Hello,

haven't posted in awhile but the restoration of my 1985 F-250 is proceeding. I'll probably have $35K into this by the time I'm done.

Seats. My wife and I plan on pulling a trailer and exploring America. This is going to mean a lot of butt time in the cab. I'm not too concerned with what it will cost to make modifications to the seat mounts. What I am concerned with is getting the right seat the first time.

Can anyone give recommendations on the most comfortable and user adjustable seats I could put in the truck for lots of driving time. Would like two seats and a center console

Thanks

Rgds

nonrev

 

I had a 92 Bronco and really liked the seats. Center console too and it would be easy to fit these into a bullnose cab.

I also have a set of Aerostar seats in my 89 E350 based motorhome. I find them very comfortable, even on long hauls.

 

I used a rebuilt factory bench and drove 3,000 miles in 2 weeks with no problems. However, I think the factory buckets will be better, and that's what I'm going with in Dad's rebuild. Having said that, they won't properly bolt to the floor without some serious rigging. Or, use this base from a 90's Ford truck:

 

I have Mastercraft suspension seats in my Bronco. Not cheap, and they hold you in one place pretty well, which not everyone appreciates. They also have pretty high side bolsters, so they're harder to slide in and out of (you need to sit down into it, which isn't always the easiest in a truck. If I haven't scared you off yet, I find them very comfortable, even on a 450 mile day in a old Bronco!

I don't know how hard they'd be to put into a pickup, but I'm sure Mastercraft could tell you that.

 

I have bucket seats & console from a 96 Eddie Bauer F-150, they are a direct swap; very comfortable.

 

Driving a lot between NY and VA , my 86 and 87 both have bench seats. I've also used my son's 89, which has buckets with a console. I would say I prefer the bucket seats. The console is a plus for storing a small cooler.

 

Since the consensus sounds like it's bucket seats-
To help the OP (and me ), what years had good buckets seats that are a direct bolt in?

Gary, you mentioned needing a bracket for a 90's truck but another post said the 96 EB seats were a direct bolt in. Different styles account for this?

 

The standard cab's floor is anything but regular, and quite different than that of an extended cab or Bronco. So ex-cab or Bronco seats aren't gonna fit a standard cab. Hence Ford appears to have come up with the base I show above to bolt into the standard cab and take ex-cab or Bronco buckets.

However, later in the 90's maybe they figured out how to make buckets fit the standard cab's floor directly. I don't know. But, if you find out let's document it.

 

Sounds like a good sticky or Garagemahal page to me.

For 80-86, all of the front seats for the trucks interchange correct? Meaning ex cab and reg cab.

So for the 90's what other models might work? We've got F-series, Broncos, Explorers...

 

Yes to the Garagemahal page, no to seats interchanging. The regular cab floor is completely different than the extended cab floor or the Bronco floor. (However, I think the ex-cab and Bronco floors may be the same.) That's why the Bronco seats I bought would not bolt in my standard/regular cab w/o that base.

 

Gotcha, I was thinking you were referring to the ex cab and Bronco's of later years than 86 when you said they were different than the 7th gen standard cabs.

 

That bracket you used from the 90's truck - once you have that, is it as simple as bolt it in our trucks (no mods) and then bolt the bucket seats to it?

 

I have Eddie Bauer seats and console on that frame in my 95 F350, very comfortable.

 

Yes. But, get the seats that go with the bracket. The Bronco buckets I have didn't quite bolt onto it, as documented on Dad's thread someplace.

 

In my opinion the 7th and 8th generation trucks had the best seats. Bucket and bench styles are both very comfortable. I don't know what changed, but to me the 9th generation truck seats went to crap. They feel thin and flat and flimsy like a foreign economy car.

Does anyone know if the crew cab front seat is like the Bronco/Supercab mount or like the single cab mount?