D3/LR3 seat covers?

[Victory_Overland]

Thank you folks for the suggestions! The Wet Okies are nice, just not what I'd want in a daily-driver. I think I had my heart set on M&M very early on, but really had to find out a few details. Eric here will have a set in khaki, I am shooting for the charcoal color. He's been very helpful in outlining the process and answering questions. Keep an eye out for when he gets his, I assume mine will be a while in arriving.

If the product is at all a reflection of their staff and customer service, I will be very pleased. Email response was next day and I called Nicole in Cape Town this morning to confirm a few things. Lovely people to deal with

Woot Woot :victory: Stoked your order is going through! Can't wait to see a full charcoal set up in a Disco 3!

 

[NCLRbear]

Have you considered Wet Okole seat covers? They appear to be some of the nicer ones I've seen. Somebody wrote a review on them here... http://www.landroverworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13158

these are what I'm going to get. They're very nice and look stock.

 

[NCLRbear]

That was my feeling too after I saw Melvill and Moons and the customer service is awesome too. I just heard from Nicole a few minutes ago and my covers are in QC getting inspected and will ship to JoBurg this afternoon. I should have them in a few weeks I'm hoping...stoked.

I'll provide full experience details once installed. I will say there are many great covers out there, I was just sold and kind of just stuck with M&M once I saw them up close.

hmmm, now you guys have me thinking, I may have to go with these instead of the wet okoles.

 

[Ray_G]

Interesting comments regarding the Wet Okles not being wanted for a DD application. While I guess that depends on what you do daily, in my experience they are superb for exactly that kind of build. Mind you I'm basing this off canvas in my D1 which was a DD but then turned into more of our toy (the canvas went in before that transition though), and the wet okles are in the D3.

My experience is the canvas is rugged, durable, and goes well with tan (alpaca, light brown, whatever) interiors and seats. My Kexby's had MOLLE webbing so that was an added plus too.

The Wet Okles also seem durable, don't look nearly as rugged b/c they blend in given how superb their fit is (better than canvas), and they make the seats more comfortable-especially the arm rests on the driver/passenger D3 seats.

To each their own of course, I just think one has to be clear what their intended application/usage is since for most I personally think the Wet Okles are far superior for DD usage. If you do stuff where your interior is thrashed, you wear barb wire pants, or what have you then canvas may be better.
r-
Ray

 

[Victory_Overland]

Interesting comments regarding the Wet Okles not being wanted for a DD application. While I guess that depends on what you do daily, in my experience they are superb for exactly that kind of build. Mind you I'm basing this off canvas in my D1 which was a DD but then turned into more of our toy (the canvas went in before that transition though), and the wet okles are in the D3.

My experience is the canvas is rugged, durable, and goes well with tan (alpaca, light brown, whatever) interiors and seats. My Kexby's had MOLLE webbing so that was an added plus too.

The Wet Okles also seem durable, don't look nearly as rugged b/c they blend in given how superb their fit is (better than canvas), and they make the seats more comfortable-especially the arm rests on the driver/passenger D3 seats.

To each their own of course, I just think one has to be clear what their intended application/usage is since for most I personally think the Wet Okles are far superior for DD usage. If you do stuff where your interior is thrashed, you wear barb wire pants, or what have you then canvas may be better.
r-
Ray

Ray I think you nailed it. Wet okoles are excellent covers and surely fit better than any other options we have for LR. Sometimes I'm jealous only of jeep guys for seat cover options......but that's the only reason. Lol

With that said, my M&M covers will get slightly modified with some Molle strips in key areas to allow me some future options. This was a big decision in my purchase of a durable canvas option.

As stated, I do not have Wet Okoles in any of my vehicles but many friends of mine on the islands do. They are classy, have excellent fit and are plenty durable for almost any user in my opinion. I just wanted options to expand and a best quality product to start with and that was Melvill & Moon for almost the same cost since I purchase international exchange rate with no US vended markup.

NCLR_Bear......weigh your options for use and in my opinion is you can't go wrong in the end on either of these choices.

 

[phobucket]

Hey DiscoDavis. PM'd you about the covers. Thanks!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[DiscoDavis]

I have returned from a much-needed weekend in Vegas to see there has been some activity in my absence

Ray, I agree with your evaluation. The Wet Okoles tick the boxes on paper for a DD, but I went with the others anyway. If I lived in a wetter environment, and used the truck as a daily for shorter legs (IE spent less time with the truck), I think I would consider the Wet Okoles' neoprene material more seriously. That said, I-and my posterior-spend several hours in the truck commuting/working, and I am a sucker for canvas in general...

The heat/sunlight exposure was a consideration given that it appears the neoprene degrades in sunlight, versus the patina that the canvas gets. The truck, if memory serves me correctly, has only ever been garaged maybe twice, ever. She lives outside, and California these days is still pretty dry/hot despite the recent el nino rains. I LOVE the idea of the covers aging and breaking in over time, and don't want to always be wondering how much breakdown the neoprene is going through. The ruggedness of canvas is a bonus, and I went too far for the rugged application of covers when I fitted the OEM ones, which are waterproof and perform admirably in torrential rains getting in and out of the truck, but are not all that comfortable. RE: comfort; I imagine the Wet Okoles have more cushion being neoprene, but my consideration is canvas, versus neoprene, versus the OEM hardshell-like PVC material, is the comfort/feel of the fabric more than cushion. So in that sense I'd rather have the slightly less-soft but harder abrasion-resistance of the canvas. I don't have pants made out of barbed wire, but I do carry pointy/abrasive objects frequently. Style-wise, I do not like how the WO's look at all. Just a personal view. It is hard to find good photos or videos of the M&M covers on a D3, but Eric was kind enough to show me a snapshots of a ZA truck that had them fitted for several years, and wow, the patina was superb. Looked just right to me.

The last rational versus subjective evaluation for me was price. The Rand/USD conversion rate has been pretty good for us dollar-users, so it brings the price of the M&M's down to something palatable, even with the large shipping costs (not that the order won't be a large chunk of change). The prices on other brands are good, but I almost can't resist a good exchange rate, especially having done a lot of euro-usd, chf-usd transactions in the past . As for everything else, yes this was mostly a gut/aesthetics-based choice. A lot about this truck is more emotional versus rational, and I kind of enjoy that decision-making process. Yes, I will be the first to admit I want that safari-feel. I can't really justify the choice beyond saying I love how I feel about one and not the other.

 

[Ray_G]

...I don't have pants made out of barbed wire, but I do carry pointy/abrasive objects frequently....
...As for everything else, yes this was mostly a gut/aesthetics-based choice. A lot about this truck is more emotional versus rational, and I kind of enjoy that decision-making process. Yes, I will be the first to admit I want that safari-feel. I can't really justify the choice beyond saying I love how I feel about one and not the other.

I love the fact that you caught that, and then turned it around in your post!
Concur wholeheartedly with your logic; I am interested to see what happens to my WO's when the truck gets back to the US and doesn't live in a parking garage the majority of the time (though with a black interior I am fairly religious about sun shade in the windshield too)-they may not fare well with either the UV or my somewhat more rough existence back in the States.

The patina of canvas is def nice, sadly my D1's kexby patina appears to be a mix of gear oil and mud as much as anything these days-I need to wash them, again.

At some point you know what is needed for this thread to be valid:
pictures installed!
r-
Ray

 

[Victory_Overland]

Melvill & Moon Charcoal Picts

Sorry for the delay, here are the pictures of my buddy Robert's Melvill & Moon seat covers. They wear really nicely with a lovely patina finish. Not sure how the tan will look over the years but I will surely post as I find out. Robert purchased them used and has had them for quite some time and all over South Africa in his Disco 4. Said he would buy new if he ever had to buy another set of seat covers. He absolutely loves them.

 

[leadoverdistance]

Those look awesome, and I know they look better in person. Some things just look better with age, and these have character.
Seriously keen for those that ordered them to start posting pics once installed.
I just did a transmission fluch, so there went my Land Rover budget for the month!

 

[DiscoDavis]

I love the fact that you caught that, and then turned it around in your post!
Concur wholeheartedly with your logic; I am interested to see what happens to my WO's when the truck gets back to the US and doesn't live in a parking garage the majority of the time (though with a black interior I am fairly religious about sun shade in the windshield too)-they may not fare well with either the UV or my somewhat more rough existence back in the States.

The patina of canvas is def nice, sadly my D1's kexby patina appears to be a mix of gear oil and mud as much as anything these days-I need to wash them, again.

At some point you know what is needed for this thread to be valid:
pictures installed!
r-
Ray

Ray,

Can't tell you how jealous I am that your disco gets to live in a garage! What luxury! Yes I figured I had better fess-up about how I decided... It is not exactly doing seat covers on a budget... But hopefully worth it in 5-years time. Your comment about the patina is exactly why I decided on charcoal . She is far too dirty as-is anyway.

Pictures - working on it . Supposed to get final transport quote today from Port Elizabeth.

 

[DiscoDavis]

Sorry for the delay, here are the pictures of my buddy Robert's Melvill & Moon seat covers. They wear really nicely with a lovely patina finish. Not sure how the tan will look over the years but I will surely post as I find out. Robert purchased them used and has had them for quite some time and all over South Africa in his Disco 4. Said he would buy new if he ever had to buy another set of seat covers. He absolutely loves them.

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Yes! These were the "secret" photos Eric kindly shared with me. Love at first sight. Glad he allowed you to post them.

 

[DiscoDavis]

Those look awesome, and I know they look better in person. Some things just look better with age, and these have character.
Seriously keen for those that ordered them to start posting pics once installed.
I just did a transmission fluch, so there went my Land Rover budget for the month!

I can't speak for how they look in-person yet but I trust they will look great. Hey, good on you for resisting the form-over-function... keep at mechanicals first... I remember my tranny service bill...

Look to Eric's build for pictures first, I believe his may have just shipped or will ship soon.

 

[A.J.M]

I like the look of those covers and the exchange rate to pounds is pretty good as well.

Is that the charcoal colour ones?

 

[DiscoDavis]

Is that the charcoal colour ones?

Yes.