Northern Flight Marsh Seats

rfberan

Active member
I thought I would share this:

Two of my marsh seats suffered the same catastrophic failure this weekend. I'm expecting this will eventually happen to my others. This is their second season having been used maybe 25 hunts. Now will figure a way to repair these two and modify the others.
View attachment IMG_6390.jpg
 
My Avery did the same thing. I carefully removed the stitching on the cover. Got a piece of 3/4 pressure treated plywood and cut to the exact size. Instead of using screws on the bottom I used flat head machine bolts with fender washers to hold the base on. Once that was done I sprayed the snot out of it with Thompsons water seal. After drying, I re-attached the cover. Had to staple it on in some spots. Been working good for 4 years now.
 
Thanks for the recommendations. I'm thinking of using some Black Locust I have as the wood. I like your idea of the bolts and not screws. Thanks.
 
I had never considered investing how they are built. Seems plywood isn?t a great choice for that application. I have had the Rogers seats for 2 years now and have not had this issue. May have to look into how they are put together
 
I have a couple of the Avery marsh seats that have been around for a while. Last season after suffering thru the lack of seat size to really be comfortable I pulled off old seat , cut 3/4 plywood out at 14" x 14" and added closed cell foam padding to about 1.5" thick. Cut out new cover from some 1000 denier cordura left over from boat blind project and recovered stapling under neath w/stainless staples. Ran pan head stainless bolt thru from inside seat base so loc nuts are on outside. Comfortable for long sits now. Those inserts they put into plywood on factory seats are about useless for rough use. Thru bolt when you replace and its a good time to change seat size if you want something a little easier on butt.
 
There is an easy way to prevent having to repair anything from Cabelas- don't buy it in the first place. What little quality remained there has been thoroughly destroyed by Bass Pro Shops.
 
I'd go back with aluminum plate instead of plywood. Only a slight increase in weight. You should be able to find a piece that size at your local recycler/scrap yard and can cut it with a jig saw to shape.

Eric
 
Or use plywood for ease of restabling tucked under cover but sandwich it between couple pieces of aluminum between seat base and inside cover . Make that aluminum about 2/3 the outside dimension of outside seat dimension. That will solve the torquing problem from not siting directly over center post which looks like may have popped that center plywood section. Old 1/8" aluminum sign material would give you all you need.
 
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Gotta' wonder if this is Planned Obsolescence or just poor Engineering Design. A couple buddies of mine had seats made by another company (not sure what company) and those seats fell apart too after a couple years of saltwater use.

I made a Marsh Seat around 5 years ago out of pressure treated wood scraps (decking and 2x4) screwed and glued (Gorilla Glue) and it shows no signs of failure even after quite a bit of saltwater use...I can post a photo if any of the many DIY-minded folks on this forum are interested. (Seat is currently at a cottage about an hour from our home.)
 
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