Regular cab bucket to bench or center seat

Hi I was wondering if I could get some advice. I just bought a regular cab 2013 4 x 4 Tacoma and I relay love it. I have a full size extra cab Ford f250 and wife has a 4 runner so figured I would not need more than two seats. The first thing my twin 7 year olds said when they saw it was where are we going to sit. The more I think about it I know there is going to come a time when I will want to be able to have them both in the truck. It is automatic and there is a center console. Is there a fold down center console seat that could go in the center? What about seat belts? Was there a bench seat option for the RC? Would there be air bag issues?

Thanks in advance

loren

 

Hi thanks Berk! Not mine and yea when searching all I could find was people who wanted to get rind of the bench in favor of the buckets. They are comfortable. Do you have a center seat belt? Does it hook on the seat or somewhere on the cab. If I had a third seat belt could let one of them sit on the console in a pinch.

 

Hi, My 2012 RC Auto has buckets. IIRC you could not get an auto with a bench. I think the manuals have (or could be optioned?) Bench.

As I'm a big guy I really would prefer the Bench - but per the Idea above and some threads here that talk about removing and doing mods on the center armrest/console I might consider removing it and adding in a decent looking cushion ??

IIRC in some states the vehicle capacity is dependent on Seat belts and/or printed on the registration. Although if you added a seatbelt/shoulder harness to what I said I was thing of doing above , It would be a stretch to have the third/extra seat occupied and have a cop pick up that fact if the seat belt looks Factory at a glance.

 

The bench seat has a center belt (fastened in this pic). I have 2 girls (12 and 7) and they sometimes ride with me. The little one sits in the middle with her legs off to the right a bit. No issues shifting at all. The center headrest raises up quite a bit. (it's lowered in the pic)

 

If anyone wants to swap for my bench, I'll switch with you.

 

OK that makes sense mine is Auto and there is a big console in the way.

 

Thanks for the pictures I wonder if I could add factory bench middle seat belts? I get the holes are there I doubt the cabs are any different.

 

You can have my center belt with the seat; I don't need it.

 

Well, if we were the same year and same condition and you were closer ... Maybe. But I think I'll look to see if the Armrest comes out and I can get a good looking filler that some on could sit on in a pinch.

My last truck was a GMC Sonoma w/ Ext Cab, Bench with a fold down jump in the Ext cab. So I could do 3 across and one on the jump - Never used the Jump and did not think I needed the Ext cab, Not realizing with the buckets and armrest I now lost two seats and can only carry one passenger. Multiple times now I have needed to carry more than one passenger - go figure ...

 

I'm sure you could. The lap portion of the center belt ties in with the 2 inner mounting points of the driver and passenger lap belts. The shoulder portion and retractor/pretensioner mount behind the seat and I would think that mounting point would be present in all RC regardless of the seating arrangement.

 

Me to!

 

OK good info thanks!

 

Has anybody actually done the conversion? I’m thinking about doing it, but am not sure if a bench would fit over the area where the center console is removed from.

 

I have a base, so it's a bench. I've looked at the process of switching, but it just doesn't seem worth it TO ME, so I just got one of those accessory consoles for bench seats. I figured that was IF I need that extra space, it will be there.

 

The bench will fit fine over the area. Below is a photo of my truck with the bench seat removed if you want to compare.

 

Just realized you said you couldn't get an auto with bench. My 2013 Base is auto and came with a bench stock - I didn't even think one could get a base WITHOUT a bench (auto or manual), since buckets with consoles are more expensive to implement.

 

I believe it depends on if you have a 2wd or a 4x4 as well. I think the auto 4x4 came stock with buckets, but if you got either 2wd model, you'd have benches.

 

This was put together by me for my own internal research from all of the past Toyota brochures from 2005 to 2014. 2014 was the last year of the regular cab Tacoma I belive. I make no claim that the information is 100% correct as it was all gleaned from Toyota brochures available online. It isn't clear to me when the 4X2 regular cab prerunner was dropped but I don't see any mention of it in the 2010 brochures.

Feel free to correct me on any of the information posted please if I am wrong.