in place with hose clamps and rubber bands. By using a heat gun I turned the flat PVC into a pipe with a crack running the length of it. I slid the pipe off of the thin wall and onto the support. The seat slides nicely on the PVC covered supports.
The supports have a piece of thin wall conduit about 2 inches long on each end for reinforcement where the screws go through to mount them.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I think you will like Alan Gage's pedestal set up ! I will be putting one in my CF Nokomis !
Nice thing is you can easily switch to kneeling, without your feet under the seat.

Maybe do a search, but I'm sure Alan will help you !

Jim

 

[dogbrain]

I saved a photo of this seat setup a while back thinking I would make something similar. I don't know what canoe it's out of, maybe a Sawyer. It's a height adjustable slider. The uprights would be wood. I had in mind that a portage yoke could be part of the seat, underneath. You just flip the whole thing over and it's a portage yoke for a very small weight penalty. The Kruger Sea Wind has a similar setup to what I'm thinking except its seat doesn't slide. Maybe I'll make one of these someday.

Mark




Here's the Kruger seat showing the portage yoke underneath.

 

[MagicPaddler]

Dogbrain
I like that slider but it looks like the gunnels are the same width at both ends of the supports. That probably means that the seat will go from the place where a stationary seat would go and to the front of the canoe. Like Soruris Rivers solo slider. I never find I want to paddle a solo from the front of the canoe.

 

[dogbrain]

I forgot to say that I like your solution to that problem. I was just adding other stuff to make a sort of swiss army knife of seats.

 

[Alan Gage]

Nice solution to the problem of uneven gunwale width and nice job on the brackets too. I use PVC to slide over aluminum as well.

Sliding seats sure come in handy sometimes even though I seem to use it in the same position 90% of the time. One of the handiest things about them might be the ability to slide the seat all the way forward to rummage around in the thwart bag or front pack.

Alan

 

[madmike]

I love my Magic, but the seat and inner gunwale situation is a constant worry. The holes for seat hardware, and gunwale screws are too close in a very thin section of ash. Add time, weather, and my fat but....failure. I added a bucket seats right over the frame of a failed cane seat. I also made custom seat drops that spread the load, and splint the failed inner gunwale. Still not great....

 

[MagicPaddler]

I am not a kneeler and I don’t think this setup would work well for kneeling. The seat is too low to get my feet under it. The adjustable seat height in dogbrains post may allow the back of the slider to be higher than the front. Madmike mentioned cane seats. I am not a fan of cane seats but that may be partially my own fault. Having sat on stretched out cane seats made me want to protect my new tandem canoe so while applying 303 protectant to the bottom of the canoe I put it on the cane seats. I then went on a trip with my heavier than I am brother. When he would move to one side of the canoe it would tip and I would slide to that side. I prefer webbing to cane for seats. I find I do use the slider to make adjustments for load and wind but I always found other solutions when I did not have it. It did allow me to carry a 75lb food barrel in the passenger compartment on my last trip but that is another story.

 

[stripperguy]

I made some carbon fiber over foam seat supports for my Kite (far left, the red one). Sort of a copy of Alan's adjustable, bottom mounted seat supports.
While I can't change seat heights easily (could make shims?) I can quickly and easily move my seat fore-aft as needed. I can fit my feet under the seat for kneeling. I can also straddle either support for heeled kneeling. The 3M Dual-Lok that holds the seat in place also acts as a quick release to prevent entanglement. As an added bonus, the supports stiffened my hull, and allows unrestricted movement around and passed the seat when launching, landing and scrambling over bear dams and deadfalls.
Here's the best photo I have of it...

 

[MagicPaddler]

I don’t know why I required my slider to hang from the gunnels but I did. Stripperguy’s floor mount would take up less room it the canoe leave space on the sides for gear or feet. I like it. Those are some nice looking boats. If you were a girl and changed your board name to match no one would think you built wood boats. Sorry my mind goes strange places.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've used this in a few boats now and plan to continue doing so. I like having it floor mounted with the ability to kneel around it when the need arises:

20160222_002 by Alan, on Flickr

20150725_003 by Alan, on Flickr

The empty slot in the center also makes a handy spot to store a water bottle.

Alan

 

[MagicPaddler]

Those look real nice. If I ever rebuild I may consider a floor mount. What I like about my gunnel mount is that the area where my seat is not, is available space for packing. But I am trying to pack less.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I've used this in a few boats now and plan to continue doing so. I like having it floor mounted with the ability to kneel around it when the need arises:

20160222_002 by Alan, on Flickr

20150725_003 by Alan, on Flickr

The empty slot in the center also makes a handy spot to store a water bottle.

Alan

Now that's what I'm talking about !