kcobean
Enthusiast
So it's 1:30 AM and I just finished putting the Northwind Engineering 2 inch seat lowering kit in my car. I haven't driven it yet, bit after just sitting in it, all I can say is that it is AMAZING!!!
I'm just a hair over 6'4" and I'm pretty evenly proportioned between legs and torso so I suffered from both the 'knee in the light switch bezel' syndrome, and the 'can't see out the windshield' syndrome. JonB gave me the valuable tip of pulling off the visor and that made a BIG difference for visibility, but I needed more.
Installing this thing is definitely a challenge, but I found some things that make it much easier. Getting everything to line up was challenging (more details in a minute), but I can tell already it was worth it. I can actually lower the steering wheel two full notches from my previous position and still have room between the wheel and my legs AND my knee doesn't hit the headlight switch bezel AT ALL when I shift!!
My horizontal sight line is SOOOO much better now too. Instead of having to slouch down to get good visibility (which pushed my knee forward into the bezel even more), I can sit nice and straight and still have headroom to spare. I could even wear a helmet in my car now!!! 
If you're tall and you find yourself doing any of these things...you NEED this kit:
1. Tilting your head to the side or to the front to get better visibility.
2. Sitting up straight by sliding your pelvis way back in your seat when shifting (to prevent your knee from hitting the bezel).
3. slouching down when you're cruising to better your visibility.
4. consider tilting the wheel up into "18-wheeler" position to make room for your knee to move when you shift.
I did all of these things....never again.
Ok, so some installation tips for people who find this post via search....
Getting the seat out of the car is a piece of cake:
HUGE thanks to BRAVO for the killer deal on the kit. Thanks a million Jeff!
I'm just a hair over 6'4" and I'm pretty evenly proportioned between legs and torso so I suffered from both the 'knee in the light switch bezel' syndrome, and the 'can't see out the windshield' syndrome. JonB gave me the valuable tip of pulling off the visor and that made a BIG difference for visibility, but I needed more.
Installing this thing is definitely a challenge, but I found some things that make it much easier. Getting everything to line up was challenging (more details in a minute), but I can tell already it was worth it. I can actually lower the steering wheel two full notches from my previous position and still have room between the wheel and my legs AND my knee doesn't hit the headlight switch bezel AT ALL when I shift!!
My horizontal sight line is SOOOO much better now too. Instead of having to slouch down to get good visibility (which pushed my knee forward into the bezel even more), I can sit nice and straight and still have headroom to spare. I could even wear a helmet in my car now!!! If you're tall and you find yourself doing any of these things...you NEED this kit:
1. Tilting your head to the side or to the front to get better visibility.
2. Sitting up straight by sliding your pelvis way back in your seat when shifting (to prevent your knee from hitting the bezel).
3. slouching down when you're cruising to better your visibility.
4. consider tilting the wheel up into "18-wheeler" position to make room for your knee to move when you shift.
I did all of these things....never again.
Ok, so some installation tips for people who find this post via search....
Getting the seat out of the car is a piece of cake:
- Unbolt the seat frame from the floor. There are bolts at the front and nuts that thread onto studs in the rear.
- Remove one of the screws for the seat belt guide so you can get the seat belt out of the guide.
- Cut the hog-rings with a pair of wire cutters (these are just little metal loops that hold the sides of the seat bottom to the frame at the front corners.)
- Detach the seat-back adjustment lever (two phillips-head screws.)
- Muscle the plastic lip at the bottom front edge of the seat bottom off the front frame rod. Once you have this done, you'll be able to pull the seat bottom up off the seat frame in the front.
- Now you'll be able to detach the slide rails from the frame.
- Once you get the seat out and pull the adjustable slide-rails off, don't get ahead of yourself and bolt the lowering posts to the seat frame. The posts have to bolt to the floor first.
- Lightly snug the posts to the floor (you should be able to move them by hand). The rear posts will sit at about a 45 degree angle to the centerline of the car, pointing outboard. This is necessary because the seat has to move outboard a bit to clear the tranny tunnel.
- Put the seat in and line everything up (this is a game of patience and will, but you can do it).
- Get the four bolts that attach the frame to the lowering posts in and snugged.
- ***Now (this is the important part that makes this sooo much easier), for the right rear floor-nut, you'll be able to get a deep-well socket on it with the seat installed, so torque it down.
- *** For the left-rear floor-nut, take a pair of pliers and pull the hooks holding the stretched cloth tension pad out of the frame. Once you do this you can easily put a crescent wrench on the floor-nut. Then use your pliers to reattach the tension pad hooks to the frame.
- Now just go through and torque the front floor bolts and the four bolts holding the seat frame to the lowering posts.
- Pull the cover back down and hook the plastic lip back over the frame, re-attach the seat-back adjustment lever, put the seat-belt back in the hook and put the screw back in.
- Put a zip tie through each of the holes where the hog-rings used to be.
- Enjoy the visibility and comfort!!!
HUGE thanks to BRAVO for the killer deal on the kit. Thanks a million Jeff!
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). Thanks so much for faxing those over to me.
. LOL..no, really, I'm glad the lowering kit made a difference, and that your ride is more comfortable for ya! Keep driving while you can...it makes US long for Spring, but also is nice to hear others getting their Vipers out there...
