I've always wanted to add a suspension seat to my pilot but did not care to chop up the stock seat mounts to the frame. I got this seat from Dave-Co that he got from one of his pilots he bought.

The seat came with a steel plate that was used to work with the stock frame mounts. The only problem was the plate was too big and cutting into the electrical wiring harnesses to go along the frame to the Engine. Soooo, I made cuts on the plate and welded nuts on the opposite end so I could still use the stock seat bolt mounts.

The plate works great and I can still slide the seat front and back no problem. Took for a quick ride on Sunday and WOW what difference from the stock seat to a suspension seat..

looks better too

Congratulations you just proved any typical Pilot owner is much smarter than those morons at ATV Racing the only way those Einsteins could figure out how to install a suspension seat into a Pilot was by butchering up the stock frame by cutting off the stock mounts then BUTCHERING up the tub by cutting off the plastic for mounts and clearance, once that was done it they figured out they needed a skid plate because their is NO PROTECTION in a suspension seat so they invented a skid plate that takes an hr to install they chose bolt mounting locations a brain dead idiot that has no fabrication skills would NOT have chosen then they lowered the ground clearance of a Pilot by 1.5" FOR NO REASON that's why the bottom of their skid plates all look beat to shit, then since the suspension seat HAS NO HEAT SHIELD they invented a weld in butcher kit fire wall that BLOCKS ALL AIR FLOW to the Engine.

Whats really stupid about the whole ATV Racing dumbass kits they sell is its takes you a full 2 hours to remove the SEAT and FIRE WALL so you can inspect and service your Engine after every ride trip or weekend ride GENIUS!

Then if adding another 15 lbs weight butchering up your Pilot frame and spending 800 bux for a seat was not enough the first time it starts raining you look alike a dumbass trying to cover your seat that was designed and made for the clean DRY interior of a automobile.

Watching someone trying to remove the mud from their coveted beard seat after a race is simply PRICELESS!

In contrast if any thought is used in the stock seat Hondas design is truly genius, it provides the proper support where you harness WILL NOT BE LOSE when your "suspension" seat is suspending you, it has a built in heat shield and skid plate that comes out with the seat in less than 2 minutes with one socket and one ratchet and reinstalls in 3 minutes so you can properly inspect and service your Pilot as Honda intended.

FYI I have a beard super POS seat and a ATV Racing brain dead full belly skid plate, and a ATV Racing fire wall that will be FOR SALE really soon!

I wish I had pictures of the beard super seat mounting system that Hauss designed and installed in his Pilot it was a no weld kit that REQUIRED NO TOOLS to install and remove the seat, Hauss just a no skills high school kid at the time he built his seat mount proved to be SMARTER than those dumb asses at ATV Racing, anybody wonder why ATV Racing has changed their name haha

The pilot that I bought from Mudbogger came with that skidplate and I was happy to have it on there,that is until I had to take it off! lol What a pain in the ass that thing is to take on and off,once I got it off I left it off

Do you notice any seat height difference? Do you sit higher up with that plate vs. the stock seat height?

Yes please do tell!
I am 6'-2" and worry about not being able to fit once a suspension seat is installed.

Regardless how you mount the suspension seat your going to give up space and leg room, take your stock seat and move it as far forward as it will go, with the seat forward is how every Pilot I been in that had a suspension seat feels, they all were also higher up where you can bang your helmet better on the roll bars and catch your legs on the steering yoke, I am 6'-1" tall.

Well if that's the case, looks like I will be staying with the stock seat:)
Suspension seats are not good if your a big dude!

If you have the slightest doubt I strongly suggest you try one before you buy.

Ever try to drive a Pilot or Odyssey aggressively when its cramped ?

The seat does sit a little higher but not to the point it feels wrong. Because the seat is bigger in depth and width than the stock seat, you do lose some adjustment. I'm 5'6" so I have no compliant. If your over 6' do what hoser said and try one with a suspension seat before modifying your pilot.

It does not feel wrong because your 5'6" .

If your over 6' tall just by removing the rubber pad in the front of the tub feels like you added 2" to the leg room.

Look at your helmet real close mine has hundreds of little red marks on it from where its been beating on the roll cage does yours have any red marks ?

I already have a few on my helmet. After looking at the seat and getting in it, I am sitting much higher on the seat. Someone over 6' might have an issue with it. I guess it's one of the few advantages of being short...

Personally I do not see cutting the stock seat mounts out as butchering a pilot, all 4 of my long travel pilots the stock mounts are all gone and I guaranty you you will not be able to tell they were ever there in the first place. The stock seat sucks compared to the full on PRP race seats I have with the large functional double head rest that comes to the top of my helmet sunk into the frame. Sunk in you ask, yes all my seats are put into and below the frame rails by a couple of inches, my seat mounts on all 4 have not been touched by rocks, and it gives the room to be nice and comphy in the car with the seat pushed way back tword the Engine. The front and rear of the pilot hang so low compaired to the middle of the car and the car is so short the chances at least where we ride is very small of ever hitting. 1 of my pilots came with the ATV beard seat and firewall, except for the poor welds that were put on it when they put the seat in I feel a lot more secure and comphy than I do with a rock hard stock seat. Took my son 5 minutes to remove the seat the other night on that pilot and the firwall which I hate to admit is pretty nice. Maybe hosers came with a different kind or design? The small beard seat the head rest in not to function able no mater what that seat is mounted in. I am 6ft 1 and have plenty of leg room and clearance from the roof. in 3.5 years not 1 has been touched in the seat area and my kids drive the crap out of them! Look in Dave cos world at the seats installed in my pilots.

No offense Dave but your comparing apples to oranges when comparing your seat setup to the ATVR setup, ATVR didnt need to remove the stock seat mounts in the first place this has been proven a few times, one owner even made a no tools mount system that not only took the seat mounts out of shear you could remove his seat in about 10 seconds, install took about 30-40 to get it lined back up again, not to mention as Lee pointed out many years ago the ATVR / beard seat combo mounts are all designed wrong from a designers point because by design they are setup to shear off the mount bolts unlike the Honda mount that the more force you put on the seat as it will see in real world use the mount bolts see less tension or forces are applied to the fasteners that retain the seat the more forces you put on them the less stress the mount bolts are in..

Is the ATVR seat setup dangerous ? How many has failed, how many people been killed? I am sure that will be the next excuse made for a poorly thought out design.

Dave I wish you live closer so we could meet up regularly and brainstorm on these Pilots then use that excuse to go test our ideas How you been feeling I hope your on the fast road to recovery.

Every aftermarket seat I have ever sat in by time I got my harness tighten up to the proper tension properly securing me in the seat the only advantage I seen was your ass and back was deeper into a pocket the seat be great for circle track racing where greater lateral forces are applied to the driver, the seat was softer but the softness was not worth the trade off when the seat is wet, also is no worry about dirt and dust getting trapped into the cloth seat fibers.

When I removed the seat from the ATVR LT Pilot I bought and turned it upside down then tapped the seat from the underside (side you set in) must have got a full pound of dirt/sand out of the seat, wish now I took pictures of this mess and great design, its still not clean I will beat it some more see what else comes out, their was signs the seat has been wet before wonder how much mold is in the seat?

Dave you want to buy my ATVR seat mounts I will be cutting them off this frame pretty soon, also for sale will be the ATVR firewall and possibly the the ATVR fully belly skid if I don't have enough aluminum left over to make another hoserized skid I will cut up and modify the ATVR skid.

Wait until you see the way the PO butchered up the front tub to install the mounts to a really bad designed hood

I am having a real ruff go at the moment hoser. with no end in site as of now. lying in bed looking over the site, havent commented in quite a while.. We would have a good time forsure if we were closer, we could learn a lot from one another. One of the problems I see with the ATV mounts and 1 of my pilots is a prime example is the seat mounts are welded in by people that have little to no welding skill. A gorges weld does not necessarily mean its a great weld and can be a poor weld and a ugly weld can have great penetration, the welds on this one were just plain BAD. All the ATV seat set ups I have seen have all been the same, shitty welds, tiny rhin tabs not installed straight. I agree, the seat mounts on those don't need to be removed. I removed mine so the seat could drop by them, the seat is to wide to leave them in. being a fab person I see what they were trying to do, changing the mount on the seat to try keeping the back of the seat mount from hanging down but to me it was a wasted effort. The angle they put in the seat does help longer people, at least the one in mine does that has AtV seat. One day I hope to cut it out and put a full race PRP/ like my other pilots have. I will buy the firewall and maybe the skid plate when your ready. Let me know---Dave

I know what you mean about the bad welds you can find many examples all over the web most I have found are post on sites that has fabrication and by the person that made the weld, they don't even know they are making a bad weld and think its a good weld so post pics to impress their friends, then many of them cheer the bad welder on and tell him how great his is, blind leading the blind, most the welds I am talking about would never pass a visual weld inspection the weld inspector could simply look them out, no need to measure anything lol

I have seen perfect looking welds on tube chassis that are very impressive except for one thing they did not use enough filler material so their is visible undercut on the surface hard telling how much they thinned out the tubing on the inside, what good does it do to use .095 "Chrome Molly Tubing" when your done welding it and its .060 thick at the welded joints where most the strength is required? Then you point this out they get all pissy about it and their know nothing friends gang up on you haha

Entertainment value is very high on them fabrication sites, another one of my favorites is the new pulse feature they are putting on welders now guys are taking a mig and trying to get the visual appearance a tig leaves and delaying the pulse so much that they have nothing but a series of tack welds stacked together not understanding its a cold weld and has little to no strength, it takes no longer to make a proper weld.

For example I like this one its a series of tack welds, includes cratering, welder clearly had 0 welding skills, owner that accepted the welds and sold them to some unsuspecting owner had no clue what a weld is either, this is why I have made attempts on the fab sites to educate the onlookers who have no clue what to look for, always backfires, I am instantly demonized then flooded with a bunch of replies like "his welds never break" "no problem so far" etc. I am sure you have seen it play out before stupid defending stupid hence the saying 'you cant fix stupid' if someone died because of the bad weld these morons would either hide and be silent or make up other excuses and blame the user of the weld not the welder, strange world we live in .



While your out of the shop now would be a good time to surf the web and consume what ever helps you pass the time, you could even get on your computer go over to Dave-Co's world and go on a long ass mindless rambling marathon, start new post and let it fly, spew all that knowledge you have accumulated over the years that is stuck in your head, give us way too much details, relive your past, tell us about what you know your past experience in building off road anything, racing them, lessons learned, what you would have done if, what you should have done, fabrication tips, design theories, I know you have a ton bottled up inside use this down time to let it all out, share your knowledge, help future generations who share the same interest, better the off road world by helping it evolve to the next level.

I really enjoyed your shock talk I have found on other sites like your recirculating oil mod on your race car shocks!

I wish I had more free time to do the same, so much to say so little time to say it in detail.

Get well soon we need you back in the game full time, I am sure their are more Pilots that need your magic!