I have a 12' jon that I put some very cheap seats in...attached directly to the swivel mounts. For Fathers Day I received a pair of 9" pedestals which I haven't tested yet but they are installed.

Afterwards (of course) I was wondering, does it matter that I installed the pedestal between the seat and the swivel or should I have bolted the pedestal directly to the boat seat and put the swivel on top?

I'm no engineer so I really don't see where it would make a difference but I don't really wanna wind up in the drink suddenly either.

Your talking about this: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0013304017381a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=pedestal&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Ns=SEL_LOW_PRICE|0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

and this: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0013302016082a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=pedestal&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Ns=SEL_LOW_PRICE|0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

right??

If so, I would put the swivel between the seat and pedestal so it prevents excess torque that the swivel won't like.

Yep, that's exactly what I've got and I didn't think about putting torque on the swivel...good point.  I guess I'll have to swap 'em around, thanks for the input!