will these seats bolt right into my ranger? its a extended cap.

Yes, they will drop right in. You'll just need to slightly enlarge a couple of mounting holes in the brackets to accept the larger Ranger bolts.

yea they will bolt right in.....and NO you don't have to enlarge some holes in the seat.....speaking from experience.....i didnt enlarge holes on my Explorer seats and they bolted in fine....

only problem you will have is the Explorer lower seatbelt bracket is shorter than the Rangers.....on the driver side, you can swap the Explorer for the Ranger's and it will work....on the passanger side, you will have to make a bracket extention......

Mo, I've installed two different sets of Ex seats in my '98 and each time I had to enlarge at least one hole in each seat track. So it might be a case-by-case thing...

i didn't enlarge any to get them to fit in my truck.....took 1 seat out, bolt the other in...

do you have any pictures of the seat belt bracket that your talking about, also how much space is between the seats. I don't want to put the explorer console in I want to put an aftermarket one in when I do mine.

I have '01 Explorer seats in my '03 Ranger and I did have to enlarge the front mounting holes just a little. Other than that, they drop right in. Wiring is easy....just a hot and ground and some nice wire routing/hiding, and swapping the seat belt mounts and you are good to go. I had to open up the seat belt mounting holes on the Explorer seat frames to accept a nice large Grade 8 stainless bolt and nylon lock nut. A little extra cost here is worth it because you are dealing with your own safety if you get into a wreck. While you have them out of the truck you may want to buy some new foam for them to give them a factory fresh feel. Over the years the foam breaks down and the seats get flat. Fortunately for me, my Ranger came with factory bucket seats and a center console that I like so I didn't have to swap one in and the female end of the seat belts worked just fine without any extensions. In any event, you must find some way to keep the Ranger female seat belt sections with the wire harness or else you will have airbag and seatbelt light issues. Heres pics of mine the first day I put them in. I replaced all the seat foam in both seats soon after and the leather looks nice and tight now and not so "loose" especially on the drivers seat that someones fat butt had often been. I plan to get some new black/tan leather for them later this year to more closely match the OEM color scheme of the interior. I got lucky to find some that weren't all cracked and worn really bad but I did spend alot of time cleaning and treating them before I put them in. I treat them about once monthly to keep the leather clean and supple.

I had to bore out one of the bolt holes on each of the Explorer seat tracks as well. Must be a small difference between the Gen 3 and Gen 4.

^^ here here, I did the same thing, just like 2 holes but it wasnt too bad.

how are you guys overridding the seat belt pre-tensioner. I've got 98 explorer seats in my 2001 ranger and the airbag light is on because the explorer seats don't have the pre-tensioner.

Replace the Explorer ones with the Ranger ones....the bottom section of the seat belt (female) with the wire harness on it. That way it doesn't override anything and is fully functional. Messing with your safety is not a good idea.

So, what year Explorer seats/console will bolt right into a 03 Ranger? Is there any year(s) that had better seats then the others?

any Explorer seat up to '01 will bolt in........any seat '98+ is the best ones......get full power on both sides....

And did they come in the same colors? I'm not sure if I ever saw gray seats in a explorer...mostly tan or black.

ps: I do not want leather

Explorers never had black interior.....they had either grey or tan......and they had cloth seats also...

Ok then, thanks

You can also find some rarer ones with blue, green, and saddle (a darker tan) interior color.

cool im picking them up this week, will post pics when there in. now im gonna need a console..

while you're at it, snag the explorer's center console

I would like to come up with some black leather seats for mine. What models would be the best to look for and be the easiest to swap in?

(edit, have been up since yesterday at noon)
so black leather did come in explorers? I want to do a black and grey 2 tone.

I'm going to get mine recovered in black/tan leather once I save up the money. Thats really the only option for getting black on Explorer seats. Explorer seats from '95-'01 are by far the easiest swap.

Is it possible to get the gray or tan and use black leather conditioner to make it work? I don't have power seats, but would like them. Is there an easy solution to that? Or just get the manual seats? I have blue cloth interior, but would like to switch to a blue/black arrangement sometime in the next 6-8 months...

them black seats are gonna be hot in the summer time...better ya'll than me..lol

Best bet would be to get them recovered with new stuff from Katskin or somwhere although you're going to pay alot, upwards of $500 just for 2 seats but it is high quality and you can get any color combination that you want. I've never tried leather dying and I wouldn't trust my abilities anyway. Also, most of the used Explorer seats you will find will have some wear and tear on the leather at best (some are really cracked and dried out) and would need the leather replaced anyway if you want them in excellent shape. I got lucky and found a really nice set but I did replace the foam in them because the drivers seat especially was kind of flat feeling from someones fat butt sitting in them over the years.