Djaye sent down his 2003 Ranger 60/40 seats (thanks to Pinecone/Ryan for transport) which are black and grey instead of the straight grey of the 2002 seats. Also, the fabric on the bolsters is different. The console on the new seats is solid black, and it looks much better than my worn grey one.

He had removed the mounting rails, actually cutting them from the seat frame mount, so I couldn't just drop them in.

What I did was remove the backs from his seats, and they were a bolt in. Then I removed the cover and padding from his seat base.

I intended to swap the seat padding for the base in the truck -- don't try it. I took the seats out using a T-55 torx (newer trucks have conventional bolts).

The hardest part is getting the padding off the pasenger seat. You have to unbolt and then pry out the tubular rail at the back of the seat. It has the child safety seat anchors on it. It is on two tapered pins about a 1/2 inch thick that project from the seat frame on either side. You have to pry one side (the rightmost side works best) back until that end pops out, then pull up until the anchor tab comes out, then pull the bar off the other seat frame pin. This is a real PITA. The only other choice is to cut the padding.

I haven't taken pictures of the result, but those who have 2003's with the black seats know what they look like. They are also firmer and the seat padding is shaped a bit differently than the 2002's -- although mine were worn by my 200+ pound frame bouncing on it anyway.

I'll get pictures after my truck is cleaned up. Between offroading and storms, both the exterior and interior are a disaster.

 

those are the seats that have the high backs to them, correct? the ones that take p most of the ceiling space?

i like those! pics are a must...dirty or not....we've all got dirty trucks right now...(for the most party anyway) we understand....

 

Hmmm...they seem to be as high as my old ones, no higher. I'll go take a lousy night picture if you want. The new headrests have a grater forward "rake" to them, it looks like. You don't have to lean your head back as far. I didn't measure it though, could be an illusion.

I certainly do like them.

 

ive always liked the newer seat and i wish i could get some 04-05 seats. good call john. how much you pick em up for???

 

Djaye let me have them so cheap, they might as well have been free. I'm not supposed to say what I paid, sadly. Suffice it to say that if you got a pair of these for this price, you'd be mightly lucky. Of course they were not bolt-in because he scavenged the mounts off in a way that made the old base pretty much useless -- but they had everything I needed.

In the pics below you will see white specks. That's snow flakes directly in front of the lens illuminated by the flash! It's snowing pretty well and I couldn't get a pic out there without these flecks, sorry! They are not great pics because of being at night anyway, but you get the idea.

 

we know that isnt snow...head and shoulders DOES work...

i'm just kiddin john! looks good man! they're not the seats i was thinkin of, but they look very nice!

 

very cool john

 

Thanks. They're much more comfortable for some reason.

The extra seams in the seat area should get rid of the wrinkle the 2002 seats almost always get.

These still need cleaning up -- they were in storage for awhle. But they are physically perfect and were in his truck only 6k miles or so before he removed them and he was about 130 pounds at the time, if you can believe that. So they have not much wear and look brand new.

The hardest thing was picking off the metal bits from when he drilled out the mounting pins for the track underneath. There were little metal shavings all over them in places.

 

Where is all your radio gear and stuff that used to be in the middle near your armrest and stuff? Remove it for the installation?

 

Exactly, Sherlock! Good call.

 

Hah, man I am good! Speaking of good, the seats look great, John!

 

yeah john they look AWESOME. if you want to selll them for some reason call me!!!

 

Probably more than they're worth to ship them out to you, lol.

I do have my old seat padding/cover though if someone has severely damaged seats. Doc has already claimed my old center console since his broke.

The old grey seat-backs of mine are in good shape, and the seat bottoms good except for that stinking crease they always get in them (both my 2001 and 2002 did it).

To just ship the padding/covers and even the backs probably wouldn't be too obnoxious. They're available if anyone had damage bad enough to need used ones.

 

i too have the "wrinkle" i never knew that they only happened in 2002 and lower models.


i think jared might be gettin rif of his red and black FX4 seat and ILL just steal those from him!!!! (yeah you heard me jared, Im gonna steal em, cause im brown and thats what I do)

 

mine have that crease too... i think ours were the only ones to get it since i have never seen it any other time lol

 

Nice...I could go for some Fx4 Lv II Red/Blk or some out of Jegs I saw. But they are towards the bottoms of the list of things to do, unless something goes bad with these.

 

2001 and 2002 seem to be the biggest offenders. The cover is stitched to the padding in deliberate seams on 2003 seats, but just floats over it on 2001 and 2002. This appears to make the padding crease into any fold that occurs in the underlying padding during compression.

On the 2003 seats, it looks to me like the "folds" under compression occur at the seams, so you don't see anything when they are released. The older seats develop a permanent "crimp" in the fabric at the folds.

Not sure about prior generations of seats. I thought it was my weight, but my 12 year old daughters seat (she rides with me the most) had started to do it as well.

 

The switch to the very tall seatbacks happened in 2004.

 

Looks very nice John. Much better than the XL bench seats which are in my truck (w/o center console). I'd love to have some seats like that. Good thing you got them that cheap too. Seats can be expensive!

 

I feel very blessed, Phil! D's a very generous person.

 

Nope. My drivers seat is starting to wrinkle towards the back of the seat.

The black seats were my favorite improvement over my 2002 truck.. of course the seats, the absense of plastic bedrail covers, and the A-pillar grab handles were the only actual differences.

 

Where, "towards the back"? Mine was about 4" to 6" away from the seat back, on the bottom cushion.

I suppose it can occur anywhere, but the stitching on the new seats should "force" the issue under compression I think.

 

Its between the seam and the seatback. You can see in this pic its just starting. I have 28K miles on my truck and I weigh 250-260.

 

Interesting. It's different than mine was and appears more sticking up, while mine was down. I'll post a pic of my old cushion later. So apparently you can still get it in the later seats. Bummer.

 

Yup. I never noticed it on the 02 but I only had that for 6 months before it got totalled. I always thought it was because of my fat ***, not an inherent problem with Ranger seats.