StevenP’s 37s + IFS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ build

You didn't have to roll your truck on its side just to take a picture for us

 

LMAO. I was so busy looking at the proposed mount point I didn't even notice that.

 

Oh thank god, I was about to cry if I needed to take that shit down and reseal everything lol. You put RTV on the coupler eh? I hadn’t thought about that.. but looking back, that stock coupler on the tcase sure was on there.. hope the anti-seize does the trick!

True, I thought about the impact side of things, I went with a stock rubber mount from O’reillys at 50 bucks, figured having a little wiggle room may help with vibrations, and was thinking that it would probably absorb a lot of the impact. BUT I hadn’t really thought the bolts getting damaged. Another reason to start welding!

Anything for TacomaWorld!!!

 

I don’t know how much room is between the case and the skid, but if there’s enough room you could use a hole saw and sleeve with some 1 3/4 tube up to whatever you need to bolt to in order to recess the bolts under the skid’s surface.

 

That’d be pretty slick, I’ll have to see what things look like when I get it all together

 

I would take a piece of plate 3/8 or so about 1" or 2" larger than the mount area drill holes in it to recess the heads. Weld the plate to the skid. The plate will act as a footing also giving your skids some extra beef for when you start torquing on them with those cases.

 

I like that idea a lot if I decide to use the skid as the base. Simple and easy to do.

 

For sure. I personally would use the skids.

 

I had plans to work on my triple sticks today and get to the seats later on if time allowed, but then other stuff came up and before I knew it it was mid afternoon.. so I decided to..

Put my new Corbeau Trailcat seats in and get an easy win for the day

It wasn’t quite as easy as I thought, but it certainly wasn’t too hard. On a 1-10 scale, 1 being checking your engine oil, and 10 being rebuilding an engine, I’d rate this as a 3. Nothing was particularly challenging, but some areas took a bit of muscle and other a bit of finesse. I guess maybe I should rephrase, it was easy, but it took a bit longer than I expected.

Packaging was superb, everything was neat, stable, wrapped well, and easy to remove.

The seat brackets attach to the seats in a couple of minutes, really easy to set up. Then I scratched my head for a minute on the seat belts.

There is a tab that comes off the seat bracket for the seat belt to attach to. On the stock seats the seat belt attaches directly to the seat via a welded stud to the frame and a nut, and the actual seat belt bracket rests on a smooth surface so that it can pivot. So I had a nut, but no proper hardware for the seat belt. I ran to Home Depot and picked up some M10-1.25 x 25mm Flange Bolts and Nuts, and a few washers, and improvised. I first tried putting the seat belt on the outside of the bracket as one would intuit, but it ran into the center console well before the seat brackets were aligned to their mounting holes. Below you can see the final layout I went with. One issue I ran into was that the seat belt no longer pivoted like it does on the stock seats since it was now just a nut and bolt set up. I ended up putting a bunch of thread locker on the hardware and got it JUST snug enough so that there was no movement in the hardware, but that the seat belt would pivot. Ultimately the seat belt still makes solid contact with the center console, so pivoting probably isn’t going to be a big thing anyways haha. Go figure. Maybe I’ll bend the seat belt bracket tomorrow..



Next up was actually bolting them in. It was fairly straight forward, the driver side was a breeze, took all of a minute or 2. The passenger side was a little more tedious because I have an amplifier for my stereo in the area under the seat. Hard to say if that was the cause of everything, because I was able to reposition the amplifier and clear the bracket, but the passenger side bracket did not align as well as the drivers side with the mounting holes. The rear mounting hole (passenger side) was a PITA, had to really lean and push on the bracket to get the bolt started, but after that it was all smooth.

So I stood back, and checked them out.. VERY pleased with their aesthetics.





Next thing I did was hop in! The moment of truth, kind of..

I can’t really speak to them in a full review sense because my truck is still not driveable at the moment. BUT my initial impression from at least sitting in them is simply “worth every damn penny!”. These things are cozy, and supportive, ride height is great, and they have plenty of adjustability for 6’5” me to be comfortable. The bucket isn’t anymore extreme than stock, perhaps even a little calmer. The torso bolsters are fantastic, I think the way they are angled will be really forgiving for just about every body type. I have some fancy seats in my Focus RS and the bolstering is pretty extreme, it’s always hit or miss whether passengers are comfortable or not; I do not see that being an issue with these, the torso bolstering is almost gentle, but doesn’t feel like it’ll let you down when the trail is jostling you around. The thigh bolsters are exactly what I had hoped for as well; they are there, you notice them, but they don’t interfere AT ALL with entering or exiting the seat. Back to my Focus RS, you have to practically levitate over the damn thigh bolsters to get in and out of those seats, which would not work well in a truck, not my truck at least. I’m absolutely thrilled with them at this point, and I know I don’t have any actual drive time in them yet, but I’ve sat in enough seats to believe in confidence that these are going to be one of those mods I’ll be grateful for every time I get in the rig.

Now, I got mine with Lumbar and Heat, figured if I was going in on these might as well go all in.

The Lumbar system is the old school pump type, which is kind of cool if you ask me (you also get to make stupid Arnold jokes for free with “the pump”). Not really a lot to discuss here, came installed, you pump it up, the bladder inflates and supports your lumbar region. It’ll be a nice addition for dialing in comfort, especially on longer trips.

The seat heaters come installed into the seat itself, with all the necessary wiring to complete the install to your vehicle. I did end up running to my local O’Reillys to pick up a couple add-a-fuses to make things easier (electrical is NOT my forte!). I pondered a couple different locations, but ultimately decided that the area just forward of, and next to the seat, on the center console run, would be best for me and my passenger. Putting them on top of the center console would make them easier to trigger accidentally, and putting them near the stereo, 12v, ashtray area could mean more reaching and repositioning, and I want to keep that real estate open for other aftermarket switches and comms. Another bonus of the area I decided on was all the empty space under the center console, made stuffing the excess wiring (there’s a lot of it) easy.



The seat heaters themselves are pretty great. There are two settings, both of which are quite fast. Not as fast as the ones in my Focus RS, but faster than the ones in my girlfriends Subaru and the ones in my dads older F150. Before I had a vehicle with seat heaters I thought it was just a gimmick, nowadays I’m pretty attached to them. It’s really nice to have that alternative form of heat, the sort that kind of soaks into your body, as opposed to running the heater and having the heat flow over you. One other benefit is if you or passenger want more or less heat than the other; one can have the seat heater on and have their needs meet without having to run the heater and disturb the other.

I could probably ramble on some more, but that’s pretty much it for my initial thoughts and impressions and I’ve probably put y’all to sleep by now anyways Feel free to ask any questions or request any pictures.

Tomorrow I am going to get to those damn triple sticks!!!!

 

Seats look killer! Makes me miss the Recaro Sport Toplines I had back in the day in my prelude.

 

Hurry up and finish the shifter work and throw the shafts in. Then go wheel at least 100 miles. I need a better report on those seats. I already know what your gonna say about the crawlbox. lol

 

Those seats look plush as hell.

My good friend has a focus RS too and you aren't kidding about the bolstering on those things. It's an effort to get in an out. They are comfier than they appear on long drives though.
I'd imagine those corbeaus will last a lot longer too since you won't be sliding your ass over a tall ass bolster every time you're getting in and out.

x2 on the seat report!

 

Still can’t turn, need to cut and tub too!!!

Can’t wait to actually drive this thing again, and I’ll definitely chime back on once I have some real seat time in them

Yeah the RS is actually a pretty sweet little road trip car, especially if you can travel light and hit backroads along the way, but those thigh bolsters are nuts. I only have about 25k miles on mine and you can already see them showing wear. I agree that the Trailcats should wear a lot better.

 

Are you still stock width? What tire and rims did you go with? When I cleared for 35's I went big enough to fit 37's in the future. They will clear everything but the frame. I already just touch the frame at full lock full stuff with my 35's. With a skinny tire and 3.5" BS bead locks I might clear the frame with 37's.

 

My buddy has like 88k on his and it's wearing pretty well actually, but I would probably be way harder on them if it were my car. Those seats sit so low and I just slam my ass right into the side getting in lol.

Wish I had the funds to get some nice seats like that, but crawlbox takes priority lol

 

What BS are your rims now?

 

4.3. I also run 1 1/4" spacers. For it to work I'd have to go 3.5 and keep the spacers. Or notch the frame which I might end up doing.

 

I did some Scion TC seats. Pretty available at pick and pull for $40 ish a seat I think. Takes some fab work but they are much better than stock. Don’t look as good as those Corbeau seat, but for a little over $100 bucks I wasn’t complaining. Don’t get me wrong, if I had the cash I would 100% go with the Corbeau tho haha

 

I’m running SCS F5’s with 3.5 back spacing, so I’m pushed out a little, on 37x12.50 Milestar Patagonias. I may have to add spacers, we’ll see. I don’t really mind if it has slight frame rub, and I’d like to stay a narrow as I can for squeezing trails, but it’s hard to say without cutting things out where I’ll be at the end

Lol yeah, I sort of “plop” into mine. The wear isn’t bad at all, but you can see some slight wrinkles beginning, I should condition them though, that’d probably take it away.

And I think you got your priorities right

I’m just going ham over here because I was in an accident and the truck was down anyways, I wasn’t in a relationship at the time I ordered the majority of mods, and I’m not the most fiscally responsible human out there

 

I totally applaud that route! The stock seats aren’t necessarily uncomfortable, they just aren’t supportive at all. An ex of mine had one of those scions, and the seats were much better than the tacos for any sort of lengthy drive.