Well, in going out to actually start this project yesterday I discovered a couple things. First, the day wasn't nearly long enough to get everything else done AND do this, too. Second, in looking at the tractor seat level and the level of the base for the backhoe seat I found about a 5-6" height difference. Now it's not a matter of IF I want the seat at a higher level for the backhoe as it is how to get it up there.
I'm going to have to do more than a little additional engineering on this to make it work now. The spring loaded pipe idea won't work for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that I need to move the seat further horizontally than the seat track range would allow by itself.
The method on the drawing and in the pictures seems like it's a lot closer to what I need. I'm going to try to scavenge some heavy angle iron for the pieces I'll want on the very bottom and at the bottom of the seat base and then try to use something like square tubing for the two moving pieces.
At least that's what I'm thinking now... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif