Softening the seat? Seat swapping?

I have a 2020 SR5. The seat is unsuitable for me for long drives of over two hours. The bottom of the seat is definitely too firm for me. The back of the seat may also be a problem, but I think the bottom is the bigger problem.

While my old Jeep Liberty didn't have ultra comfortable seats, the seat bottoms were a lot softer from what I remember. I remember being able to swing my butt from side to side to kind of alleviate some pressure from my lower back. I could sit more on one thigh and have the other side of my lower body be a little raised. The Liberty seat supported this well. If I try to do this with the 4Runner, that part of my one thigh up to my buttcheek feels way too much pressure from the firm seat.

It was also very easy to do the butt swinging thing in the Liberty seat while it's difficult to do in the 4Runner, and it's pointless to do in the 4Runner because the end result is worse than just sitting flat on the seat.

Has anyone softened the seat somehow? Perhaps there are kits for swapping seats? At this point, I'd get a junkyard Jeep Liberty seat if I could swap it in. I had to turn around and come home on my way to my vacation destination because if I was going to have to take being this miserable, I was at least going to take being this miserable on my way back home. I did not want to extend my return trip sitting in this seat by a single minute more.

As it stands, I'm never going to drive for more than two hours at a time in my 4Runner, and that might be a dealbreaker for me.

 

Sheepskin, seriously. Some people don’t like the look, but you’re waxing nostalgic about a Jeep liberty, so it’s pretty serious. A sheepskin seat (real sheepskin) is an investment, but it might make the seat bearable. Maybe even make it glorious.

There’s a reason F-16 fighter jet seats and pretty much every airliner cockpit seat is covered by sheepskin.

 

Oh my God, this sheepskin stuff better be magical on my buttcheeks. I can't get to sleep. I have to try sitting on a heating pad. It's warming up right now.

 

I learn something new on this board every day.

Good luck with your endeavor to make the seat more comfortable, Ray. Let us know how it turns out.

 

IMO, part of the problem is Toyota seats are narrow. I experience the same discomfort on long hauls. Have a friend that really wanted a Toyota but couldn’t comfortably fit into a Toyota seat.

 

Have you looked into seat risers? Desert Does It offers them for the 4Runner and they work for me. I have pretty bad sciatica, so sitting for long periods is difficult, and these change the seating position so it supports you better. Also, you can get a piece of memory foam and wrap it in a towel as a test- I use this for long days on the tractor.

 

I'm not having much luck dealing with my 4Runner's seat. Today I tried a combination of this sheepskin mat and a cushion my dad uses on a chair at home. It was weird. It pushed me up so high that I felt unstable. The cushion was hard to get in the right spot and easy to push out of the right spot. I really might have to swap in a junkyard Jeep Liberty seat. It's not the same, but I tried sitting in my dad's Jeep Grand Cherokee seat. It's actually not much softer than my 4Runner's seat, but it's flatter, and the fabric is a lot less grippy than on the seat in my 4Runner. I think that's similar to the seat in my old Jeep Liberty. The 4Runner wants to grip onto my butt too much. I can't slide around in it like I need to in order to feel comfortable. Sometimes the seat spreads my buttcheeks like Mike Honcho. It's not a problem on shorter drives, but it's just intolerable for long durations of time.

 

I recently installed seat risers/jackers (from Amazon) and it made a huge difference in feel and comfort. If you don't want an Amazon version check out Desert Does it - though the Amazon ones do the exact same thing but almost half the price.

 

You might try visiting an upholstery shop, explaining your problem, and hearing their recommendation. They may be able to add some padding underneath the seat cover.

 

Was it too high with the seat all the way down?

There are seating experts out there on the web…it’s like a field of study lol. This might take a bit of specific research to figure out what makes a specific seat comfy for a specific body type.

Your shifting around on that liberty seat makes me think you are responding to something uncomfortable about that seat, but you like it because you can respond to whatever it is that makes you uncomfortable.

The 4runner seat doesnt let you do that, but maybe you wont need to if you find what makes it comfortable. Sometimes it’s changing the shape, density, or breathability. Those factors can also interrelate, so a seat that is too hard could be made tolerable by the shape or vice versa.

There’s a bit of an industry surrounding seats in the motorcycling and aviation worlds (where getting a different vehicle due to seating issues is less desirable ). Those are places that can be good starts for research. Heck, even long haul trucking.

Frankly, Im surprised I dont see much of a market for comfort-based aftermarket seating in the automotive world.

 

Front seat jacks will fix your problem! Love mine.

 

Yes, the seat was all the way down. It wasn't so much that I was too high. It was that I was too high in the seat. I felt like I myself was top heavy. I wasn't so much sitting in the seat as much as I was kind of suspended over it.

I think I might be on the right track thinking that the surface of the seat is the problem. I just got today some fake leather seat covers. I drove around for a couple hours after installing just the bottom of the seat's cover. It wasn't perfect, but it was an improvement. Even though the fake leather isn't a slick, nongrippy surface, my butt was more able to get into good positions and wasn't being pulled in bad directions. I didn't feel my butt getting grabbed by the little crevices in the fabric. The fake leather smoothed that over. The seat covers also have a little bit of padding in the valley that the stock seat has which softens things some and makes things a bit more flat. That could be helping, too. After driving for those two hours, I moved over to the passenger side with its fully stock seat setup, and I could feel the difference in buttcheek grip.

This is what I got. I haven't fully finalized getting things tight, and it's kind of a pain to install it, but even imperfectly it's a step in the right direction. It's expensive, and all I probably really needed was the one part for the bottom of the drivers seat, but at least I was able to get it relatively fast since it was eligible for Prime shipping. I'm off next week as well, so while I won't be able to take quite the long trip that I originally wanted, it might still save my vacation somewhat.

$230 EKR Custom Fit 4Runner Car Seat Covers (Only for 5 Seats Version) for Select Toyota 4Runner 2011-2024 - Full Set,Leather (Black)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T28YC5H?ie=UTF8

Mind you, I'm still of the mind of getting a junkyard Jeep Liberty seat at some point. I really liked that seat.

Other dudes, I haven't tried seat jackers yet, but I have taken to running the seat with the front as high as it goes to help with my butt. I don't know how well seat jackers would work for me. I already have my thighs closer to the steering wheel than they used to be. I may even experiment with lowering the front of the seat to my previous position now that I have the seat covers.

The upholstery shop idea is interesting. One thing I might be able to do now that I have these seat covers is put in a thin layer of foam between the cover and the stock seat to further cushion things.

 

You can pull the foam out under the dead pedal and get a little more room to stretch when you need to. I did that and jackers.

 

Please explain pulling the foam out of the dead pedal. I thought it was molded in?

You have peaked my interest!

Thanks

 

Pull it up and have a look. I pulled mine out of the tacoma but not the wife's 4R.

 

I'll need to double check....I'm pretty sure I read it can be removed like the Taco...

 

Yup, looks like it can come out too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203061894261

 

So that’s what’s under the carpet in all 5th gen 4Runners?

Probably have to figure out remolding the carpet.

 

I used a heat gun on my Taco's floor mat, so it lays down and looks factory. I'm not sure what's in the 4R though.

 

I have the seat jackers and it was a huge improvement. Last week I had a guy riding with me and he commented how comfortable the passenger seat is. And he drives a bucket seat F-150. They really make a huge difference and they’re easy to install.

 

Good thing OP doesn’t have a Tacoma. The 4runner is heaps more comfortable I find after switching. But I might so seat jackets at some point to test if I can make it better.