Suspension seats: Are they worth it?

[joekatana]

I'll be the Devil's advocate .....
Between the lack of legroom and seating position in the average 70 Series, after about :30 minutes of driving you'll be numb from the neck down and won't even feel the bumps.

Funny as I just added another 1500 km's on my 70 this weekend , some of us do drive these cruisers Charles

 

[Gun Runner 5]

Funny as I just added another 1500 km's on my 70 this weekend , some of us do drive these cruisers Charles

I went to the grocery store and farmer's market yesterday.

 

[FJBen]

I daily drive my BJ74, granted that works out to about 25 miles a day total, but it's seat time

 

[robmobile73]

I'll be the Devil's advocate .....
Between the lack of legroom and seating position in the average 70 Series, after about :30 minutes of driving you'll be numb from the neck down and won't even feel the bumps.

I'm 5-8 and about 165. The 70 seats seem small to me compared to other vehicles. No Japanese vehicle unless specifically designed for Americans is going to be comfortable for a large American... At my size most cars are fine, but when I ride in a full-size American car like a Dodge charger with leather bucket seats it is noticably wonderful.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

I'm 5'10" and I definitely remember the seats and lack of legroom in my 75 Series Ute being an issue after a couple of hours of driving. I made a couple of 16 hour round trips in that truck and I wouldn't call the experience, pleasant. The 79 Series has a couple of inches of additional leg space and while that doesn't sound like much, it makes a big difference.,

 

[DrAli]

I drive an LJ78 that came stock with the suspension seats. I have no basis of comparison but I would definitely miss them. You can feel them absorbing shocks all the time as you go up and down on bumps. My friend and expert 70 series mechanic tried to install them on his 3 door kzj to no avail as they simply wouldn't fit right. I would not recommend you trying to install them unless you got a version that was built for it and is somehow missing them. In case you can't I'd simply recommend you do all the regular things like lower the tire pressure and get better shocks and coils etc. Etc. To improve your ride quality. They ate certainly not worth an expensive import. Infact I can argue my friends kzj without them is more comfortable in certain ways with his large coil suspension that causes the wheels to articulate alot and his Prado rides like a 'boat' absorbing all the bumps. His car is also our groups lead off-road vehicle and it performs great.

 

[DrAli]

Been reading the comments about the Prado seats I'm about 5'10 and 74kg and have had no problems with the seats knock on wood for 8 years driving my LJ78 off-road some times 7 hours straight. It's never longer than that though as we camp over night. I'm in Pakistan though so my basis of comparison is with other Japanese cars, no American rigs here as the import duty is 300%. I also like to keep the steering wheel super low so it feels like a car rather than the truck, I do slide out easily under the steering wheel but I can see it being tight for someone not used to 'sliding out under the steering wheel' in case they like to keep the steering super low. Hope this makes sense.

 

[robmobile73]

Put in my new driver seat. It's a heavy equipment suspension seat. It does wonders for my back smoothing out the ripples and bumps in the road that normally transmitted straight through the original worn out seat.
It's it's a bit high I stacked the new adjusting rails on top of the old ones so now I have double the forward back movement if I want it. With the extra height and extra adjustability there's plenty of legroom now. my head would be too close to the ceiling if I was taller than 5/10. Also nice to have armrest that are also adjustable.
I like the construction and material of the seat very durable and utilitarian it fits with the 70. The seat folds forward completely which will work with my sleeping plan when camping as well as hauling big things if I decide to put one on the passenger side as well.
The wood block underneath the seat on the left side is a spacer 5/16 bolts go straight through from the seat all the way down to the mount on the floor. I'll paint that would block black to match at some point.
The seat was designed for heavy equipment not for a road vehicle. It has a headrest but it is a low back design so you can turn your head around and look behind you at the plow or implement you're pulling behind a tractor. I think this is great for off-roading and vision when backing up, but it lacks protection from whiplash if you get rear ended. I'm going to try to figure something out here but I haven't done it yet.

 

[J2P]

Put in my new driver seat. It's a heavy equipment suspension seat. It does wonders for my back smoothing out the ripples and bumps in the road that normally transmitted straight through the original worn out seat.
It's it's a bit high I stacked the new adjusting rails on top of the old ones so now I have double the forward back movement if I want it. With the extra height and extra adjustability there's plenty of legroom now. my head would be too close to the ceiling if I was taller than 5/10. Also nice to have armrest that are also adjustable.
I like the construction and material of the seat very durable and utilitarian it fits with the 70. The seat folds forward completely which will work with my sleeping plan when camping as well as hauling big things if I decide to put one on the passenger side as well.
The wood block underneath the seat on the left side is a spacer 5/16 bolts go straight through from the seat all the way down to the mount on the floor. I'll paint that would block black to match at some point.
The seat was designed for heavy equipment not for a road vehicle. It has a headrest but it is a low back design so you can turn your head around and look behind you at the plow or implement you're pulling behind a tractor. I think this is great for off-roading and vision when backing up, but it lacks protection from whiplash if you get rear ended. I'm going to try to figure something out here but I haven't done it yet.

so how do you feel about your suspension seat? I am contemplating getting one for my 80 Series. I had an HJ61 with a factory suspension seat and I really enjoyed it.

 

[robmobile73]

so how do you feel about your suspension seat? I am contemplating getting one for my 80 Series. I had an HJ61 with a factory suspension seat and I really enjoyed it

 

[robmobile73]

My factory springs were completely shot and rode horribly. I bought the suspension seats prior to getting new old man emu springs. If I had got the new springs first I would not have gone with the suspension seats I would have got some good reclining seats from the junkyard.

I like the seat that I bought for its durability it's durable folding armrest the fact that it folds completely forward the fact that it has a steel back that I can attach equipment or tool pouches too. I am satisfied with the suspension on the seat. The seat back however is too short. Really it needs to be four to six inches longer. I am 5'8 the seat sits very tall in my truck. I like a tall seat it's comfortable but if I was six feet tall it wouldn't work. I have the adjustment mechanism for the new seat stacked on top of the adjustment mechanism for the old seat I can slide the seat back and forth almost 12 in using both adjusters. That's kind of a cool feature because you can lay the seat back recline it all the way back and actually lay back put your feet on the dash without the steering wheel getting in the way.

I am going to modify my seat back by adding a 4-in extension to it. As soon as I get a new mig welder to replace my old spool gun that bit the dust I'll get to work on this.

 

[SeaDandy]

I have a set of the suspension seat bases that I could sell , it is not that hard to fabricate a mounting system for nice aftermarket seats on those and your problems are solved.

PMd - hoping these are still available for my 1981 BJ42