POLL: Bolt on Land Rover Discovery Seat Adapter (1 Viewer)

[FranceJohnson]

This subject has been covered many times, and I have brought this up before. I have recently had a little more time to dedicate to this project. The issue is this, most of our seats are showing their age, and options for a replacement/upgrade are currently limited. I have chosen the LR Discovery seats for a reason, mostly being that *typically* they are purchased by people who take care of them, and they die a Land Rover style death before the seats are gnarled. The problem with other Toyotas are by the time the Yota is dead the seats are roached, and they hardly ever make it to the JY. Discos on the other hand are always aplenty. Now some additional benefits are:

ARMREST
Did I say ARMREST?
HEATED SEATS w/ module built into seat(without the module the system is useless, points for integration)
Flush bottom (after bracket is removed) 80s need the clearance under the seats.
6-way Seat Adjust, controls not on seat*
Pretty cool looks for a seat
ARMREST



*I actually think this is advantageous, even if it does mean some extra wiring. Reason being, most seats we have looked at are too wide, the Discos work, but once you have the controls down the side, if the seat is too wide you'd have to open the door to move your seat. PITA. Discos are built into the center console, I plan to use the coin blanks in the 80 center console for Heater ON/OFF and 4-way seat adjust. This has an additional benefit brought up by @NLXTACY with one of his inventions (not to steal bread from your plate), but you could adjust both seats from the center console.

As has been mentioned before, 80 Series have a narrow seat track, and the feet of the Disco in no way match the 80. What I am considering is fabricating and selling an adapter which removes the Disco Track, and bolts on the 80 track, then bolts directly to your floor using the Yota bracket. As mentioned, I plan to figure out all the wiring, but that would be up to the owner to do individually for their adjustment and heater.

So, with Recaros being $400-600 (no ARMREST) and the bracket another $60-75 PER SEAT, would this option be of any interest to the masses? Pick-n-Pull usually charges $35 per seat, my target depending on materials and tooling required would be $60-$100 per seat. Assuming you find a great pair at a JY, this would put you at about $300+/- for both front seats, or half to a quarter the cost of Recaros.

Taking the water temp, I will post photos as I complete the project, which I think is where the rubber hits the road here, but if there is no interest from others, I will no pursue that path.

 

[FranceJohnson]

Here is the Disco tan color, which might be a decent match to the guys with tan seats. Hard to tell from the pictures as the tone changes pretty
dramatically with the lighting, but they are both pretty light tan leather. Photo below also shows the seat controls on the center console. Also, that knob on the bottom of the armrest adjusts where the armrest stops when down, so if you are reclined, you may want a different angle.. ect.


FJ80(Tan):

Disco(Tan):

 

[half k cruiser]

Man, I wish land rovers weren't such huge pieces of $hit. I always thought they looked really cool and the interior is like being in a luxury car. Especially like the dual sunroof feature. As for there seats are you talking about integrating the disco ii's ? I think the LR3 has a nicer looking bucket up front.

 

[FranceJohnson]

Agreed on the LR3, long term I would like to steal the LR3 black leather middle row, as they fold the same as the 80; but LR3s are not readily available which is the driving factor in this. I think there are a long list of seats that would be awesome to have, but to make an adapter which would be useful to a large group of people means picking the "right" seat. I also considered ~2002 Honda Odyssey middle row captains chairs, but Discos have some nice features like the heated leather.

Also agreed on Discos being great looking trucks that you ALMOST want, but that engine is just a time bomb. Head gasket and slipped sleeve issue, and even weirder is the drive shaft U-joints are non replaceable. I am not going to knock them too bad, I have seen some 300tdi conversions that I would have zero issue driving. But ultimately, they have a ~75-100K life expectancy, bad for Disco owners, but in the case of available seats, good for us.

 

[yohavos]

Presuming these would work with manual Disco seats as well? I almost bought a pair for my ute project but ended up with Volvo seats. I'm not in love with them, though the fab work needed for them to work was pretty simple. I'm interested in your impressions on leg room and driving position.

 

[jwilliams]

Agreed on the LR3, long term I would like to steal the LR3 black leather middle row, as they fold the same as the 80; but LR3s are not readily available which is the driving factor in this. I think there are a long list of seats that would be awesome to have, but to make an adapter which would be useful to a large group of people means picking the "right" seat. I also considered ~2002 Honda Odyssey middle row captains chairs, but Discos have some nice features like the heated leather.

Also agreed on Discos being great looking trucks that you ALMOST want, but that engine is just a time bomb. Head gasket and slipped sleeve issue, and even weirder is the drive shaft U-joints are non replaceable. I am not going to knock them too bad, I have seen some 300tdi conversions that I would have zero issue driving. But ultimately, they have a ~75-100K life expectancy, bad for Disco owners, but in the case of available seats, good for us.

Totally agree 100%. Had my DII for 11 years. Top end rebuilt 3 times due to the slipped sleeve issue. Nothing you can do to fix... even pinning them hasn't turned out great.



I will agree that the adjustable armrest is amazing. Wish we could just have a bolt on kit for the Land Rover armrest in the Land Cruiser.

Here was my "Goat": Awesome truck, worst engine I have ever dealt with.

Cut my loss and sold it for the Land Cruiser and have never looked back.

 

[FranceJohnson]

What I have been going off on the my sketchups are full power Disco II seats to my manual FJ80 seat. However, given how the 80s seat rails just bolt to a flush plane and essentially the Discos (with the bottom feet plate removed) do as well, its essentially an issue with fabricating a bracket to match the holes up. I need to have a look at a power slide 80 base, but in my mind, this bracket leaves the buyer to "choose their own adventure". The Disco bracket will have a built in screw-drive power slide, which will in turn sit on top of the 80s power or manual slide. Personally, I plan to not use the power Disco slide, and use the manual 80 slide; BUT I can hot wire the Disco slide if I want a "seat extender". I would say the same principal applied to the 80 power slide, where it could be used to tweek the final seat range. I see no reason why anyone other than some Harry and the Henderson size would need to utilize both slides.

I would honestly prefer no power, and adapt a manual recline to the Disco seat, but keep this in mind. Like most high(er) end import vehicles, they typically import the nicer tier models, so there are not a lot of Discos out there with manual seats, and less common with armrests. A note on the armrests too; They can be added to seats without them. There is a capture nut bracket under the leather, the armrest is screwed into this via a bolt attached to the arm rest. This info might be useful if anyone needs to combine a couple seats and armrests from the right donor vehicles.

 

[FranceJohnson]

I will agree that the adjustable armrest is amazing. Wish we could just have a bolt on kit for the Land Rover armrest in the Land Cruiser

I attempted this route, but the bracket with the capture nut is welded to the disco seat frame. Ultimately, pulling the disco seat to cut the bracket and welding it somehow to the 80 seat made me realize, just take the whole damn seat. My coils are poking through my seat foam anyways.

That is a great looking Disco, sucks to hear all the engine issues, but that seems to be a common enough Disco story, that I have yet to risk the waters. Mostly the slipped sleeves, if it was just a HG issue it would be a different story.

 

[canman]

I thought about this a couple years back and had gone to see a set of front and rear seats, but then I saw that the controls were not seat mounted as you mention. What is your solution to this little problem?

 

[FranceJohnson]

What is your solution to this little problem?

The 80s have those "Coin" slots in the center console, popped out they are standard automotive switch size. 4 total, 2 for each side. I plan to use for (for each side) for the heater ON/OFF and the other for a 4 way toggle switch. This is where I said I will leave this up to the individual owners to determine what they like best. The Disco seat is 6 way adjust (Front, Back, Up, Down, Tint up, Tilt Back). I wish to use my manual slide, but my wife is short, so I will use the UP/DOWN feature and the TILT wired into a 4-way switch in the other "coin" center console slot.

I presume it would be possible to yank the controls from the Disco center console and mount them to the same place on the 80, but I am not a fan of that location to begin with. There are a bunch of solutions for this, and I bet much more creative ones which I could come up with myself, which is why I plan to figure out the wiring harness of the Disco, but leave it up to the owner to decide what they prefer for placement, useful controls, ect.

I plan to find a seat heater control from a donor vehicle that fits this switch port size. Honestly I think the Disco's might be a standard size, but it is really tough to tell from the pictures.

 

[musthave]

Interested, subscribed.

I would want at least the legroom of the landtank extension, preferrably more. I would want a connector hopefully, that is plug and play so I can attach the rails and plug it in.

 

[FranceJohnson]

I don't think leg room will be an issue. Assuming the stock 80 adjusts 10"+/- then the Disco would be another 10"+/-. The limiting factor might be the leverage on the bracket itself, but I will know more once I can look at the power 80 bracket. I think the Landtank extentions give you about 3" more, which should easily be covered by adjusting either the Disco slide or the 80 slide (the one you are NOT using for daily use).

**NOTE**: This probably makes sense to everyone, but I want to make clear when I talk about "hot-wiring". Assuming the Disco harness will be wired to 12V and controls, that leaves the 80 slide as axillary and not wired in. Running +12V from a drill battery or jumpers can be used to move the 80 slide front or back to dial in the seat range. This secondary adjustment is not something that would likely be done often.

Now, as for plug and play with the wiring, that' where I am uncertain of the solution for the masses. As pictured and stated above, the controls are on the center console. The most plug and play solution would be to pull this whole assembly off the Disco console, and cut/paste it into the Cruiser console as one unit. Assuming the owner is yanking their seats from the donor vehicle, pulling the harness should not be much more of a process. @musthave you are more familiar with the console than I am, it would be necessary to determine how much room is available between outer console wall and interior cubby space. I will submit as much detail of the harness/factory switches as possible, but I currently I do not intend to tackle this as part of the adapter.

 

[dirtyboots]

Yep...on CL all the time looking for viable swaps. LR are always at the pick and pull and as you've said the seats are usually in good condition. Great idea! Subd.

 

[half k cruiser]

@FranceJohnson I believe the LR3 has a flat folding middle row. Not a pitch forward design like is on our 80 series'.

 

[FranceJohnson]

@FranceJohnson I believe the LR3 has a flat folding middle row. Not a pitch forward design like is on our 80 series'.

I might have been thinking of the LR4, if there is in fact a difference between the LR3 and LR4 middle row. I thought the middle row doubles over like our 80s so you can get into the 3rd row, but that might just be the LR4. I am also not sure if the middle seat flips. My dad's Durango does something similar, but the middle seat is static. Either way, probably a seat I will not see for easy pickins for a while.

 

[Diggs84]

sub'd

 

[FranceJohnson]

plug and play so I can attach the rails and plug it in.

This is a picture of the inside bottom of the center console. There is a pretty good deal of room in there. Using the Disco seat control harness in this location would be very likely possible but means removing that cupholder; then somone would need to invent one for the 80 series.

 

[FranceJohnson]

Most of the questions and concerns on here are seat control related, I thought I would address some of these. I have changed my mind on putting the controls on the center console, mostly because its as close to plug and play as it can be. I will write up some TTPs on how/where to cut into the center console, and how to mount the control switch. The switch cover just clips to it from the outside and provides a cleaner look where the hole is cut. As shown in the photo, the harness just runs under the seat and plugs in.

I am not overly stoked on that placement, but I think its better than on the seat side bottom, and it is just not worth the hassle to adapt the harness to put anywhere else.

Now, lets talk seat heaters. Discos 99-04 are ALL prewired for heaters, some just do not have the switches. The heater control harness (if it does not have the switches) is located behind the plate with the window switches. On Discos this is the center console. I would grab these two flat black harnesses and poach switches from another Disco with the switches. This harness seems to be tied in with the window wiring, and it does not really look like it would be worth teasing out, and easier to just clip and run your own wires later. I hope these address some of the questions and comments that relate to the seat controls of the Disco.

I will be doing some traveling the next two weekends, but I plan to have a very rough mock up as soon as I return so we can see how this looks in the truck. Some good and bad things to keep in mind depending on your year. Those with power seats already, running power should be pretty straight forward. 93-97 may have some or all years pre-wired, I will let the gurus answer that question. Seat belts also came up in an earlier threads/discussions. I have a 92, my my seat belt bolts to the floor with near the back leg. You guys with the 93-97 have the seat belt which bolts to the seat correct? So this is something that will need to be addressed. I will take some pictures and we can have a look for options relating to the seat belt.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

I'll be watching this. I've contemplated this exact swap many times.

 

[FranceJohnson]

I picked up a set of leather FZJ80 seats from a local club member, thank you @bryson. There are some complications with the 80 power-slide base, mostly that the slide is welded and riveted to the base in a few spots. It doesn't look like it would be much to remove, but since Bryson's seats are still in good shape, I won't be using his to find out. Also, once the slide is unbolted, it is no longer held in place by the screw/motor, so it would need to be secured. All are solvable problems, but I am going to focus on the manual slide adapter to start. If it seems like there is interest from there, I will move to the power-slide phase and we will see what we come up with.

Some close inspection of the Disco base reveals a similar situation, the feet are riveted to the slide, so there will be some power tools required to remove these. I will document my surgical procedures.