Clamp on seats

I got some clamp on seats for my 12 foot Jon boat today. They fit great and are just what I was looking for. My question is what is the best way to tighten the wing nuts? It's a real pain to get them tight. Has anyone fabricated a tool to make this easier/faster? Any info. Is appriciated.

I had a buddy that took an old socket and cut slots for the wings. Never saw it work but it looked like it would.

I've made wing nuts from pieces of 1/8" to 3/16" thick bar stock. Cut to the length you can fit in the available space, drill and tap to fit stud/bolt and bend ends up slightly. A 2-3 inch long piece of bar stock provides nice leverage.

Good info. Thanks guys.

My friend just took a piece of PVC, 1/2" if i remember correctly - glued a T fitting to one end for a grip and notched the opposite end so it nested on the wingnuts & allowed him to spin them between the seat bench and the swivel plate.

Guys, I wanted to pass along what I did. I used an old mini baseball bat I had from when the kids were young. I cut it to size and drilled out the middle so the bolt could go through. Then I filed the notch with a round file. It took about a half hour and it is awesome and fast. There is no way you could tighten the wing nuts as tight as this thing by hand. I love it when somthing I fabricated works much better then expected. Pictures below. Make one if you have clamp on seats with wing nuts you will be pleasantly surprised.

that's the same idea as what i was describing with the PVC - just no T handle at the end

...and if you happen to take the wooden one with you in the boat, and by chance lose it overboard, VIOLA!
...IT FLOATS!!
:idea: :idea:

onthewater102 said:

My friend just took a piece of PVC, 1/2" if i remember correctly - glued a T fitting to one end for a grip and notched the opposite end so it nested on the wingnuts & allowed him to spin them between the seat bench and the swivel plate.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I did. Works great!

Not exactly the answer to your question but.... I had the clamp on style seats in my last boat. I tightened the wing nuts and the thing still wanted to move just a little so rather than continue tightening I ran a ratchet strap over the clamp bars and under the bench seat. That thing was solid and I never had to worry about it coming off. I was able to lean back all I wanted at any angle with no fear of the seat slipping off.