Replacing the Prado front seats

[kieranu Member Find all posts View Profile Close kieranu]

While I am pretty happy with the Prado seats (I've done nine hour stretches without any discomfort) my wife has an old shoulder injury and being relatively small she moves around in the seat a bit, particularly on bumpy tracks, which aggravates it so I'm looking at replacing them. I'm looking at getting the Corbeau Baja RS or XRS as they are designed to also fit someone larger such as myself and recline.

http://www.racing-seats-usa.com/66402.html
http://racing-seats-usa.com/corbeau-baja-xrs.html

Now, I'm wondering if anyone else has changed the seats in a Prado and, if so, if there are any pitfalls to look out for. Beyond that, are there any potential legal or insurance implications in installing an imported seat (as I don't believe there is an Australian stockist)? In the longer term I am looking at touring for a year or two where we would be virtually living in the Prado so with that in mind would you recommend cloth or leather? I've only ever owned vehicles with cloth seats so don't have much experience with leather but was thinking they might get a bit hot (particularly as the Prado is black). Also, given her injury is it worth using a 5 point harness or will the seat design be sufficient to soften the ride on corrugations, reduce shoulder impact, etc with a standard belt?

The competition (e.g. Recaro) is ludicrously expensive here and not designed so much with off-roading in mind which is why I am not considering them for the moment.

I appreciate any feedback you may have.

cheers

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

First of all it's illegal as the prado seats have airbags and most aftermarket seats do not, your insurance company wont be a fan either.

5 point harness is also not legal for road use in most, if not all states. They're for offroad use only.

Recaro make a bolt in seat rail for the prado which could help you out.

I had some recaros in a ute and they were great. Can highly recommend them.

[kieranu Member Find all posts View Profile Close kieranu]

Ok - thanks for that. Only in Australia would something which is safer be made illegal. Aren't 5-point harnesses a requirement in child seats these days? How annoying!

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

I find sheep skin covers more comfortable than cloth. Have used them for many years.

If you buy them, don't buy cheap ones, pay a bit more for a full skin rather than just wool woven into a cloth fabric, also you will need ones that are air bag compatible, with the opening on the outside of each seat for the bag deployment.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Ok - thanks for that. Only in Australia would something which is safer be made illegal. Aren't 5-point harnesses a requirement in child seats these days? How annoying!

They're not necessarily safer. If you use them they have to be done up tight, which for starters is uncomfortable, and a pain every time you get in the vehicle.

Also as there is no inertia reel on them and they don't stretch any where near as much, as a result you move with the vehicle, they don't slow you down reducing force felt like a normal seat belt does. This would also make airbags a bit redundant in newer vehicles I think?

If you drive around with them just sitting over your shoulders they're absolutely useless.

Not to mention, trying to get one off after you've rolled a vehicle which is now burning is a little stressful. It's much easier to cut one piece of conventional seat belt webbing than 3 pieces of harness webbing.

[kieranu Member Find all posts View Profile Close kieranu]

Well, as you point out, if you have a properly secured harness air bags are somewhat redundant anyway. Also, why do you need to cut three pieces of webbing when they all fit into a single quick release? Most of the four and five-point harnesses are illegal in the US because they don't feature a quick release.

Anyway, what I had in mind was using a normal three point seat belt on road and a five-point harness off road, since installation of them is not mutually exclusive, but since they're apparently all illegal here or as the guy from ARB put it 'a grey area with the Department of Transport with most inspection pits ruling that a 4 or 6 point harness is not meeting legal requirements for Australian roads' because the bureaucracy would just make it all too hard the point appears to be moot. I certainly don't want my insurance etc to be invalidated because of a bullshit technicality.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Well, as you point out, if you have a properly secured harness air bags are somewhat redundant anyway. Also, why do you need to cut three pieces of webbing when they all fit into a single quick release? Most of the four and five-point harnesses are illegal in the US because they don't feature a quick release.

Anyway, what I had in mind was using a normal three point seat belt on road and a five-point harness off road, since installation of them is not mutually exclusive, but since they're apparently all illegal here or as the guy from ARB put it 'a grey area with the Department of Transport with most inspection pits ruling that a 4 or 6 point harness is not meeting legal requirements for Australian roads' because the bureaucracy would just make it all too hard the point appears to be moot. I certainly don't want my insurance etc to be invalidated because of a bullshit technicality.

I'm saying that after a crash it's possible the quick release may not work. I've had it happen to my brother after we rolled a few times. We had to cut him out, which was not a problem as we had a proper cutter.

If you did fit harnesses you would need to have a cutter close at hand to driver and passenger.

You can have a 5/7 pointer and a normal seat belt in a vehicle in SA.

Next question would be though... What do you mount it too? Ideally you would have a cross brace behind the seats of which to attach the shoulder straps too. Which probably requires a half cage in a prado. But then it's only attached to the body. Which sits on rubber mounts on top of the chassis.

I suppose it's a bit irrelevant about its structural integrity as its only for holding you in but transport department might see things differently.

Maybe I'm going to deep here. But yeah, that's my thoughts.

[kieranu Member Find all posts View Profile Close kieranu]

Cool. Yeah, I thought of all that (cross brace etc). At the end of the day a decent seat and vehicle suspension should resolve most of the comfort problems without worrying too much about the harness unless we're planning on doing the Gas Dash.

[gt3racer Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gt3racer]

The issues with Harness's in Road cars is in the event of a rollover type event, with out a roll cage (and without seating designed to be used with harnesses) there is no latitude for you to move lower in the vehicle, that is the roof will come down around you as you are securely in the upright position with no potential to move with the wreck. The difference being, while it will not be pretty, with a regular seat belt (believe it or not) there is potential to be pushed down into the vehicle or or even out of it sideways. CAMS will not scrutineer a race car with harnesses with no cage installed, even if the class of racing does not require a roll cage, eg club sprinting and this is the reason why and also why a road car cannot be engineered with harneses in place of regular seat belts, harnesses can be fitted but must not be worn on the street.

[kieranu Member Find all posts View Profile Close kieranu]

After the missus managed to bump her head, ironically on the plastic molding where the seat belt feeds out from, while bumping along the track yesterday and then shouting at me a lot need to look into doing something. First may just see if improved suspension does the trick.

[rags Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close rags]

The competition (e.g. Recaro) is ludicrously expensive here and not designed so much with off-roading in mind which is why I am not considering them for the moment.

I appreciate any feedback you may have.

cheers

I think you will find that while the recaros are dearer ,they are the only aftermarket seat in Aust that can be fitted with the side airbags, so if there is a need to change seats then maybe you need to consider them.
Also you mention in another post that airbags would be surplus if you had a multipoint harness,me think that the need to have side airbags is more to do with side impact from another vehicle or object hitting and protruding into your vehicle rather than because you may move around in a SRS seat belt ,and as suggested that with the harness you don't move so you don't need airbags. I would suggest that if you don't want the safety but prefer a cheaper imported seat than maybe trade back into an older model like a 120 or even 90s that don't feature todays modern day engineered vehicle safety equipment.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Can you really get a Recaro that is ADR/whatever side airbag compatible for the Prado?

[KAKADAZ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close KAKADAZ]

Can you really get a Recaro that is ADR/whatever side airbag compatible for the Prado?

Haha you read my mind I got a little excited when I read that.

I may have a pair of prestige sheepskins in dark grey for sale one year old made the seat alot more comfy with prado badges sewn in for a 150 and are airbag compatible.

Or you could also consider a auto trimmer re bolstering your front seats to suit....may work out cheaper than a new pair or seats.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Can you really get a Recaro that is ADR/whatever side airbag compatible for the Prado?

Sure do, as you can imagine though... They're not cheap.

[KAKADAZ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close KAKADAZ]

Nice looking seat the recaro ES with optional side airbags. Wonder what they are worth?