ianshoots

So my tacoma has the 60/40 bench, and maybe its just tired, but I sometimes can't help but wonder if I might get something a little better for long hauls in there. Some tacomas must/must have come with buckets? Any experiences with increased comfort there? What about buckets out of a runner (saw a pair on ebay not to long ago), better? Will they tip forward enough for access to the xtra part of my cab?

Buckets from other trucks/cars? Any suggestions on something comfotable that would fit without to much work? (I presume I'd need the entire slider assebley floor up).

And of course buckets leads to storage between the seats, be it stock console or something custom/homeade. That could be a good thing

Just thinking....

turboale

Best oem seats ive ever sat in are volvo seats. Thats what i'm going to go with when i get new ones. They even have heaters and stuff...

mike_d

you're the third person i've seen that mentions volvo seats. do you know if any volvo seats will bolt right into my 1G 4runner? the seats in there are getting pretty bad, and i've always loved the sweedish seats. i'd rather have saab seats than volvo, but saab always does everything wierd, so i don't expect them to bolt in. if any volvo seats would bolt into my 4runner, i'd be really happy. i don't have the resources to fab any adapters to make things work.

TURNER

bad news bro, the buckets suck ass too, my rig came with buckets, and i swapped with a buddy who got dual cases and he gave me his 60/40 bench, which, as you know, sucks as well, i actaully think the bench is a little more comfortable, but thats just me...i do know that i really liked the seats in my roomates GF's limited 02 runner, dont know how they are on long trips but i liked em for the short time i was in them

turner

ianshoots

Does anybody have any experience with the racing buckets you see all over ebay? Ahhh...saab seats....I remember them well...

BeaterToyota

Part of the problem (at least for me) is that Toyota truck seats are very low. My wife's Cherokee my Wrangler have much higher seats than my Toyota does. On long trips they are much more comfortable than the Yota.

I made a 1" lift for my seats in the Toyota and it is so much more comfortable. I used to come home from wheeling with a sore back, and now everything is fine when I get home. Just my $0.02.

ianshoots

Wow! Yet another lift to get for the truck!
How tall are you, does that make you feel uncomfortably close to the roof?

CAM 1

Ya, just my .02. I even have a Tacoma limited edition and the bucket seats have extra side bolstering (sp) with power lumbar and they still suck a$$ . I seems to me the seats are not high enough for any kind of trip, for anybody. Not to get of topic, but how would one go about lifting the front stock seats in a Tacoma? Me and the "old" lady take alot of road trips in the Tacoma and my legs (6'0 tall plenty of head and leg room) fall asleep.


Craig.

JoKEpLaYeR

Roger Brown makes a seat lift, but you could do the same thing with washers or wood blocks. The seats in my gf's Rav4 are comfortable. I need to find some new seats too cause I keep getting home from a rough ride with a sore back.

Hong

Hey yeah, I was just going to ask if anyone's ever tried raising their seats higher with some washers n'stuff? Feedback?

hong

Praufet

What might be helpful to people is to list your hight, weight, and inseam, along with the seat mods. For someone who is 6'4" 230lbs with a 36" their needs will be different from someone who is 5'8" 160lbs with a 28" inseam. As for me I have the stock 2nd gen seats and like them a lot and I'm 6' 200lbs with 30" inseam.

obex26

Honda civic seats anything from the years of 93 and up..

EnolaGaia

RE: Toyota Buckets: The baseline buckets aren't that comfortable, and the premium / Limited ones (like in my '04 S-Runner) are just about as bad. Ironically, Toyota keeps winning J. D. Power awards for 'seat quality', even though the Taco seats are probably the single feature most complained about.

RE: Non-Taco Buckets: Staying within the Toyota family, the most popular option is to transplant Celica buckets. If you go farther afield than Celicas, you'll have to be looking at special mounts or fabricating pieces. Even the Celica seats only directly fit 3 of the 4 mounting holes in a Taco. NOTE: In general, the mounts / fitment are the biggest headache, and the thing that 'bites' people trying to do installs. You should expect to invest time and / or $$$$ in the mounting hardware above and beyond the seats themselves.

A company called Wedge Engineering specializes in seat mounts, and they can / will fabricate mounts for you (for a fee, of course).

By and large, if you go looking for other brand cars' seats, focus on the Europeans. Generally speaking, they're the ones with the best ergonomics. Volvo is especially good. Some of the German marques (VW, BMW, etc.) use rebranded Recaros. Generally speaking, the Japanese automakers are still trying to figure out what 'ergonomics' is. In any case, they tend to design to a different form factor than adult Americans exhibit on average.

RE: Racing Style Buckets: The original poster was talking about long haul trips. The racing-style buckets generally suck ergonomically, and they'll punish you on longer trips. There are bunches of knock-off racing-style seats to be found on eBay, but the quality of their materials, design, etc., only extends as far as appearances.

RE: Lifting Your Seats: I should think that rubber or urethane blocks and extended bolts should take care of it.

SloPoke

I've done the seat mod to my comas since back in 96. I have pics of it at home but I'm at the office. Really easy mod and worth 10 times the time it takes to do it!!! (about an hour or so) It's only about a 3.00 mod to boot. One of my favoruite mods too.

You want pics, email me at krawlinacoma@cox.net with seat mout pics in the subject and I'll foward em to ya. They are self explanitory.

Happy Moddin'!

rwmorrisonjr

How did you lift the seats? Do you have pics or a write-up? I tried to get to Roger Brown's site and it comes back as a "Page cannot be displayed" error, will try it from home later.

BeaterToyota

I actually only lifted the rear of the seat. I planned to lift the front and rear, but I screwed up the bracket that I was going to use up front and I haven't made a new one yet.

For the rear I just used some 1"x1" square tubing I had laying around. I just cut two pieces about 1-1/2" long, drilled holes through them, and put them between the stock seat bracket and the floor. The old bolts weren't long enough so I took one to Home Depot and got a metric bolt that has the same diameter and pitch and just used those.

I'm only about 5'10", and with the rear of my seat lifted 1" I have plenty of head room. I've had my truck for 12 years, but only had the seat lift in a few months. My seats are really worn out, but having them a little higher makes them a bit more comfortable.

EDIT: Pictures added





p.s. Don't laugh at all the mud inside. My truck has to live up to its beater status.

ianshoots

[QUOTE=EnolaGaia]RE
RE: Non-Taco Buckets: Staying within the Toyota family, the most popular option is to transplant Celica buckets. If you go farther afield than Celicas, you'll have to be looking at special mounts or fabricating pieces. Even the Celica seats only directly fit 3 of the 4 mounting holes in a Taco. NOTE: In general, the mounts / fitment are the biggest headache, and the thing that 'bites' people trying to do installs. You should expect to invest time and / or $$$$ in the mounting hardware above and beyond the seats themselves.

A company called Wedge Engineering specializes in seat mounts, and they can / will fabricate mounts for you (for a fee, of course).

By and large, if you go looking for other brand cars' seats, focus on the Europeans. Generally speaking, they're the ones with the best ergonomics. Volvo is especially good. Some of the German marques (VW, BMW, etc.) use rebranded Recaros. Generally speaking, the Japanese automakers are still trying to figure out what 'ergonomics' is. In any case, they tend to design to a different form factor than adult Americans exhibit on average.

RE: Racing Style Buckets: The original poster was talking about long haul trips. The racing-style buckets generally suck ergonomically, and they'll punish you on longer trips. There are bunches of knock-off racing-style seats to be found on eBay, but the quality of their materials, design, etc., only extends as far as appearances.

QUOTE]
Original poster? Hey, thats me! I did bring up the profusion of ebay racing seats, glad to know they suck-not suprised. Not that I can't google it, but do you have web address for wedge? I'm thinking I'll keep an eye out for saab seats out of a coupe/convertable so they will lean forward.

Never driven a celica (I'm probably missing out), how are their seats? Probably a lot of them available since a lot of them get all riced up with the aforementioned ebay seats (or others).

JoKEpLaYeR

Sounds like Roger is off on an adventure of some type.... here's the link to his seat lift.
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...tml#SeatHeight

Darx

I prefer the buckets to the benches in the Tacos but not by much. I can't lift my seats since I have a sun roof and my head is about bouncing off the roof as it is. It seems they lower the liner with the sunroof.

03TRDBlack

How did you make your 1" lift for your seats? I would like my seats to be higher as well. Could you give a bit of a writeup (or email me how you did it rcslade@hotmail.com )