I know this has been discussed and yes it's all personal preference but on my new Lariat with heated/cooled seats I cannot get comfortable. These seats are nothing compared to my '16. I have tried every setting and adding foam and even bought the foam for a XLT and disabled the heated/cooled function. I do have lower back issues but when I drive any of our 3 other cars which include a SUV I have no issues. Selling the truck is not a option. Any suggestions are appreciated. Are there any other Ford models that seats can be swapped with without modifications or are there any aftermarket seats that will work and not throw codes without the airbag system in the OEM seats plugged in? I wish they would have kept the same design or close to it from the previous models in the '17's, other than that this truck is great. Thanks all

 

Your best option might be to find a good upholstery shop and see if they can't recontour the seats for you. Another option to explore might be to try the King Ranch seats as I found them to be noticeably softer and more comfortable than the Lariat seats (personal preference)

 

I realize this is from last year, but did you ever resolve this? I just purchased a 2018, coming from a 2011, and I have tried everything short of replacing the entire seat. I have called multiple shops and nobody will touch the seat because of the side airbag. I am seriously considering disabling the airbag and swapping in a seat from a 2016. I just can't believe there is a single person who can sit in this truck longer than 20 minutes and not have back, hip, or leg pain.

 

 

Its funny I came from and 04 to a 17, when I first got the 17 I thought the seat was awful. After a while I began to realize that it was more about how i positioned myself in the seat. I found I was slouching to the right leaning on the console. After training myself to better position myself all my discomfort basically went away. I also added seat heaters which I really enjoy. I have driven multiple times at over 10 hours at a time while being pretty comfortable. Perhaps this might help someone else.

 

I put a small lumbar support cushion in one of my cars with the same issue and it fixes it. Sometimes the curves of the seat just don't match up to our spines. Puts a little pressure somewhere and over long periods of time we get pain.

 

Thank you for following up, much appreciated, even though it's not what I was hoping to hear! I am just baffled at the differences in the seat dimensions, angles, firmness, etc compared to the previous generation. I absolutely loved the seats in my 2011, they were very comfortable. I will keep fiddling with it until I can't take it anymore, then I will probably be doing a seat swap. I suppose I better read up on air bag deployment lol.

 

I like the seat from my old 16 better than my new 18 platinum. Found it much more comfortable. Haven't been able to test the heated or cooled seats yet with the massage as the drivers side heat/cool hasn't worked since day one. Have to get it into the dealer to fix.

 

Since you purchased a chevy I guess we won't be hearing from you anymore. I'm not a fan boy for any particular make of vehicle and i buy what is the best at the time. I test drove dodge, chevy and gmc before purchasing a 2018 F250 and the difference was night and day. I guess its all subjective. The dodge had the best seats and the chevy had the worst.

 

The Chevy seats and off the line engine performance led me to look at the other two competitors. Once i drove the Ford, it won hands down.

 

 

 

It took a few long drives to get comfortable in my F-350. I had to do a fair amount of adjustment with the settings of the seat as well as the steering wheel. Getting the seat height just right was probably the most critical factor as it took the weight off the back of my legs.

I completed a 6 hour drive towing my toy hauler this weekend and I felt pretty good. There were two short stops and one stop for lunch.

 

Does anybody know if the seats are the same in the Lariat and the XLT? Obviously the Lariat is leather, but other than that. I have spent 3 weeks in a rental 250 XLT and have been very comfortable, but am very strongly looking at a 2019 Lariat. I stumbled on this thread and now am a bit concerned...

 

Yes, they are different, and the reason why we haven't bought the truck yet (we plan to buy a 5th wheel in the next 1-2 years so we have time). I found Lariat seats borderline acceptable, my wife hated them, so we ruled out that trim level. Otherwise, we really liked the truck.

We both found XLT seats much more comfortable. However, you cannot get dual zone auto climate in XLT, which still is a must for us.

When compared to competition, we found RAM seats nice and comfortable, but didn't like the rest of the truck very much.

We both LOVED Chevy seats, but didn't like the cabin as much as Ford, and overall it just seemed like a lesser truck compared to Ford. Plus, I just cannot get over that low hanging DEF tank!

Not sure what we will do, but if I were you, I would definitely get XLT if you liked it otherwise and can get features you want. Alternative would be to rent Lariat for 3 weeks so you can compare directly.

FYI - we met a couple at the campground the other day that traded their Lariat for Chevy exactly for the same reason OP did - the seats. They just couldn't take the back pain anymore. Obviously, seat comfort is very personal, so I would definitely recommend spending more time in them if you can before dropping $60K on a truck then later trading it and losing money in the process.