bench seat recline (yes there is a way)

ok so the other day i was wondering why the hell toyota didnt put a way to recline your bench seat?? i have the truck almost a year until i was like its either going to recline or im getting a access cab. so fellow bench owners here's a way to recline your seat while still being able to have it go back to stock sitting position!! that's right this will help you have two sitting positions!! keep in mind if you do this i am not in any way responsible for the outcome... now lets get started these are the tools i used: a screwdriver to take of the plastic on the edge of the seat covering the metal, a grinder to take off some metal simple as that...

this is a look at the side of the seat as you can see it has a about a 1inch piece of metal that goes up and stops when the seat is moved forward and down it stop where is the stock sitting position(pointing with the screwdriver).


now comes the fun part you grind the middle only (as seen on pic below) not the hole thing just enough for the metal that slides up and down to fit in the grove that you are cutting i cut about half a inch remember you only need to cut small bits to make this work dont go crazy!!


once you cut down the metal should slide in place (as seen on pic below) the further the cut the more recline trust me you will be able to tell the difference with half a inch


everything will lock in place it doesn't just sit on the metal it will actually lock in place like when its in stock sitting position. both settings will lock in place stock and recline and that's all folks..

stock sitting position


reclined position top and bottom pic


hope this helps all the bench warmers out there

 

Awesome

 

Interesting,

I may need to try this out....

 

Thank god this is possible, the stock seating position can be very uncomfortable at times. I am soo doing this! Now I just need to get my hands on a grinder...

 

Nice job. I bet a lot of people will appreciate this mod

 

How is it able to lock in the stock position also?

 

This works! I just did this to my 2013 bench seat. I also used a grinder and just went slowly. I now have 4 different LOCKING positions of my seat. I may have cut a little further than eh2win did, since he only had 2 positions. The straight seat was driving me crazy. Now I can drive in comfort. All I can say is eh2win you are the man!!! Thanks

 

Thank you for sharing this. I may try this in the future.

 

How the heck did you get 4 locking positions?? Isn't the bench seat either all the way up or down?

 

I just completed this also and all I can say is awesome. It made the truck "long trip" worthy. I only have one setting, not sure how to get more than one position, but I like it non the less. Another great idea from TW.

 

thats what I was wondering

 

Originally Posted by Dan77
This works! I just did this to my 2013 bench seat. I also used a grinder and just went slowly. I now have 4 different LOCKING positions of my seat. I may have cut a little further than eh2win did, since he only had 2 positions. The straight seat was driving me crazy. Now I can drive in comfort. All I can say is eh2win you are the man!!! Thanks///////////

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Dan77, Did you actually get more than one setting (seat angles) when you modded the seat? IF so do you think that this is due to the fact that there is an internal mechinism that stops the seat at different angles?

Thanks for an absolutly great post by the way.

 

From the factory, the 2013 bench seat has one locked position for sitting, pretty much a 90 degree angle. And of course it can also fold all the way forward. All I did was follow the instructions form the op, eh2win, and ground down about a 1/2 inch of the metal stop on both sides of the seat. Once you cut that little bit of metal out, the seat can fold further back and it locks like normal in the new position. Nothing else is changed. The locking mechanism is inside the seat somewhere. I really don't know how it locks. Luckily with this mod you don't have to mess with that. Why did Toyota not sell it like this? I have no idea. They might want you to buy the next model up? It doesn't seem like the metal stop is even a safety factor because in stock sitting position, the seat never rests on it anyway, it only stops the seat from going further back.

Eh2win said he only got one more locked position beyond factory when he was done. I have 3 new locking positions. The seat goes way back now, too far for me on the furthest settings really. Maybe this is because I cut a little further than eh2win? Or maybe he has a different model year? I have a 2013. I don't think he mentioned which year he has.

 

I have a 2011 and will do the mod this weekend so it'll be interesting to see what I come up with. I'll post the results next week.

 

I modified mine my 2011 bench seat this weekend. I used a Dermal with a stone grinding bit. The bit was 3/16 in diameter. As I used them they disintegrated so I ended up using 4 of them. I purchased two of them before I started the process and found that I had several of virtually the same thing that I use for sharpening my chain saw so I finished the job with these. I stopped at a depth of the diameter of the bits to check. The top of the seat moved back 2 inches and is just where I wanted it.

The interesting thing is that the seat locked back in the new position so I am guessing that there is an internal mechanism to the seat that would allow multiple reclining positions, but this is a guess. I talked to the local Toyota service center and they had no Idea and didn't seem to have an inclination of finding out.

I'm VERY happy with the modification. Good Luck to any of you that decide to try this. It's simple and the results are great.

The only caution is that I am not sure all year models have multiple internal stops so go slowly working both sides maybe an 1/8 of an inch at a time to get the angle you want.

 

I just modified my 2014 bench seat on my reg cab. I used a dremel with a thin cutting wheel. The wheel cut through like butter. Made a 3/8 inch slot. Three locking positions. It took longer to bring out my tools than to make this mod. Thanks

 

Op,owe you one on this mod,I would gladly buy you a case of beer for this!! Thanks bro!!

 

I've been looking to switch my 2014 tacoma bench seat to bucket seat for a while now. Wife wants to recline when riding shotgun. I'll do this mod too later. If it works which I think it should, I don't need bucket seats. Thank you in advance.

 

While I have bucket seats, I must say that this looks like an excellent mod, kudos OP!

 

Props for a cool idea