How to: Avoid a Nasty Gash (Sprinter Van Seat Rail Guards)
If you own a Sprinter van, you know the joy of accidentally slamming your shin into those sharp seat rails. One wrong move, and BAM – you’ve gashed your leg and possibly bruised it, too. We've been there. And in the Sprinter van community, we heard the same story - and even saw some of the pictures, yikes. It came to our attention that we could design some seat rail guards that stayed on no matter who was driving or what position the seat is in.
I, Kelly, come in at a whopping 5-feet small - and yes, I can reach the pedals - so when the seat is that far forward, the old style rail guards that were available online would pop off. When David went to drive the van, we had to hunt around for the seat rail guards, because at over 6-feet tall, he had to have the seat far back enough that those rails were a potential date with destruction.
That's what started our quest to design seat rail guards that satisfied the need to keep them on no matter what, and also easy to install, without tools and adhesives.
David is the technician and brain behind Outside Is In, and he needed my engineering skills to bring what he had in mind to life. I decided to put my 3D printer to use for prototyping, and the rest is history. These guards were designed by us, and 3D printed in the US using a flexible polyurethane. We designed it specifically for the Sprinter VS30 - and it works for both manual and electric seats because it's a problem for both! We aren't sure if they fit the NCV3 model, but if you have one and want to do a fitment, let's chat.
We figured the black and orange would be the most popular based on our friends in the group, but every now and then a new color will pop up that we have to try! So far we have printed in haze gray, an icy, transparent blue, and we have a new color coming out soon that is probably David's favorite. If you see a color that speaks to you, let us know and we'll check it out.
We do batch updates on our shop on a weekly basis, so if you don't see the color you want currently available, check back in a few days' time.
We created a little how-to install video on the shop page when we released the rail guards but probably weren't as detailed on the install as we should have been, so we just released a new one on YouTube. We've linked it below.
