Better seats, especially for tall guys?

[FLYFISHEXPERT]

the limited seats are nice

Prior to purchasing my SR5 4Runner, I sat in and test drove several 4Runners in various trim levels. The one thing that led me to the SR5 was the seat. Although the limited were much more comfortable, I could not sit up straight because of the added thickness of the cushion and the electronic controls. I am 6’6” and found the base seats and SR5 seats to fit the best height wise. Too bad because limiteds were much nicer than what I have.

 

[hoist00]

I'm 6'5" and also have the same problem. I used to own a 03 4runner base model SR5 and the seats in that blew my 04 Taco seats out of the water. I have recently added some 1" square tubing under the stock mounts to lift them up a bit and I also set the seat farther back which helps but they still are not as cumfurtable as my 4runner seats in the stock location. Also you cant lift the Taco seat to high because you lose to much visabitaly.

 

[Rattler]

I am '6"5 too. Compared to the seats in my '89 XtraCab, my Tacoma seats are thrones! The seats in my '91 4Runner were only a step up from the '89's. My Tacoma seats don't really bother me until I have been in them a long time 4-5 hrs.).

I had an '02 Subaru WRX before the Taco and those seats were awesome for their adjustability for my height but they got pretty uncomfortable on a longer drive. THe funny part was after I was in the car for about a minute I always had to do a little bum shift.

 

[Harald Hansen]

I found some really clean leather seats from an 02 Disco, dude wants to sell front and rear for $450, he won't sell just the fronts. I guess I could figure out how to unload the rears.

Anybody tried these seats? Any reason I shouldn't be able to make them fit my sliders?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/pts/1309030063.html

I love the Discovery seats. Did 6000 km in them this summer. I'm not as tall as you, though (calculating furiously from metric) as I'm an inch or two shorter.

 

[dustboy]

So, I purchased a pair of these:

BMW seats from a 3-series, supposedly '00-'05ish, excellent condition, full power adjust (pneumatic lumbar!!) with memory. Oh, and smell that leather..Some of the best looking seats on CL, and at $250 he wanted half what everybody else was asking.

Now, here's the thorny part..these Tacomas have a 2" x 4" pillar running across the floor that the front of the sliders bolts to, but the BMW seats want to bolt flat to the floor. So, there may be some major surgery to the floor to remove the seat pillar, to keep the seat low enough. Then the new seats can bolt flat to the floor.

The seat pillar doesn't seem to be there for any other reason than to support the seat, and I think with some strategic grinding it should come off without making too much mess of the floorpan. I may even be able to salvage it to replace if needed later.

 

[02tacotoy]

On craigslist , were you looking for those exact seats?
I have been tinkering with keywords to search for new seats and Have been having a tough time.

I am interested to see how the install goes!

 

[dustboy]

On craigslist , were you looking for those exact seats?
I have been tinkering with keywords to search for new seats and Have been having a tough time.

If you just search for "seats" you will get seats, and carbon fiber hoods for Integras and air intakes for Civics. Some knuckleheads put about 800 unrelated "keywords" into the body of the ad.

My strategy was to select the "auto parts" category, then search for "seats" and select the "search title only" box and the "has images" box. Also, searching for "seat" seemed to only turn up ads for a single seat.

I wasn't searching for BMW seats. But the great thing about these is the sliders are perfectly flat on the bottom, which makes it much easier to adapt (once you've hacked up your floor!). Also, no airbags in the side bolster that could blow up if I connect the wrong wires!

BTW these are on CL, WRX seats modded to fit Hilux. I didn't pursue because the seats in my wife's Impreza aren't so great.

 

[dustboy]

After a late night (I tend to tear the truck apart even when I have to drive it to work the next morning) and a weekend, the BMW seats are in, functional, and quite comfortable. Here are some build pics.

Here is the floorpan with the carpet pulled away. You can see the big hump that runs across the floor. You could mount the new seats on top of it, but my head would hit the ceiling. So it had to go.

I cut away the spot welds with a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder, being very careful not to cut all the way through the floorpan. There was no turning back after this point. But hey, it's paid for!

No more hump.

Hit the bare metal with some primer, plugged any open bolt holes with silicone, taped the wires into their new positions.

Pulled the wires through to power the seat adjustsments and for the driver's seatbelt sensor. On the bottom of the BMW seats, there are a pair of heavy wires, brown is GROUND and red is +12v.

Okay, I forgot to take some pics of the adapter fabrication, but basically each seat has two straight pieces of 1" x .125-wall square tube, running left to right. The front one is tapered where it meets the transmission tunnel. The adapters allow the outboard seat slider to be positioned about 1" over the door sill trim.

The rear adapter. On the inboard side, there are spacers between the adapter and the floorpan. I just used some big 2" square washers. On the outboard side, I bolted the adapter to the existing tapped hole in the floorpan, using the original bolt. For the 3 other bolts that hold the adapters to the floorpan, I drilled through the sheetmetal and backed it with fender washers.

The outboard side of the drivers seat. All the electric adjustments work, but I haven't been able to get the memory function to work. Either I just don't know how to set the memory, or it needs to be connected to the BMW computer to store the settings. I push "M" then the "1" to store the position but it just goes back to the old "1" position.

And the finished product:

I am working on some flaws with this transplant, I'm happy to hear suggestions:

1: no longer have a passenger seat that flips forward for extracab access.

2: If seat is too far forward, the control panel hits the door pocket preventing it from shutting. I may have to trim the door pocket. Fortunately it's only an issue when my wife drives.

Benefits:

1: Excellent seats!

2: Gained a huge chunk of real estate between the seats where the useless bench was. Plan to add a large center console with internal 12v and 120v AC inverter outlets, storage for go-to items like camera, ipod, radios, snacks etc.

 

[Harald Hansen]

Looking good!