Has anyone installed an aftermarket seat in their Limited 4th gen?

[theoutbackdream]

The leather on my drivers seat is starting to get progressively worse, and the support in the foam is also diminishing making the seat quite uncomfortable. I've thought about buying a new foam seat and leather cover, but that's about $400. Upholstery shop gave me a quote for $300. At that cost, I am thinking I might splurge a bit more and just install an aftermarket seat if it doesn't cost all that much more.

Has anyone installed a seat in their Limited?

The biggest and only thing I worry about is having the airbag - the light being off but still goes off in an accident.

Seat bracket, seems like Corbeau is my only option? Toyota 4Runner 03-09 Seat Brackets - Corbeau USA

 

[JH225]

A couple things to consider if you haven’t already:

- aftermarket seat AND bracket may result in some drastic seat height change. I was looking at going this route to get a wee more headroom.

- corbeau brackets only go forward and back, not up and down.

- some people with 3rd gens have taken the stock seat off the stock bracket and bolted an aftermarket seat to the stock bracket. Some fabrication may be required, but this allows for retaining height and tilt adjustment.

- Corbeau only sells some of their seat models in pairs. Only their super basic models are sold individually.

- depending on how handy you are, fabbing your own brackets may be easier than you think! Renting a flux core welder from Home Depot will run you $50 a day.

- based on your post, it’s probably out of your budget, but you can also get some SERIOUSLY sweet factory replacement seats from recaro. They offer some models that come with leather, heat, cooling, and side airbags! But they also run for $3k plus...

- airbags: I’ve found a few threads here talking about putting a resistor in the connector to simulate a load. This allows the airbag system to think there’s still an airbag attached even if there isn’t.




With all that being said, it looks like you can get a pair of Corbeau seats and brackets for somewhere around $1000-$1200 and they will bolt right in. Then with a little digging you can rig up a load resistor to simulate an airbag connection. That way your airbags still go off in an accident.

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[Flybynight]

Saw an older land cruiser restored with BMW 5 series seats and they looked awesome in there, could probably score a nice pair from the junk yard or a guy doing a part out for less than what the upholstery shop is quoting you, and the seats will be better, might take some fab work to fit them though.