[MoldAvoider]

Short story: It is likely in my best interests to get rid of the driver & passenger seats in my 2017 Promaster and I've come here to find out what replacement options I have.

Longer story: I was getting disturbing symptoms in the van, including dizziness and nausea. I used heavy plastic to isolate different sections of the cab and discovered that I was reacting to the headliner and overhead shelf (the carpet-type stuff). With less air movement the fabric also clearly smelled like mold. I also react to something coming up from under the rubberized floor mat. I thought about selling but I'd lose something like $10k doing that. My next option is to remediate -- get rid of anything that causes the symptoms. First to go was the headliner and overhead tray carpet stuff. (I paid a Task Rabbit person to come out and do that.) Although I put plastic over the seats, I did not seal it carefully because I already knew the cloth seats would have the mold's toxins completely embedded in them. So now when I go to sit in the van (say, to roll up the windows), I feel poorly very quickly.

In the best of all worlds I would replace the seats with swivel, adjustable, heated leather seats. (In a really warped world, as long as I don't spend over $10k on remediation, I've "saved" money. LOL.)

Desired features in descending order of priority:
- Adjustable in as many ways as possible
- Aisle-side arm rest
- Heated
- Leather
- Swivel

Why can't I just re-cover my existing seats? Because they are fabric, the mold / mold toxins will have penetrated through the weave of the fabric and into the cushioning.

Why leather? Because fabric is a mold-and-dust sink and vinyl would add to the VOCs in the van, especially on hot days.

Difficulties:
- My van came with standard (non-swivel) seats.
- I am 5' 3" and will be travelling with a short 12-year-old.
- It is in my best interests to have my hands on the leather that will be used to cover the seat before it is put onto the seat -- I need to know that I won't react to it. (I got a real leather belt in the mail that I had to literally throw away from my body because my reaction was so strong. On the other hand, I've had 2 new leather loveseats in the past 2 years and have loved both of them.)
- I don't want to wait 6 months for a custom-made seat to be made.

Note that I have already located a place that will re-cover seats in leather and they will allow me to bring leather I have selected elsewhere to them.

I'd love solutions for both "dream big" and "don't spend more than you have to".

Thanks!

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

Can you source the foam and replace yours and then have the new foamed seat recovered in the leather? I am amazed there is any leather that can work as most have been treated with some nasty chemicals! Just say'n

 

[charity's van]

are there air bags in the seat?

 

[Ziggy Stardog]

are there air bags in the seat?

Defusing the airbags might be a sticking point. I know I wouldn't want to be the one covering the seats with leather or changing the foam if they weren't disarmed somehow IIRC the Fit RV people covered their seats with leather seat covers for this reason. Maybe you could find salvage seats where the airbags had already been deployed. Might be two birds with one stone, but I'd be worried about their structural integrity after a crash.

I believe the Hymer Activ has leather seats. Not sure if these are covers or not. A call to them or Mopar or whoever explaining your situation would be a place to start, although given that seats are a safety item liability concerns might stop most companies, even just to sell you a bare seat frame. The worst they could do is say no, however.

As I recall there was someone on the forum who purchased a used passenger seat off of Craig's list or somewhere and was going to mount it behind the front seats. That might be a less liability adverse source for seats.

Edit: a google search yielded this link which on the surface looks promising. Hard to tell because of the unfortunate Promaster pickup and model number silliness

http://www.discountvantruck.com/discountpromasteraccessories/promaster.htm

 

[MoldAvoider]

Oh, gosh. I know the passenger seat has a weight sensor to turn off the airbag but it didn't occur to me that there are air bags IN the seat. There are air bags in the B-pillar and in the dash board, right? Where in the seat would the airbag be?

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

They are along the outer edge of the seat back. I think there is a sewn in tab on mine identifying them there.
This is probably why there is no armrest there. I posted a possible solution in post 2 above that could work knowing they were there.

 

[MoldAvoider]

So ... it isn't wise to re-cover the existing or factory seats because of air bags in them, and replacing them with off-market ones means not having the air bag?
That sucks.
I still don't understand why there is an airbag on the outside seam of the seat if there is also an airbag in the B-pillar just inches away.

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

Engineers study such esoteric stuff and try to save us. Despite our ignorance of the science.

 

[MsNomer]

Somewhere I saw a video of these airbags doing their stuff. Each protects in a different way.

The accommodation for the airbag is in the stitching, not the fabric, so leather should be as possible as vinyl, which is a common PM option. A professional vehicle upholsterer would be able to do this. The seat innards are open at the bottom, though.

 

[phil]

There is no airbag in the b-pillar.

info on Promaster SRS

www.rambodybuilder.com/2015/van/docs/vf/ors.pdf

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

Odd that there would be a cover labeled AIRBAG on each B pillar? What gives?
I think there ARE airbags in the B pillar!

 

[phil]

page 3 of the pdf

all the pretty pictures and not one airbag in the b-pillar

part of finding the pdf is for my knowledge and to push back on misinformation.

 

[Poppabear]

There is definitely an air bag at the top of the B pillar. When I removed my factory partition it was clearly visible.

 

[proeddie]

Accurate Information:

There is an airbag anchored to the metal at the top of the B pillar. It might also be called a side curtain airbag because although one end is at the B pillar, it the extends forward along the headliner.

I would describe it as a B pillar airbag, but call it what you will... it's there! (hoping the "a picture is worth a thousand pdfs" thing is helpful!)

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

That is in addition to the one mentioned earlier I believe. For the OP the one in the seat is all that is important in fixing the mold problem.

 

[MoldAvoider]

Thanks so much for the .pdf, phil! It is a pretty valuable document even if I weren't trying to figure out how to deal with the seats. ... The .pdf implies that fitted seat covers are a no-no. Interesting.

There must be 3rd party vendors who do custom Promaster seats (because RV manufacturers need them) and this makes me wonder if those seats have the airbags.

So far the only valid option presented is for me to replace cushions and reupholster my existing seats using a shop that understands how to un-trigger (and re-trigger) the airbag. I might know of such a shop but would need to verify the airbag thing. They only deal with installations of factory seats and not 3rd party, so that implies airbag knowledge.

I might be able to get the upholsterer to add seat heaters, but then there would need to be a way to power them. Factory-issued heated seats must be wired into somewhere; is the power to the seat available even though I didn't order heated seats? (Alternatively I can buy heated seat cushions and hope they aren't terribly uncomfortable. At least most of the ones I find on Amazon are cheap enough for me not to worry about getting rid of them if they become contaminated.)

I'm always so appreciative of the help I get from this site. I couldn't do this without you!