Ideas to install a rear deck seat post on a Ranger 619FS

I am thinking of purchasing a Ranger 619FS, but I need the ability to be able to move a seat to the rear deck for jigging.  Very poor design by Ranger in my opinion.  I see you can buy a deck extension from Ranger, but then you cannot use the rear two seats that are on the posts.  I know I will not be happy with the boat without the ability of having a seat on the rear deck.  Thank you in advance for any ideas and thoughts for a seat post on the rear deck.  I currently own a Crestliner 1850 Raptor.  I love the layout and the storage.  I wish I could place this layout on the Ranger hull.  I cannot go longer than a 19 foot boat. 

I have a 619 VS.  And there are two solutions.

First one...this is the easiest.  Buy a "camp" chair and simply put it on the back deck.  I recommend the Eskimo Tri-pod chair, with a back.  It stores easier and is easier to get out of.  And...you can put it anywhere you like, even up front if you want to jig two up there.  That front deck on a 619 is enormous.

Second one...get the back casting deck extension.  Work with a Ranger dealer, as I believe that there is a post that you can put under that thing that sits in the boat, and into the hole on the casting deck.  You can then put a seat into the hole and attach the units.

For me...when I'm jigging, I usually have a camp chair handy, because it is just easier and allows me to put a lot of stuff under that back deck.  And...it was a lot cheaper.

Or...you simply sit in one of the riding seats and jig away.  Assuming that the front deck has a person or two on it already.

I cannot recall how close the two rear seats are to the livewell, but you could make your own deck extension and carpet it. Only needs to be 12" wide or so to accomodate a seat base.  It might possible to have a smaller deck extension and still use the two rear seats.

I had a 681 Ranger without a rear casting deck. At that time you could buy a removable rear deck direct from Ranger. I also had a Ranger 461VS that you could purchase a front deck extension from Ranger. Both of them worked great, plus I could store stuff under them, keeping the floor area of the boat neater. I think if you call Ranger they could help you.

When I bought my new Lund this year, it had a rear casting deck, but no place to put a seat on that deck. I got the dealer to throw in a free seat and the floor plate to hold the post.

I then had a friend make me a piece of aluminum plate, 1/4" thick, to go under the plywood deck, knowing that if I just put that post base on the plywood, there was no way that was going to hold up under all of the stress that seat would put on that spot. I made the aluminum plate as large as I could fit under that deck and had the guy machine all of the holes where they need to be, then I used stainless steel bolts, lockwashers and nylon nuts to secure the post base to the deck.

At times it was a bugger to remove that deck to get the plate in there, Lund uses a lot of screws to hold that deck down :)

If you can get access to that area, it's really not that hard, just reinforce where the seat post will go, otherwise the plywood will get pulled out in no time.

A lot of times we don't use that seat, but about 50% of the time, it is nice to have it there.

Just a quick question why do you need to jig off the back of the boat. trolling motor and  electronics everything is set up for jigging from the front of the boat. The newer trolling Motors have transducers built into them so you would still be on top of the structure while fishing.

I personally would not buy a brand new boat and start making a major modification to it. There are so many brands of boats out there now days that you would think that you'd be able to find something that would work for you.

But if you're set on getting a ranger Some others on this site may have some ideas but I still think it's a bad direction to go.