New Seat Installed

RV Randy · 12-16-2018, 08:27 PM

I got the new Bostrom Wide Ride Serta drivers seat and adapter brackets in last week for my DX3/M2. Got it installed today.

This seat does not have a swivel in it and sits about 2" lower than the OEM seat when fully aired down (You can get it with a swivel if you want). So, it achieved one of my goals of being able to sit a little lower when the air suspension is aired up enough to get a comfortable ride. It also has 2 adjustable arm rests which work and feel great. The bottom cushion also has knobs to raise or lower the front & back of the cushion. It also has air adjustable side & back bolsters plus a button that cycles the lower back lumbar in and out to get a little massage as you go down the road. Overall the seat is a little wider and just feels better overall, plus I dont have to duck now to get a good view out of the windshield.

Install is pretty easy. Air up the old seat first to make it easy to access and remove the 2 seat belt bolts. You need a T-50 socket to get these off. Then remove the 4 nuts with a 1/2" wrench that hold the seat & swivel to the air base. Lift the seat off. Use a T-25 (maybe it was a 30) socket to remove the 4 bolts that hold the air suspension base to the cab floor. Disconnect the airline at the push connector. This should be easy but mine fought me, I had to get a small dental pick like tool to get the O-ring loose, then it came right apart.

On this Bostrom seat you have to remove the 2" spacer bolted to the bottom, do this before you put the seat in the rig, it takes two 15mm box wrenches to remove 4 nuts & bolts, easy to do.

The adaptor kit is a 2 piece kit. The Z plate bolts to the front 2 holes in the floor using the original bolts. This bracket can be bolted to the bottom of the seat first using the two 5/16 grade 8 bolts supplied with the seat. I also drilled 2 holes in this plate so I could also use the two 15mm bolts that held the 2" adaptor in place, this is where the most leverage would be applied in a front impact so I felt having the additional bolts wouldnt hurt. The rear piece is a flat strap with 2 drilled and tapped holes in it for the 5/16 grade 8 bolts. Bolt this piece loosely where the rear holes in the floor are, but only put in the floor bolt closest to the drivers side for now. Set the new seat in place. Plug the new air line into the connector and raise the seat up, this makes accessing the floor and seat belts bolts much easier.

Note-At first glance it appears the holes in the brackets dont line up with the holes in the bottom of the seat. Move the seat about 3/8" inboard and it will line up with the 5/16 drilled & tapped holes. Install those loosely front & rear (and install the 15mm bolts up front if you chose to drill those holes. You will now see there is a hole in the seat bottom on the rear inboard side that lines up with the factory floor bolt on that side. You can now install the factory floor bolt there and tighten all the bolts up good front and rear. Bolt the seat belts back in place (they mount exactly the same as stock). You should now be done other than learning what all your new buttons and knobs do.

On my seat the front knob twists ( not when you're in the seat) to adjust the front edge of the seat cushion up or down. The center knob is a 1/2 turn to lock or unlock the front to back adjuster. The rear knob adjusts the rear of the cushion up or down. All knobs are inboard (right side) of the seat. The front to back adjuster is a bar between your legs on the front of the seat (dont forget to unlock it first) All of the air suspension, air bolster, air lumbar, adjuster buttons are on the left side of the seat.

The seat has no clearance issues with the door closed and the arm rest down, but you may need to raise the arm rest to reach down to the air buttons if the door is closed. Seat leans plenty far back.

Sorry I have no pictures but my phone is MIA, probably left it on the plane. But I ordered these seats in black leather main color with light tan center sections. The black looks really good with the black dash and the tan is a nice accent with the brown carpet. If you know what the black/brown seats in a Ford King Ranch pickuo look like, they're almost identical. The passenger seat will take a few more weeks to receive because I ordered it with a swivel. I will take more pictures then.

Someone else had these seats and didnt like them because they have a little side-to-side wobble (not much) when you're not sitting in them and wiggle them. This is not slop in the mechanism as it appears to be. When someone is sitting in the seat and moves side to side, you can look underneath and see springs allowing that movement. I noticed when I drove it afterwards that when you go through a drainage dip in the road as you are turning (when the rig does the big left-right-center tilt) this seat minimizes that movement being transmitted to you. The rest of the time you do not notice any side to side movement.

mookieblaylock · 12-17-2018, 08:22 AM

Nice write up, Randy. I hope to get mine installed this weekend.

The Renegade · 12-17-2018, 09:32 PM

When I did a write up and review of the swivels that I got for my Force HD I tried really hard to give a good detailed write up but I guess Randy really showed me up on the writing skills. Nice write up bud and glad the seats accomplish what you needed. Good job...

sconnors11 · 12-18-2018, 01:54 AM

Are these running $1000 a seat?

RV Randy · 12-18-2018, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountieman

When I did a write up and review of the swivels that I got for my Force HD I tried really hard to give a good detailed write up but I guess Randy really showed me up on the writing skills. Nice write up bud and glad the seats accomplish what you needed. Good job...

Thanks, no real writing skills just out of town in a hotel and bored, lots of time to kill. Thanks for all of the part numbers too!

Yes, the non-swivel seat was $949 and the swivel seat was $1049. Adaptor kits were like $50 each and shipping for everything was $250. So total was about $2350. Not cheap but they look great, ride great and the annoying whining sound from the right side of the cab has stopped too!

mookieblaylock · 01-06-2019, 07:56 AM

Finally got a chance to install these yesterday. It wasn’t an impossible job, but I wouldn’t call it easy. I did replace both at the same time, and I wired in a fuse block behind the new center console so I could run wiring to both seats for the seat heaters. Combine that with a fair amount of time fighting with the airline push connectors and a stripped torx bolt in one of the factory seat brackets, and it made for about a day’s worth of work.

Hope to be able to drive it today, but some initial pre-test flight thoughts/feedback:

I didn’t measure, but most have reported a 2” drop in overall seat height. It seems like more than that to me, but, whatever it is, the impact is significant. No more staring at the top of the windshield.

The driver’s seat is now perfectly centered with the steering wheel. This has just about driven me mad since day one.

As Randy described, they are very adjustable. One other adjustment I found was with the seat bottom cushion. There’s a small ‘handle’ at the front above the slider pull handle. While out of the seat, you can lift the front edge of the seat cushion and pivot it forward (or back if it’s already extended). It’s tough to explain, but if you feel that the leading edge of the bottom cushion isn’t lining up comfortably with the bend in your legs, try this adjustment.

The seat movement when you’re not in the seat is disturbing for sure. It seems like there’s a lot of ‘slop’ in the mount. After reading the reports, it was still a little shocking. I’m confident everything is bolted down/together securely, so hopefully, as Randy mentioned, this is a feature. I should know more after the test drive.

It was dark, but a couple of pics after install:

The Renegade · 01-06-2019, 09:20 PM

Those seats look really comfortable. Hope you like..

Dhall404 · 01-29-2019, 12:44 PM

Seats look nice. Can you tell me where you got the center console at?
Looks a lot nicer than what i have found.
Thanks

mookieblaylock · 01-29-2019, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dhall404

Seats look nice. Can you tell me where you got the center console at?
Looks a lot nicer than what i have found.
Thanks

Here's a link:

Freightliner M2 Center Console: Build 5 Fabrication

Discovered them on this forum as several other members have posted pics of them in the past. Very nice product and super nice owner/fabricator (Aaron).

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