I had to be talked into this by Jeshua and Jason because our factory seats are just fine for gosh sakes. However, just one day of driving has shown the benefits of offroad suspension seats. It's not a comfort improvement; it's a big control and focus improvement.
After driving the FJ with the new seats today, and then driving my wife's car, I was reminded how much effort we spend just keeping our butts in place. I bet half of the work your arms are doing is just to keep you from sliding around. Then when I went back to the FJ with the new seats, my arms and attention were spent just on turning the wheel and guiding the car. I felt that somehow my brain was doing half the work with the new seats, and I was definitely controlling the car much better.
And this was just on the street. Haven't done this yet in the wild stuff but I bet it will be a vast improvement. I've rode shotgun in other offroad cars with suspension seats but not driven with them before.
Installing them in the front is a doable job. It took me 2 days, but this writeup should cut that in half since most of it was head scratching. Installing them in the rear is custom work and I'm not including it here.
As you can see you are not gonna be sliding all over the place. Staying put has a really noticeable effect on the amount of concentration you can put towards the driving. It is a confidence-improver too. I am able to take hard corners, etc. without tensing up or thinking about what to hold on to.
Suspension seats are also just that. There is a ride quality improvement because the seat frame hangs from... hangers(?) It ain't as bouncy as before...
You will have to say goodbye to your stock seatbelts. Harnesses are widely available for around $100. The seats themselves range between $250 and $400. You will also not have seatback tilt, though you can get higher-priced models with that.
Mounting the fronts can be done bolt-on. You need to be able to make some brackets out of 1/8" steel. Cut them out, bend them a bit and drill 3/8" holes.
There is no aftermarket seat slider yet for the FJ. That's why you have to make the brackets. Racing suspension seats have four mounting tabs on the bottom that are intended to bolt onto counterpart tabs welded on to chassis tubes. The brackets are required to match the seat mounting tabs to your factory seat slider, instead of chassis tabs.
Here is the factory seat slider after removal from the factory seat. You will need a #40 Torx driver to get it off:
In the case of the driver's seat, this slider is such an integral component that the driver's seat may have to be discarded. I was going to sell my factory seats but now am having second thoughts, because they will be a real hassle for someone to figure out how to put back together.
After a day I was able to figure out the brackets, using the existing threaded locations in the seat slider to mount to. They are in flat black below, at the front and back of each slider:
Here they are in my high-tech paint booth behind the dumpster at Demello's. They are 3" X 1/8" CR steel, easily available. If anyone is interested I can take the detailed measurements:
In red are the brackets dry-fit on the sliders. The black fasteners are the Torx screws that are there on the slider anyway, and the silver ones are whatever 1" X 3/8" hardware you care to use.
Test fitting before paint. No, you don't need a roll bar or any of that stuff. the harness belts go through the slot on the side, and mount on the rear bracket, on the bolt at the bottom:
Probably the most surprising thing I've ever seen at Demello's was this strange book. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody had an Osha that needed training. Unable to solve the mystery, we all returned to breathing Monoxide fumes and suffering ghastly injuries.
Kim was never one for those stuffy Corporate titles:
Well, this was a tough job indeed but the ride home was really interesting. I'm really looking forward to trying it in Death Valley this weekend with Nevadaesh's group.
For the heck of it, here are the rears. Yeah, this is one to leave to the pros at Demello. Even ones who don't train their Oshas.
- always itchin' for a trail run!
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