Bench to Bucket Seat Swap

Just finished swapping my 06’ single cab’s horrible bench seat for some single bucket seats. Process was pretty straight forward. Sourcing these seats here in the Bay Area Ca was pretty hard but got lucky and got the pair for $300. Nothing else was necessary parts wise. Just a 9/16 socket. Key things to remember if any of you want to swap them out is that the seat belt buckle from the new seats won’t work with the seat belt in the truck so you have to reuse your original ones. Another key thing is that the holes for the seat rails ARE THERE. You just need to cut some of the carpet . You can measure 16.5 inches from the center of the hole(front) and 16inches for the back holes. Would recommend the install 100% your back will thank you

 

What was the donor vehicle for the buckets?

 

What did you do about the wiring?

 

Honestly. I don't think he did anything about the wiring and is having airbag lights on with a disabled passenger airbag. He left way too much out in his post to determine what all he did. I do hope the OP comes back and comments on what all he did in detail.

I do kinda like the look without the full length center console but I didn't do this myself on my own bench to bucket swap because of the cut in the carpet which would bug me personally. Also if you look closely, the seat belts were modified to make them sit up against the seat by cutting the plastic covers.

I doubt you will get a lot of answers as I realize that these kind of bucket to bench threads are not very popular threads as only a small group of Tacoma owners are doing it.

 

Can you show off how you shortened your center console more? I'd like to do something similiar in my '14 AC

 

The short console on the 2nd gen is a regular cab thing only, but if you got one with the brackets and hardware, it will work on any 2nd gen cab. If you have the full length console now, removing it will leave a big cut out though. It won't look like the first pic in this thread.

 

It’s a pretty easy swap. I completed it over this past weekend. I’ll leave a link for the airbag emulators I used. I have a 2014 reg cab 4x4 . I swapped the passenger weight sensor to the new passenger bucket, hooked the seatbelts back up and then reconnected to the wires coming out of the floor. If you aren’t worried about the passenger being too close to the dash for safe airbag deployment, you can tape a piece of steel to the seat position sensors.All in all it’s pretty easy. I have a screenshot of the very detailed post by another user that has been deleted. I used middle row seats from a 2015 Chrysler Town and Country van. Leather, fold flat, and cheap. Bonus they have armrests, the outside ones don’t clear the door panel. ($88 each) I got the idea from Westroc Conversions on YouTube.

https://bradshacks.com/product/airbag-simulator/#front

 

Those bradshacks emulators are only to fool the ECU into thinking you have active airbags in your buckets, that is it. I used them for that purpose as well. It does nothing in regards to turning the dash airbags in the dash on or off or clearing the codes when it can't find the input of the OCS whether it be the bladder mat or the sensors on the feet.

No seatbelt light in your dash? Looks like you are using the original outer buckles with the 2015 Chrysler seat inner buckle latches.

The bladder mat in the bench was way too big for my scheel-mann seats, not an option for me to swap it over. So I made the on-off passenger airbag switch.

 

I used the emulators only because I wanted the rest of the airbags in the cab to work.

No seatbelt light. I’m actually using the Tacoma seatbelt lower it’s tucked down next to the seat. I have to drill out the rivet in the Chrysler lower then I’ll remove it and route the Tacoma lower through that trim piece.

The bladder was a pretty easy swap due to the design of the bucket seat.

I saw your seats and write-up for the passenger airbag on/off switch on the reg cab 2.7 thread. If my budget allowed for those seats I’d have em. This is my poor boy work around.

 

Oh Man I would kill for some arm rests on my DC. Looks amazing

 

I am not a rich person by any means. (I drive a base model regular cab Tacoma, lol) but some things I don't cut corners on, one of which is comfort when driving. I get they are pricey seats and this is my second set. I have no regrets spending the cash on them.

Actually some people don't like the scheel-manns and end up selling them almost as soon they get them. Different strokes for different folks.

 

I hear ya! I rented a Maltec Cruiser one summer in Germany and cruised all over Europe when I was active duty. It had the Scheel-man seats. Man they were nice! The seats I used are nowhere near the quality of your seats but they’ll do for now.
We’re actually prepping this little truck of mine to get a pass through and hard sided pop-up camper shell from 828 Campers. Pretty stoked.

 

Thank you. They made a huge difference.

 

Nice! Like the Toyota concept Tacozilla chinook-wannabe concept. I like the concept of a pass through with a fixed camper but sometimes I do need the truck bed.

 

@opolistika OP went from bench to buckets, might be able to give you some pointers on what to expect going bucket to bench

 

Where did you get them? And can I retrofit them onto my seats?

 

I found them on car-parts.com. I searched 2015 Chrysler Town and Country. They are the center row seats. I’ll link a video from “westroc conversions” on YouTube. I basically used his design modified to work in the Tacoma. I made a simple seat bracket out of angle iron. I’ll take some pictures of the ones I made and send em to ya.

here’s the video link:

https://youtu.be/pFDifMJYreY?feature=shared

 

same here, I use my truck as a truck. The company I referred to earlier, 828 Campers, is making a rear window “conversion” that allows a door essentially to be installed where the rear window was and then can be returned to glass if the truck was sold without the camper. They say it will keep the occupants safe from shifting loads and such. At the end of the day it’s a pass-through for a camper shell with a hard sided pop-up sleeping area. Pretty rad.

 

@Texas jumping in trying to find bench to bucket answers from people that have done it!

Going tomorrow to buy two front seats out of a 2014 Access Cab for $300. I have a 2007 automatic, it's pretty easy to swap right and these will be compatible?

Concerns:
1. There are 100% pre-existing bolt holes ready for a bolt, right? Just need to cut the carpet where the other places line up?
2. For wiring, it's plug and play for the most part, just need to install the passenger side weight sensor from the bench into the new bucket?
3. How does the seatbelt configuration change?
4. 2014s have seat airbags, just assuming those won't be wired up right?

For a center console, what can fit in a 2007 automatic? Any suggestions?

 

Sorry for being slow to respond. Having some personal issues that is taking up my time these days.

1. Yes. I replaced the carpet but you can just use your old carpet with some slight modifications.
2. You have a 2007? If so that, means no airbags in the seats. So you don't need the resistors or whatever you plan to use to trick the main ECU into thinking you have airbag equipped seats. I did not transfer my bladder sensor over. I am using a homemade switch that allows me to turn the airbags in the dash on or off independant of a passenger needed to trigger that function.
3. I ripped out all of my original seatbelts, ordered new seat belts using a VIN of a prerunner regular cab that was factory equipped with buckets and installed those seatbelts with some slight wiring modification at the terminal ends.
4. You don't need to wire up the airbags inside the seats of your 2014 buckets.

Good luck. It isn't super hard to figure out. Some things to pay special attention to also is the seat position sensor on the drivers side bench and the seat belt tension sensor attached to the passenger outer shoulder belt. YOu need to modify those so they don't trip codes. (If you have these, not sure if a 2007 does....)