My Seat Swap Research

[nfury8]

I have been doing a lot of research on seat swaps right now for my crew cab. I know there are a couple
others that have done these and others interested. I am looking at this mostly from the prospective
of a crew cab, but you can make you own decisions for your use.

I don't think that a high back seat would not be ideal for a regular cab if leg room is important.
I am 6' 3" and in my 71 regular cab, I have to have the seat all the way back and still would like a
couple extra inches. In my 70 crew cab I actually find that I need the seat moved forward about
2 inches from its furthest back position. A real bonus for those with long legs!

The seats in my crew measure right at 60" wide across the base, and there is only a couple inches
of room between the seat and door. That should be the same for most all our trucks, I would think.

These seats are from a 1999 Ram 1500. They measure about 60" at the widest point on the cushion,
59" at the cushion right at the back and about 58" wide on the back. They tilt forward, have the
center console and are pretty comfortable. They also look like they would be real easy to adapt
to an older truck, very simple mounts.






These are the same, but from an quad cab. They have integrated shoulder restraints.
These were optional in 1998 on 1500-3500, standard in 1999 and ended in 2001 on 1500
and 2002 on 2500-3500. The end coincides with the body style change, when the crew cab
replaced the quad cad. These are the design I am looking for to use in my Crew. The rear
seat mount is very simple also, I didn't get a picture, but Jimmy has a picture in one of
his recent posts. These are the only Dodge truck seats with integrate belts.





There was an optional under seat storage bin on these starting in 98, I think. This is a 98 at least.
You can somewhat see the mounts on the far side.




1996/1997 extended cab Ram. Very much like the above, but a little slimmer in depth.
The rear seats are the same width and fairly basic.






Not the best picture, but 2004 Ram Crew Cab. Better picture of rears. The rears look a bit more comfy,
but still have the same simple mounting. The under seat storage is a little different.









The driver is missing, but these are 2007 Dodge Ram. I got excited when I saw the rear center integrated
shoulder belt. On further inspection, it is built into the cab, not the seat.







Finally, these are 2008.

[nfury8]

That is the Dodge seats. They all seem to measure the same widths, good for Swept swaps!

[nfury8]

This is a 2001 Ford F150. They have the bonus of the front seat belt, but they look a little bulky.
So I am curious how they might address leg room. They would probably fine in the front, but I wonder
if it comes at a sacrifice to the rear?




These are 2005 Ford F150. I believe there is already a member using these seats. The headrests on the
front and back are a little different. I didn't look at the rear center belt, but I think it might be with the seat.




Both of these Ford seats measured 56" wide on the front and 55" wide on the rear.

[nfury8]

Now the GMs.

93 Sierra, they are 60" across at the back of the seat cushion, 57" across the front, and 54" across
on the seat backs. The rear seats were 60" wide. The fronts look a little too foo foo for my crew,
but they would be easy to mount. The rears appear to mount on the sides. The back on the rear seats
slides down and back some as the cushion is raised.











The fronts were missing out of these two, but I liked the look of the rears.

This one was a 95 and it looked to mount the same as the above 93.



This 2001 looked even nicer, but it had a funky mounting system. Notice how different the brackets
are from side to side. The 2001 did however use integrated front seat belts, where the above 93 and
95 didn't.





Looks like GM may have used the integrated belts on the front till 2006.

[PatS]

Looks like the 93 Sierra seats would be fairly simple to mount with the nice flat floor. I wonder about the height of the bottom cushion with that nice flat base. The doors are similar height from bottom to window but the Swepty floor is raised in relation to the door and the Sierra isn't (much).
They are probably cheap enough a guy could get a free/cheap one to use as a tester.


For me the concern with any seat is the room between the steering wheel and the seat back because my big fat belly has to fit between those two
Those Ford seats are nice but I sure wouldn't fit behind the wheel!!!

I think that means no headrests on a thinbacked Chevy bench seat, which is OK.

Thanks for all the pics of the various seats. Gave me some ideas for my 49 Chrysler

[nfury8]

I am not sure what is hiding behind the side covers on the Ford seats, but the Dodge and GM
seats I looked at all had intermediate brackets between the seat tracks and floor. So the brackets
could be removed for modification or replacement with something fabbed up. I plan to fab new
brackets and use the existing mounts in the floor, so I don't have to drill new holes in the floor.
I spent too much time welding up all the miscellaneous holes in the floor from all the extra
equipment the Air Force and Forestry Service added. I don't want to add new ones.

[MikeMc]

All the vehicles we ride in now days have these fancy seats in them. It's nice riding in old school bench seat. Ya it was expensive to get it redone and replace the broken springs but now I really like it. If my truck had a firm seat in it the ride would be terrible. I haven't been able to talk the girl friend into trying out the bench seat but I'm still trying .

[nfury8]

Ironically one reason I am swapping my seats is they are hard as a rock.
They were rebuilt by the Forestry Service a few years back and recovered.
They built them for use in a fire truck, very plain, very thick and very hard!

The seat in my 71 is much more comfortable.

[surfnuke9]

In a regular cab swepty, the high back seats you pictured would all be resting on the rear window glass when back all the way.

The 2004 Ram seats in my 71 only contact the rear glass if the head rest is installed. Without the head rest, the top of the seat back is just slightly below the bottom of the rear glass.

The thickness of the seat back is another important consideration if installing in a standard cab. Not all of them are the same and what I found was that just about every seat from an extended cab or quad cab had thick seat backs. up to 2 inches thicker than stadard cab seat backs.

[orionjd]

I know it's been a long time, but curious what you ended up using as best options. I'm working on looking for a set for my 77 w200 crew cab

[PwrWgnDrvr]

I know it's been a long time, but curious what you ended up using as best options. I'm working on looking for a set for my 77 w200 crew cab

FYI, the OP hasn't logged on here in over 2 yrs so don't expect an answer.

[BigBlockTrucks]

It may not be a concern for most on the board, but when I was hunting for seat options for my 60 d 100 I found that junk yards are not allowed to sell used seats that have airbags in them. Used airbag sales in New York are not allowed. I don’t know what the rules are in other states.