Love hate relationship. Seats hurting my back.

Hi, well I finally bought one. I purchased a rugular cab automatic. I love it with the exception of the seats are killing my back. Hope I can resolve the issue. Love my truck but hate the seats. Any suggestions? I may have to trade the truck for something more comfortable if I can't resolve the issue.

 

The TRD bucket seats are much more comfortable in my opinion. Could swap out different seats or test drive a TRD and see if you like it better. I personally can't stand the regular seats.

 

I've read this in several threads. I have a 2014 SR5. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours in a friends 2013 TRD. I was in the passenger seat. My rear did not detect any difference. Both seats feel "stiff" to me for the lack of a better term. My Nissan truck had terribly uncomfortable seats. My Tacoma is a definite improvement, but I agree with the op, wished the tacoma seats were more comfortable. May have to put a seating mod on my mod list!

 

I've been digging around the forum for a while, and finally decided to register.

I had an 04 TRD Double Cab that had 200K on and was going strong when I totaled it prior to Xmas. I thought I might as well stick with what worked, so I purchased a 2014 TRD Sport 4x4 DCSB.

The 04s seats never bothered me, unless I was driving long (6+ hours) distances, and I'd throw a heating pad or a icy hot patch on and be fine for another 4 or 5 hours.

Not so in the 2014. I drive about 45 minutes one way to work, and about 15 minutes into the drive my butt and lower back are killing me. I didn't notice it on the test drive, but testdrivitis might have been the cause.

The front of the seat seems to sit too low, and the lumbar support is way too high to actually, you know, support the lumbar area of the back. The headrests are also so far forward I can't seem to get comfortable. I have to kick the seat waaaaayy back just to even get my lower back to not be all scrunched up, and even then the front of my legs are about an inch off the front of the seat.

I love the truck otherwise, but I'm really kicking myself for not coughing up the dough for a new or lightly used Tahoe. I drove a rental around out in, of all places, Lake Tahoe, and the thing was the most comfortable car I've ever driven, not to mention a beast.

Anyone have any ideas for fixes? I'd rather not take the 4000 buck hit on trying to trade this thing in.

 

check out wet okole seat covers, seriously!

 

agreed. i have the base seats. thought about swapping them to sr5 or the next ones up, but it was too much moola for too little reward. i can live with them.

 

I've been looking into those and the Clazzio's. Bunch of threads on both, so I've dug through them. Do the Wet Okole's add any padding/upgrade the comfort on the seat?

I'm thinking about going to the hardware store and getting some longer bolts for the front of the seat rails and jamming a couple rubber gaskets or gasket washer combos under the rails to 1. raise the seat front, 2. absorb a few more vibrations and see if I can make this thing comfortable.

 

The TRD seats are really comfortable and worth the upgrade. I know people don't have the cash to buy the TRD packages but if you do it is worth it.

 

I've got the TRD seats. They aren't comfortable for me. Individual comfort is a funny thing, but they don't seem to fit me (5'7 and 180). Tall guys I've come across have issues with their legs being way too high off the front of the seat.

The bolstering is nice, and fits properly, but the seat angle is all wrong, the padding (or lack thereof) across the bottom of the seat isn't covering the bottom spar, and the lumbar support is about 3 inches too high.

I want the seats out of my 04 that had 200,000 miles to form fit to my ass. Still really like the truck and Toyota in general, but it sucks to have something that ends up not working out for something as silly to cheap out on as the seats.

This is our fourth Toyota, my wife had a 03 camry, I had the 04 Taco, she traded hers for a 2010 Rav4 and I got the new Taco last month. The last two have both had absolutely uncomfortable seats. We didn't realize it on test drives, but we won't take the Rav on road trips simply because of how uncomfortable the front seats are, and it's looking like the Taco might be a short lived venture unless I can figure out a way to make it stop killing my back. Sucks.

 

When i test drove all the different models i like the bench seat the best.lol When it wears out i think it will be aftermarket time.

 

I played around a little with my seats. I ended up tearing them out of the truck and using some egg crate mattress pad foam I had lying around to add some padding in the thigh bolsters and lower back area.

I also bolted a small piece of cut down 1x4 under the drivers thigh area to see if I could get the seat to actually hold more of my weight across my butt and legs vice just on my lower back/upper ass area. Amazingly, I think I got it all back together without a lost or broken plastic clip and all the screws back in. Did strip one of the bolts out slightly, but was able to fix the threads with another bolt and file the other down enough to get it back in.

Will let you know how it feels after a few drives, felt more comfortable sitting in it on the ground in my garage though.

 

Like I mentioned in another thread, find a good upholster'er and he should be able to modify the foam in the seat. You'll retain the stock covers. I would probably cut out a good section of the stock foam and glue in softer foam. Also you might want to consider buying a set of seats from a junkyard and modify those before you mess with your good ones. While custom upholstery can be pricey, this modification shouldn't be too much money vs. buying more covers, selling truck, etc.

 

already put foam in mine today. didn't think to take any pictures...i didn't cut the foam out, just added padding where i thought it was lacking. The bottom spar of the back was bothering me, so I added two layers of foam there and put the seat cover back down under it.

I took two different approaches and I'm going to see which one I prefer...I added the support to the seat frame under the thigh bolsters in the drivers side, and just cut and shaped a lot of foam and jammed it under the pax side thigh bolsters. The covers were relatively easy to undo and pull back, and they went back into place like nothing happened, so I'm pretty pleased with myself for now. At least this will hopefully be a temporary fix until I decide to spend some serious money and blow it out on heated and ventilated leather seats.

 

Anyone know if the katskinz can be ordered/installed with some foam padding underneath? I know the clazzios have a half inch of memory foam built in, but my preference would be for full on seat upholstery replacement.