mgmetalworks
Explorer
I'm not claiming to know it all about these seats but I've had a lot of questions about them and most people ask similar questions. I thought I'd throw up a thread to answer some of the most common questions I get and share what I learned from my install and the 6 or so months I've had them in my van.
1) How wide/tall/long are they?
Normal seating position
Reclined seating position, fully extended foot rest
Width at widest point
Height at normal seating position, headrest down, sitting on the mount I designed and Ujoint now sells
2) Where did you get them?
I've purchased 6 of them from Warehouse Salvage in Indiana. They have listings on Ebay regularly. They come in tan, two-tone tan, grey and two-tone grey. The Toyota grey matches the factory panels pretty well (the lighter of the interior colors for Ford). I've only seen one tan seat in person and it didn't look like as good of a match for the tan Ford interior but it wouldn't be out of place in my opinion.
3) How much did you pay?
I paid ~$500 each for the first 4 with shipping. These are what they consider to be the highest quality take-outs. They were perfect (until I put my greasy paws on them) with no rips, smudges or mechanical issues. In hindsight I probably could have talked them down quite a bit. They have a lot of these seats according to the owner and they will take reasonable offers.
The next pair I bought was $665 with shipping. These were the take outs with "quality issues". Mechanically they seem fine but there is an odd red-ish stain on the foot rest of both seats. I suspect it was a marker of some sort that someone tried to wipe off. No big deal really, they were cheap.
4) How many can you fit in an E-Series (not including the front seats)?
My opinion? 4 maximum. Here's why I think that: I have mine mounted so that you can fully recline the 4 seats and still have some room in the back of the van for gear. I'm 6'1" and I don't have particularly long legs. My feet touch the seats in front of me in all the positions. If I had positioned them so that my feet wouldn't touch the seats in front of me, it would have drastically reduced the room in the back...so much so that even in an EB, I would have less room than I had in my Tahoe. Not good...
I was also very mindful of what I was mounting to. I have each seat tied into an under body cross member (and additional plates where needed) so that kind of limits your positioning too. Also, think about the forces on the mounting points in an accident compared to the stock setup. The factory seat belt anchors are located in reinforced panels of the body and the seats are attached to giant boat anchors on the floor. The Sienna seat has integrated seat belts so all of the forces in an accident are taken up by the mounting base and what it is bolted to... Just something to think about.
5) What modifications do you have to make to the seat to mount it?
Not much really. If you are going to use the brackets that Ujoint is selling, there are two small pieces that need to be cut off of a flange on the bottom of the seat but it is easily done with a cut off wheel.
Sorry for the blurry picture... You can kind of see the seat flange to the left of the bolt. You just need to cut about 1" of that flange off on both ends of one side of the seat.
6) They look pretty comfy...how do you like them?
I've spent pretty much zero road time in them but all of my passengers have been quite happy. My very-hard-to-impress in-laws were content over the course of 12 hours of driving time a few weekends ago. And if you follow my build thread you've seen that I am working on mounts for converting my front seats over to these seats...My wife has been demanding faster turn around time on that project too if that is any indication how much she likes them. I think they are excellent seats, very well made, high quality upholstery and pretty compact considering that it reclines like a LazyBoy!
If I think of anything else I'll update this thread. For others who have used these seats please feel free to share your learnings too.
1) How wide/tall/long are they?
Normal seating position
Reclined seating position, fully extended foot rest
Width at widest point
Height at normal seating position, headrest down, sitting on the mount I designed and Ujoint now sells
2) Where did you get them?
I've purchased 6 of them from Warehouse Salvage in Indiana. They have listings on Ebay regularly. They come in tan, two-tone tan, grey and two-tone grey. The Toyota grey matches the factory panels pretty well (the lighter of the interior colors for Ford). I've only seen one tan seat in person and it didn't look like as good of a match for the tan Ford interior but it wouldn't be out of place in my opinion.
3) How much did you pay?
I paid ~$500 each for the first 4 with shipping. These are what they consider to be the highest quality take-outs. They were perfect (until I put my greasy paws on them) with no rips, smudges or mechanical issues. In hindsight I probably could have talked them down quite a bit. They have a lot of these seats according to the owner and they will take reasonable offers.
The next pair I bought was $665 with shipping. These were the take outs with "quality issues". Mechanically they seem fine but there is an odd red-ish stain on the foot rest of both seats. I suspect it was a marker of some sort that someone tried to wipe off. No big deal really, they were cheap.
4) How many can you fit in an E-Series (not including the front seats)?
My opinion? 4 maximum. Here's why I think that: I have mine mounted so that you can fully recline the 4 seats and still have some room in the back of the van for gear. I'm 6'1" and I don't have particularly long legs. My feet touch the seats in front of me in all the positions. If I had positioned them so that my feet wouldn't touch the seats in front of me, it would have drastically reduced the room in the back...so much so that even in an EB, I would have less room than I had in my Tahoe. Not good...
I was also very mindful of what I was mounting to. I have each seat tied into an under body cross member (and additional plates where needed) so that kind of limits your positioning too. Also, think about the forces on the mounting points in an accident compared to the stock setup. The factory seat belt anchors are located in reinforced panels of the body and the seats are attached to giant boat anchors on the floor. The Sienna seat has integrated seat belts so all of the forces in an accident are taken up by the mounting base and what it is bolted to... Just something to think about.
5) What modifications do you have to make to the seat to mount it?
Not much really. If you are going to use the brackets that Ujoint is selling, there are two small pieces that need to be cut off of a flange on the bottom of the seat but it is easily done with a cut off wheel.
Sorry for the blurry picture... You can kind of see the seat flange to the left of the bolt. You just need to cut about 1" of that flange off on both ends of one side of the seat.
6) They look pretty comfy...how do you like them?
I've spent pretty much zero road time in them but all of my passengers have been quite happy. My very-hard-to-impress in-laws were content over the course of 12 hours of driving time a few weekends ago. And if you follow my build thread you've seen that I am working on mounts for converting my front seats over to these seats...My wife has been demanding faster turn around time on that project too if that is any indication how much she likes them. I think they are excellent seats, very well made, high quality upholstery and pretty compact considering that it reclines like a LazyBoy!
If I think of anything else I'll update this thread. For others who have used these seats please feel free to share your learnings too.
