Scheel-Mann Seats Installed in 2nd Gen Tacoma

Ready when you are.

 

I have had scheel-mann Vario F seats in my 2nd gen Regular Cab for awhile now. It is a great upgrade for sure.

 

That would be interesting to see one in a regular cab. Pics?

Are you able to recline in them? Or is that ability severely restricted because of the cab design?

 

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of room to recline the seats in a regular cab depending how far back you slide them. For a person with shorter legs, there would be a bit more recline room but I have them reclined and positioned to where I want them and it works perfectly for me. Way better than the awful factory bench seat for sure.

Here are some pics I have saved on my phone.

 

Very nice! They still look very comfortable. I like the choice of color and pattern for your truck.

 

Thank you.

They are very comfortable. I am very happy with them as I am sure you are with yours. For me, it really makes the driving experience much better overall.

 

My apologies to Captain Nemo for piggy-backing on his thread, but I also recently installed the Scheel-Mann (Non-Klima) Vario F Seats in my 2014, 2nd Gen Tacoma using the kit from Tolerance-Stack. Rather than starting a new thread, I thought I'd include my thoughts here.

Here we go...

I wasn’t really looking forward to the install as it’s a relatively big project from a relatively new aftermarket company. But the last few times I’ve driven the truck more than a few hours my lower back would remind me that the OEM seats are 11-years old and in need of an upgrade.

I’d convinced myself that this project would include a lot of dry-fitting, taking the seats in and out of the truck, modifications to the brackets, hole-enlarging, etc. None of that happened. Start to finish, this was the smoothest upgrade installs I’ve ever done.

The brackets from TS arrived a few days before the seats from Scheel-Mann. Everything arrived in good condition. The TS packaging was first rate - like Christmas present nice. Components were individually wrapped and taped. The seats themselves were very well packaged also.

All of the fasteners were housed in a 3D printed and labeled tray. It’s genius. It eliminates any guess work and definitely speeds up the installation process. Including the Loctite was a nice bonus too.

The satin powder-coat finish on the various TS components looks great. The beefy TS passenger seat sensor brackets are machined out of aluminum block and labeled “L” & “R” and are anodized black.

The instructions are good. In my opinion, they could be better. But I’ve yet to be completely satisfied with any instructions that come with aftermarket parts. In the end I didn’t have any problems understanding them.

The passenger seat install is time consuming. In large part, that’s due to the relocating of the individual seat sensors and there are simply more parts. It took me about 5-hours; however, I was probably being a little overly methodical. I installed the driver’s seat in about 2.5 hours.

The day after I finished the install, I drove the truck around to run errands for a couple of hours. I’ve never had aftermarket seats before and I immediately noticed the difference. In a few days I’m taking it on an 850 mile/12 hour road trip. I’m looking forward to it and will update this post when I get back.

NOTES:

• I had to relocate the cell phone booster that was under the passenger seat because it wouldn’t clear the seat rail cross-bars when the seat was moved back/forth.
• The Scheel-Mann seats are heavy, even without the brackets installed. They’re awkward to lift and place inside the truck. As mentioned in the instructions, having a second person helps.

-Kevin

 

Damn it, now I want new seats in my truck.

 

Hats off to you for doing it yourself, Kevin. Makes me think I probably should have done it myself as well since I'm mechanically savvy enough to do so. I just felt unsure about taking on a project on an expensive purchase without help. In my case, worked out better to farm out the work due to the unexpected issue that arose with the "Fold Flat" design feature of my Access cab passenger seat.

Looks like you went with the same design as @Texas. Nice look!

 

We can assist in that endeavor

 

Update:

So far I’ve done a few hour long drives and my current thoughts are:

-The experience compared to the stock seats I had is night and day. I feel like I could sit in them for hours and enjoy driving still.

-I absolutely love the higher seat displacement and the ability to fine tune adjustments to exactly where I want it with the European style knobs instead of the clunky lever pull on the stock seats.

-They’re still firm but very comfortable like a hard memory foam mattress.

I still have to take it for a long distance drive and report back on them.

I’m a lot more cautious about letting the dog in the truck especially if his nails haven’t been trimmed yet.

 

Delta BAGs makes really nice seat covers for for the Vario F. I used them before in a different vehicle that I also installed Vario F seats into and liked them a lot for the protection they offer, however I didn't have any need to cover them up in the Tacoma. Something to consider if you have pets riding with you often.

 

I’ll check them out. Thank you.

 

So yes that will be the case if you have the seat bottom not adjusted out at all. For those that feel like they are taller we recommend adjusting the seat all the way forward so that you get maximum thigh support and in doing so the rear of the seat bottom drops around 1/4".

Doh! There is that

 

UPDATE (08/23/25): Last Friday I took the truck on an 11.5 hour road trip and the seats were awesome. Along the way I played with the adjustments and got my position dialed in. These seats are so much better than the OEM ones. Very happy about this investment.

 

So awesome to hear! Thanks for the update.

 

I’m still getting my seats dialed in. There’s a lot of variability and still haven’t found my sweet spot.