Snowmobileaddict
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
Here is a DIY for a seat swap on a 2006 Apex GT.
Total project cost was $395.00 and included the following:
-Donor Apex MTN Seat
-Brand New Black and White Seat Cover
-All shipping fees for seat and and seat cover
-Installation of new seat cover by reputable Auto Upholstery Shop
I chose to swap out my stock seat for a donor seat from an Apex Mountain because, as most folks familiar with these sleds know, the Apex Mountain seat is much more firm and this keeps the rider higher in the saddle, with hips even with, or slightly higher than your knees. This makes riding much more comfortable and easier to transition to standing from sitting.
This project called for a donor seat, a new seat cover and some basic wiring because the Apex Mountain seat has a much shorter wire harness for the tail light. As such it has to be lengthened in order to route the wire lead the same way as on an Apex GT.
Granted, the tail light sub-lead cable on the Apex mountain seats will reach if you unfasten it and shift it aft, I wanted my seat to be as if it came from the factory, with the wire tucked away inside the seat pan passage-way designed for it, away from the muffler, etc.
Step 1
Source an Apex Mountain seat.
I found my project seat on eBay. A fella in Wyoming auctioned it and I got it for a very good price. I knew that I was going to immediately replace the seat cover with a brand new white and black one so I knew in advance that the seat cover condtion was not a factor. The cover on the mountain seat I bought was in okay shape. There were some splits at the usual locations and it could probably be restretched and stapled so the splits are to visible.
Here is the seat I bought
For this seat, the seller knew that the seat was from an Apex Mountain. However, sometimes sellers don't know what to look for to indicate what they have for sale. Sometimes, they are selling a seat they got at a swap meet and don't know what model it came from.
Contrary to popular belief, the location of the colored stripe is not a tell tale identifier for a seat from an Apex Mountain or RTX. The difference in the seat from the Mountain or RTX to an ER or GT is that center core inside the seat is mostly solid styrofoam topped with softer foam on the RTX and the Mountain models. The GT and the ER models just have a soft foam under the seat cover all the way down to the seat pan.
To be informed when shopping for a Mountain or RTX seat, view a photo of the bottom of the seat you are interested in. Look at the 2 square holes in the seat pan behind the hooks that engage the gas tank. If you see white solid styrofoam, you are looking at a seat from a Mountain or RTX. If the seat has that styrofoam and has a taillight wire that extends all the way to the taillight location you are looking at an RTX seat. If that wire harness ends near the bottom of the seat well short of the stock tail light location, it is a Mountain seat. If all you see is yellow or tan foam through the square holes in the bottom of the seat, it is from an ER or a GT.
To check, against the photos above, you can see the white solid styrofoam and the short wire harness. That confirms I bought an Apex Mountain seat.
The seller I got the seat from was a real winner and decided to ship my seat a whole 10 days after I paid via PayPal and to top it off, he decided not to use a box! Here is what arrived at my door!
That's right. Wrapped in visquene and construction paper! It took a beating too from the gorillas at the post office, but turned out okay. Plus, I knew I wasn't going to be using the seat cover, so that was good too. However, its just plain irresponsible to ship an upholstered item this way.
Step 2
Source a seat cover
I got my cover from Scotty's Sled Shed out of Muskegon, MI via their ebay store. They fabricate aftermarket covers in the colors and fabric of your choice. I actually got a cover that was ordered and never picked up in the color I was looking for (white and black) and for half price as well! Only $75! The seat cover is great quality and fits like a glove. It is grip top where you sit with slip vinyl on the sides with a white stripe. All cold crack -40 F material with 4-way stretch characteristics.
Here is the new cover.
Step 3
Remove old seat cover
This takes some time with a flat blade screwdriver and a pliers, one by one all the staples come out.
Step 4
Extend Wire to tail light location
Because the tail light wire harness is different on the mountain sleds, I used some string trimmer line to fish a length of wire along the passge-way that is moulded into the seat pan for the regular trail-sled tail-light wire. I got the trimmer line fished through in one try and used it to pull the new wire through. Very easy to to. For wire, I used an old power cord from a PC. It has a heavy black jacket and has 3 wires of similar gauge to the sled's tail light cable sub-lead.
All of the connections are soldered and double heat shrink wrapped. With the wiring all done, the last thing is to do is recover the seat. This step proved to be most difficult and I ended up going to a local upholstery shop to have it perfect.
The seat pan on these sleds is a rather hard plastic and unfortunately the stainless and monel staples that I was trying shoot with my gun, continuously bent over and would not penetrate the seat pan. For every 1 staple that would sink in 15 staples would bend over FUBAR'd.
As such, it was time to make a decision, go to a shop and have it done or go and shell out more money on a new pneumatic gun from Harbor Freight (everyone's favorite Chinese Tool Store!) and maybe even more staples. I chose the shop. I dropped off the seat at 6am and it was ready at 1pm . Stretched even, steamed to fit, and stapled wrinkle-free with stainless hardware!
Here is the recovered seat
This seat is going to go well with my black and white color scheme I have going. So far I have powder coated the rear skid rails and rear suspension arms in white, switched to black and white marbled pilot skis with white ski handles, added a white skid plate, and painted my shroud screens white. Next up is a new white windshield and painting my exhaust side covers white from the stock gray.
Most importantly, the seat feels great! I wish I had this seat the entire time I've owned my sled. The position and height feels perfect along with the stock Apex Mountain handle bar riser I've been running for the past 3 seasons.
Now the only thing I need is a buyer for my take-off seat (Its in the 7-day classifieds thread on this site) and more SNOW!!!
Total project cost was $395.00 and included the following:
-Donor Apex MTN Seat
-Brand New Black and White Seat Cover
-All shipping fees for seat and and seat cover
-Installation of new seat cover by reputable Auto Upholstery Shop
I chose to swap out my stock seat for a donor seat from an Apex Mountain because, as most folks familiar with these sleds know, the Apex Mountain seat is much more firm and this keeps the rider higher in the saddle, with hips even with, or slightly higher than your knees. This makes riding much more comfortable and easier to transition to standing from sitting.
This project called for a donor seat, a new seat cover and some basic wiring because the Apex Mountain seat has a much shorter wire harness for the tail light. As such it has to be lengthened in order to route the wire lead the same way as on an Apex GT.
Granted, the tail light sub-lead cable on the Apex mountain seats will reach if you unfasten it and shift it aft, I wanted my seat to be as if it came from the factory, with the wire tucked away inside the seat pan passage-way designed for it, away from the muffler, etc.
Step 1
Source an Apex Mountain seat.
I found my project seat on eBay. A fella in Wyoming auctioned it and I got it for a very good price. I knew that I was going to immediately replace the seat cover with a brand new white and black one so I knew in advance that the seat cover condtion was not a factor. The cover on the mountain seat I bought was in okay shape. There were some splits at the usual locations and it could probably be restretched and stapled so the splits are to visible.
Here is the seat I bought
For this seat, the seller knew that the seat was from an Apex Mountain. However, sometimes sellers don't know what to look for to indicate what they have for sale. Sometimes, they are selling a seat they got at a swap meet and don't know what model it came from.
Contrary to popular belief, the location of the colored stripe is not a tell tale identifier for a seat from an Apex Mountain or RTX. The difference in the seat from the Mountain or RTX to an ER or GT is that center core inside the seat is mostly solid styrofoam topped with softer foam on the RTX and the Mountain models. The GT and the ER models just have a soft foam under the seat cover all the way down to the seat pan.
To be informed when shopping for a Mountain or RTX seat, view a photo of the bottom of the seat you are interested in. Look at the 2 square holes in the seat pan behind the hooks that engage the gas tank. If you see white solid styrofoam, you are looking at a seat from a Mountain or RTX. If the seat has that styrofoam and has a taillight wire that extends all the way to the taillight location you are looking at an RTX seat. If that wire harness ends near the bottom of the seat well short of the stock tail light location, it is a Mountain seat. If all you see is yellow or tan foam through the square holes in the bottom of the seat, it is from an ER or a GT.
To check, against the photos above, you can see the white solid styrofoam and the short wire harness. That confirms I bought an Apex Mountain seat.
The seller I got the seat from was a real winner and decided to ship my seat a whole 10 days after I paid via PayPal and to top it off, he decided not to use a box! Here is what arrived at my door!
That's right. Wrapped in visquene and construction paper! It took a beating too from the gorillas at the post office, but turned out okay. Plus, I knew I wasn't going to be using the seat cover, so that was good too. However, its just plain irresponsible to ship an upholstered item this way.
Step 2
Source a seat cover
I got my cover from Scotty's Sled Shed out of Muskegon, MI via their ebay store. They fabricate aftermarket covers in the colors and fabric of your choice. I actually got a cover that was ordered and never picked up in the color I was looking for (white and black) and for half price as well! Only $75! The seat cover is great quality and fits like a glove. It is grip top where you sit with slip vinyl on the sides with a white stripe. All cold crack -40 F material with 4-way stretch characteristics.
Here is the new cover.
Step 3
Remove old seat cover
This takes some time with a flat blade screwdriver and a pliers, one by one all the staples come out.
Step 4
Extend Wire to tail light location
Because the tail light wire harness is different on the mountain sleds, I used some string trimmer line to fish a length of wire along the passge-way that is moulded into the seat pan for the regular trail-sled tail-light wire. I got the trimmer line fished through in one try and used it to pull the new wire through. Very easy to to. For wire, I used an old power cord from a PC. It has a heavy black jacket and has 3 wires of similar gauge to the sled's tail light cable sub-lead.
All of the connections are soldered and double heat shrink wrapped. With the wiring all done, the last thing is to do is recover the seat. This step proved to be most difficult and I ended up going to a local upholstery shop to have it perfect.
The seat pan on these sleds is a rather hard plastic and unfortunately the stainless and monel staples that I was trying shoot with my gun, continuously bent over and would not penetrate the seat pan. For every 1 staple that would sink in 15 staples would bend over FUBAR'd.
As such, it was time to make a decision, go to a shop and have it done or go and shell out more money on a new pneumatic gun from Harbor Freight (everyone's favorite Chinese Tool Store!) and maybe even more staples. I chose the shop. I dropped off the seat at 6am and it was ready at 1pm
. Stretched even, steamed to fit, and stapled wrinkle-free with stainless hardware!Here is the recovered seat
This seat is going to go well with my black and white color scheme I have going. So far I have powder coated the rear skid rails and rear suspension arms in white, switched to black and white marbled pilot skis with white ski handles, added a white skid plate, and painted my shroud screens white. Next up is a new white windshield and painting my exhaust side covers white from the stock gray.
Most importantly, the seat feels great! I wish I had this seat the entire time I've owned my sled. The position and height feels perfect along with the stock Apex Mountain handle bar riser I've been running for the past 3 seasons.
Now the only thing I need is a buyer for my take-off seat (Its in the 7-day classifieds thread on this site) and more SNOW!!!
marq
Expert
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Nice write up! I've been wanting a firmer seat on my RTX for a while now but seats are sort of hard to come by. I wonder if I could just convert mine by removing foam and adding styrofoam? Did you happen to take a pic of the styrofoam block?
Snowmobileaddict
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
The styrofoam block is pictured in this thread by another TY er
http://ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php?t=11 ... +styrofoam
http://ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php?t=11 ... +styrofoam
yamaha1973
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I would buy your old seat in a heartbeat if it actually snowed in Minnesota...
Nice write up BTW!
Nice write up BTW!
marq
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Snowmobileaddict said:
Thanks. That seems like a fairly simple mod, if a guy had any idea what kind of foam to get..
DigitalFusion
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wow! great write up!
x2 - in my area, we have had two snow 'events' and THREE rain events.
yamaha1973 said:
x2 - in my area, we have had two snow 'events' and THREE rain events.
Snowmobileaddict
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
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Bluebullet
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Great write up and nice job! thanks for posting 
yamaha convert
Pro
Excellent write up.
I fitted 2 mountain seats one on my Apex and one on my Attack .
On one seat I took the staples out - seat cover of my Attack and placed the mountain foam and the styrofoam in my Attack seat base as the one mountain seat I got was tore up a little.
On the other mountain seat I left it for now as it is in reasonable condition except for the bottom corners like in your pic . The mountain wire although short will reach the tail light wire but you need to extend the tail light wire out for it to work. By this I dont mean cut and extend but rather take the tail light wire out of the little pocket it sits in and run it along the side of the seat to meet the mountain wire. I also had to take the staples of on the side of the seat that the wire runs along so I could take the tape of that holds the wiring loom in place on the mountain seat bed and move the wiring loom towards the back a little so it would meet the tail light loom. The wiring loom just makes it and it has been fine for now. At the end of the season I will take it all apart and place the mountain internal in my Apex seat.
I had the same problem with the staples. I borrowed an electric gun and had 2 mechanical guns but none would penetrate the plastic properly. I got some of them to go in partially and you could sit there if you were patient enough and tap them in, which I did do on the mountain seat when moving the wire along, but I wasnt't prepared to do it on the other seat that I replaced the top on. It would just take too long to complete. So I took it to a shop as well.
The seating position is miles better for me and Im 6' 4' 220 without gear. It's probably not quite as high as my friends 2012 but its very close amd makes a huge difference when riding. Not near as tiring and or hard on your legs.
I fitted 2 mountain seats one on my Apex and one on my Attack .
On one seat I took the staples out - seat cover of my Attack and placed the mountain foam and the styrofoam in my Attack seat base as the one mountain seat I got was tore up a little.
On the other mountain seat I left it for now as it is in reasonable condition except for the bottom corners like in your pic . The mountain wire although short will reach the tail light wire but you need to extend the tail light wire out for it to work. By this I dont mean cut and extend but rather take the tail light wire out of the little pocket it sits in and run it along the side of the seat to meet the mountain wire. I also had to take the staples of on the side of the seat that the wire runs along so I could take the tape of that holds the wiring loom in place on the mountain seat bed and move the wiring loom towards the back a little so it would meet the tail light loom. The wiring loom just makes it and it has been fine for now. At the end of the season I will take it all apart and place the mountain internal in my Apex seat.
I had the same problem with the staples. I borrowed an electric gun and had 2 mechanical guns but none would penetrate the plastic properly. I got some of them to go in partially and you could sit there if you were patient enough and tap them in, which I did do on the mountain seat when moving the wire along, but I wasnt't prepared to do it on the other seat that I replaced the top on. It would just take too long to complete. So I took it to a shop as well.
The seating position is miles better for me and Im 6' 4' 220 without gear. It's probably not quite as high as my friends 2012 but its very close amd makes a huge difference when riding. Not near as tiring and or hard on your legs.
michmobiler
Pro
Awesome write up!
I have a mountain seat on my Vector as well and love the firmer feel.....especially after a long day on the trail!!
I have a mountain seat on my Vector as well and love the firmer feel.....especially after a long day on the trail!!
Irv
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Great write up Snowmobileaddict
Curious on how tall you are?
Curious on how tall you are?
Snowmobileaddict
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
Irv said:Great write up Snowmobileaddict
Curious on how tall you are?
I'm 6' tall exactly, weighing in about 205 lbs suited up.
Irv
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Snowmobileaddict said:Irv said:Great write up Snowmobileaddict
Curious on how tall you are?
I'm 6' tall exactly, weighing in about 205 lbs suited up.
Thanks
darv
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I just wanted to thank for this write up I just got a mountain seat and ordered a new cover today an did know that the tail light wire was not long enought this will save me a lot of grief an time. I'm 6 1 an on my 40th the seat is way to soft.
Snowmobileaddict
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
darv said:
You're going to love the MTN seat. It's night and day.
I was tired of trying to score a Boss seat and mountain mod seats hardly ever come up for sale. The last one that I saw the seller actually mentioned that he was switching back to a Yamaha seat because the Mtn mod seat was actually too firm for is liking.
The next thing you'll be looking for is a factory handle bar riser from an apex Mtn to go with your new seat.
http://ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php?t=88 ... ight=riser
