Best way to remove a stuck boat seat.

For the first time ever, the pedestal won’t uncouple from the boat deak in my Alumacraft boat. I have tried pulling it out with one person holding in the button, and another pulling up on the seat, but no joy. The best thing I can think of is to unscrew the baseplate from the wooden decking to get at the underneath to see why it isn’t releasing. But before that I was wondering if anyone else had this issue (gotta think so) and what they did to fix it.

And also, is there any suggestion for how to prevent this from happening again?

Thanks for any suggestions.

BTW – Bass fishing on Tonka is great lately! Anyone interested in doing some early morning fishing there should let me know. And since I am on the lake, I don’t have any public launching hassles.

Yep, its happened to me a few times. I’ve removed the base plate and popped it out that way a couple of times. I’ve also used a hammer and heavy flat head screw driver pounded in the release slot and popped it out like that too. I usually put grease in where the base connects to the pedestal and that prevents it for the most part. Also pull them in and out every so often so it doesn’t seize up.

If it’s the wedge style seat pedestal, you can tap on it from side to side with a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet. Should loosen it up enough to remove. Make sure you hold the tab while doing it. It usually works for me. Good luck!

You could spray some silicone around the base before starting.

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If it’s the wedge style seat pedestal, you can tap on it from side to side with a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet. Should loosen it up enough to remove. Make sure you hold the tab while doing it. It usually works for me. Good luck!

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Thats what did, rubber hammer.

You can try penetrating oil and then a pipe wrench holding in the lock tab if there is one. A few hammer taps might also help before the wrench. Mine was so bad that I had to remove the base which I was switching anyway. I had to drill out the base screws as they were rusted in and an impact tool only loosened a couple of them.

It’s always worked for me to zip tie the button down and tap around the base with a rubber mallet.

I have used a tire jack.. that did work..

I also had a boat seat snapped on an old tri hull when I hit a boat wake dead on with the face of the tri hull. it broke the weld and the seat just flopped into the bottom of the boat..