Aftermarket seats

[FG Surfari]

Hi

I am looking at fitting aftermarket seats to my 2004 FG.
I read that the Stratos seats are decent, but not worth the money, quality wise.
Another member mentioned Master Craft suspension seats, which go for about $610 a piece, and up.
I also saw a seat listed here in the US on Ebay,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Smittybilt-...pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

that is marketed by Smittybuilt, and look remarkably similar to the Master Craft seats, but for 1/2 the cost.

Anyone out there with some experience on the matter ? Lets have it. :smiley_drive:

 

[SkiFreak]

I am not familiar with the laws in the US, but here in Australia I believe that the only suspension seat that can be legally be fitted to a FG is the Stratos seat.
The governing factor is the distance between the seat swab and the roof of the cab.
I have said in the past that I an not at all happy with the build quality of my Stratos seats, especially given that they cost $2K each, but there is no denying that any suspension seat will be better for the driver than a fixed seat.
The reality is that just about anything would probably be better than the passenger bench seat; that bench is really average.

Westyss (in Canada) has some National air suspension seats fitted in his truck. Maybe that is another option to look at.

 

[FG Surfari]

Thanks SKI

Those seats look quite nice. I will have a further look.

Thanks !

 

[DontPanic42]

D Hackney used National Sportster Seats in his build. Albums 07 & 08 have photos. There is a description of the installation in his build report.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/index-buildup-photos.htm

 

[Ford Prefect]

I think the above post about the air seats is worth re-reading!

I had the GMC 26K capacity dump truck, and the MACK cab forward truck (trash truck body) at my disposal for about two years (these were my work trucks, I drove them everywhere). The Mack has the air seats, and it was amazingly nice to ride in, the GMC did not. The GMC was just fine to drive, but the Mack was more comfortable for sure. The comment about the passanger bench being perfectly average is just about spot on as well. It is ok to ride in, even in a dump truck all day, but honestly if you are going to do for more than a day, and for less than they were paying me, I would really not want to do it more than a couple times (in a decade). So you really may want to just go with an Air Seat.

Another thing I will point out is there are air seat bases out there than you can buy. Basically you can stick any seat onto the base. So you may just want to pop past the local pick-n-pull and grab yourself a nice set of Honda, or BMW seats, and then bolt those onto the base.

If I am not much mistaken national sells the bases for about $200.00 then you just drill the holes in the right places and you are good to go. (they had pre drilled holes for their seats of course, but really that will not matter too much IMHO)

 

[kerry]

Here's that lo profile seat base:

http://www.4statetrucks.com/seats/semi-truck-national-lo-profile-seat-base_16927.asp

I have a Stratos on the driver's side but I bought it (un)used on Ebay and I'm happy with it.