[Removing Center Seat Section Project] - R1S 2nd Row Captains Chairs from Modified 60% Seat

[kyunam]

You are a brave man.
Looking forward to seeing the final result!

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[dogooddata]

Edited the original post with progress updates—new photo of the current state below. Appreciate all the feedback and wanted to respond to a few common themes:

🪑 “Rivian really should offer captain’s chairs”
Totally agree. Seeing the seat frame up close, it feels like Rivian is just a few tweaks away from offering this as an option. That said, production capacity seems like the bigger limiter right now...not demand. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t show up in the future.

“If you wanted captain’s chairs, why not get a different car?”
Fair point...we seriously considered the EV9. But the R1S is just a cooler vehicle overall. And if this mod doesn’t work out, we’ll still enjoy the car with a bench. No regrets either way.

“I’d never do this to a brand new car”
Understandable! That’s why all the work is being done on a donor 2nd row seat. We’ll only swap it in if everything works. And if we ever sell the car, we can just reinstall the original seat.

“Hope you have the expertise for this”
Not exactly! I’m a data scientist by day, tinkerer by night. I’ve built a lot of random things over the years and always enjoy learning. This project checks all the right boxes for me.

“Kudos and good luck”
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the encouragement and I’ll continue sharing progress here.

 

[woodcan]

Good luck to you, seriously.

The lack of captain's chairs is the biggest pet peeve of my wife's in thinking of keeping or giving the R1S back once the lease ends.

I will definitely be following your progress if you can post both step by step pics/videos.

I'm also curious about the option of getting a front driver/ passenger seat and installing it in the middle row as some have mentioned. If you go that route, let us know the pros/cons as it looks like you are at point of no return (in a positive way).

If this is successfully done on your vehicle, I'll discuss with my wife about doing the same, and just buy out our R1S at the end of the lease. This is the only factor that i didn't like about the R1S vs our Subaru ascent.

Hey, my wife has an Ascent Touring that we got specifically for rear seat access for our son. The R1S was one of very few suitable alternatives so that's what I just bought.

Edited the original post with progress updates—new photo of the current state below. Appreciate all the feedback and wanted to respond to a few common themes:

🪑 “Rivian really should offer captain’s chairs”
Totally agree. Seeing the seat frame up close, it feels like Rivian is just a few tweaks away from offering this as an option. That said, production capacity seems like the bigger limiter right now...not demand. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t show up in the future.

“If you wanted captain’s chairs, why not get a different car?”
Fair point...we seriously considered the EV9. But the R1S is just a cooler vehicle overall. And if this mod doesn’t work out, we’ll still enjoy the car with a bench. No regrets either way.

“I’d never do this to a brand new car”
Understandable! That’s why all the work is being done on a donor 2nd row seat. We’ll only swap it in if everything works. And if we ever sell the car, we can just reinstall the original seat.

“Hope you have the expertise for this”
Not exactly! I’m a data scientist by day, tinkerer by night. I’ve built a lot of random things over the years and always enjoy learning. This project checks all the right boxes for me.

“Kudos and good luck”
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the encouragement and I’ll continue sharing progress here.

I think myself and a few others missed the fact that you have a donor seat. I think it's cool that you are exploring these uncharted waters, reminds me of my dad who has never shied away from trying things like this out.

 

[dogooddata]

A bit more progress this evening. Removed the final portions of the frame that needed to come off and shaped the wires to follow the curve of the plastic molding on the bottom of the seat. Starting to look like a real seat.

 

[Engineer]

Subscribing...

I have only 2 things I miss from my Tahoe... Captains chairs and more legroom in row 3. If they just made the R1S the same length as the R1T and put that extra length into legroom in row 3 it would be perfect. R1SXL anyone?

I have 4 kids as well 10, 8, 6 and 2 and they are tall (at least some of them are).

 

[CrazyOne]

Seats are safety devices and probably the most important ones. A crazy amount of testing goes into them and modifying the structure is risky. As others have said, you could buy a salvage seat and that may be ok. It has its own problems and may not fit.

Good luck

 

[AARivian48]

kudos to you sir... can't wait to see the final product.

 

[DuoRivian]

Edited the original post with progress updates—new photo of the current state below. Appreciate all the feedback and wanted to respond to a few common themes:

🪑 “Rivian really should offer captain’s chairs”
Totally agree. Seeing the seat frame up close, it feels like Rivian is just a few tweaks away from offering this as an option. That said, production capacity seems like the bigger limiter right now...not demand. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t show up in the future.

“If you wanted captain’s chairs, why not get a different car?”
Fair point...we seriously considered the EV9. But the R1S is just a cooler vehicle overall. And if this mod doesn’t work out, we’ll still enjoy the car with a bench. No regrets either way.

“I’d never do this to a brand new car”
Understandable! That’s why all the work is being done on a donor 2nd row seat. We’ll only swap it in if everything works. And if we ever sell the car, we can just reinstall the original seat.

“Hope you have the expertise for this”
Not exactly! I’m a data scientist by day, tinkerer by night. I’ve built a lot of random things over the years and always enjoy learning. This project checks all the right boxes for me.

“Kudos and good luck”
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the encouragement and I’ll continue sharing progress here.

Not sure where production capacity comes as a limitation if they have plenty of inventory and are pulling on demand levers.

 

[akc5247]

Subscribing...

I have only 2 things I miss from my Tahoe... Captains chairs and more legroom in row 3. If they just made the R1S the same length as the R1T and put that extra length into legroom in row 3 it would be perfect. R1SXL anyone?

I have 4 kids as well 10, 8, 6 and 2 and they are tall (at least some of them are).

Yes, R1SXL. Been saying it since day 1!!!

 

[coney27]

@dogooddata Any further updates on this? I really want a RS1 but the lack of captains chairs is a deal breaker for my family.

 

[JMACCA]

We recently purchased an R1S after owning a Model X for the past 4 years. With 4 kids (ages 7, 5, 3, 1) in car seats, the poor design of access to the 3rd row is a pain. I was surprised that I could not find anyone who has tried to modify the 60% seat to remove the center portion to create an aisle in the middle row...surely someone has already done it?!?! But since I could not find anyone who has already done it, I figured I would give it a shot and take pictures along the way. If you have done this (or know of someone who has) I would love to see build pictures to learn from someone else before I start cutting the seat frame.

I started this evening and I will plan to post updates as the work progresses. Cheers to starting something without a fully formed plan!

Progress so far (updated May 4):

• removed top portion of the middle that folds down.
• removed plastic trim around floor mount for the rail
• removed plastic trim that covers the rail and covers the hinge for the folding top portion
• removed the bottom seat cushion from the seat frame
• (new) grind down welds connecting wire frame from tubular frame
• (new) cut out tubular frame including middle seat wire frame
• (new) cut out rear tube - black bar that serves as hinge for folding motion
• (new) bend wire frame to match curve of plastic molding

Original seat before any work:

Current state (Updated May 5):

Work in progress photos:

Thank you for the update. Cant wait to see the final product.

 

[dogooddata]

Apologies for the radio silence for a while now. Project is still live and hoping to have an update soon with additional photos. Our Rivian got backed into a little over a month ago and while the damage was not bad, between insurance and relatively few body shops able to work on Rivians, it has taken a while. Hoping to get the car back in early July and get the seat finished and installed then.

 

[iansriv]

Apologies for the radio silence for a while now. Project is still live and hoping to have an update soon with additional photos. Our Rivian got backed into a little over a month ago and while the damage was not bad, between insurance and relatively few body shops able to work on Rivians, it has taken a while. Hoping to get the car back in early July and get the seat finished and installed then.

I thought the wife found out about your project. Seriously though, sorry to hear about the R1 damage. Hope it's all good soon. Cheers.

 

[R1SFamilyGuy]

Sorry to hear about the car! Hope everyone is safe and you get your car back aoon

 

[NeedSumCoffee]

Any updates? Its been a few months. Did you get this project all wrapped up?

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