Page updated: 08/26/2004 10:34 AM
PRP Competition High-Back Seat Installation
Written by:
Al Bsharah
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High quality, high style, maximum
functionality for your posterior! |
I have had a set of Beard Super Seats for a good few years now, but decided
it was time for a serious upgrade.
Premier Racing Products (PRP) have a fantastic selection of seats
available, as well as a very nice way to customize the colors, materials,
and other attributes of your seats.
I went up to the PRP facility in Murrieta, CA to test out the seats and was
sold the minute my butt hit the cushions. When I brought them home,
Megan's first response was "Oooo, those are plush!". I had to wake her
up from a nap in them a short while later. It was immediately clear to
both of us how comfortable these seats are. I ran stock YJ seats for a
number of years until my back couldn't take the abuse any more. Upon
switching to my Beards, I thought I was in heaven. Apparently I
wasn't, as PRP's seats are the holy grail as far as I'm concerned.
Aaron Wedeking, the owner,
gave me a tour of the top-notch PRP manufacturing facility that day and I
was very impressed. The facility was incredibly clean, organized, and
the flow of material from raw steel, fabric, thread, and cushion to finished
product was very fluid. They have large numbers of frequently-ordered
seats built and ready for immediate shipment, and they still manage to pump
out completely custom seats like the ones I ordered in very short order.
I went with the Competition High Back seat, as it holds you in place
extremely well and are extremely comfortable. As well, this seat is a
little taller than the others by default as I like the ability to rest my
head if I choose...something I was unable to do with my Beards.
To give you a feel for what's possible with any seat you purchase, here are
some options for you to drool over... If you can picture the style of seat you would like to rest
your rear on, PRP's got it. Take a look at this seat style selection
(which can all be found on
this page):
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Daily Driver |
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The Roadster |
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Competition High Back |
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Competition Low Back |
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Competition Pro Series |
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Competition Lay Back |
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Premier High Back |
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Premier Low Back |
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Standard Bench Seat |
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Preemy Seat (1-4 years old) |
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Pre-Teen Seat (5-12 years old) |
The variety of material and color choices PRP offers is unmatched. Here are the astronomical amount of choices and options:
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There are 112 material and color options for the center section of your seats |
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There are 54 material and color options for the arm section of your seats |
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There are 23 color options for the piping on your seats |
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There are 23 color options for the back section of your seats |
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Rear pocket option |
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Shorter cushion option |
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Removable cushion option |
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Extra wide seat |
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Extra tall seat |
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Heated seats in three variations (on/off, hi/lo/off, or hi/med/low/off), |
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Adjustable lumbar (manual) |
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Power lumbar |
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Weld-in seat tabs |
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Slider mounts (tall or short) |
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Tilt mounts |
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Angle mounts |
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Direct mount kits for various Jeep, Ford, and Toyota models |
As you can see, pretty much everything you need is available for purchase to make your installation exactly what you want it to be. They also offer tool bags, ice chest covers, and seat covers if you want to put the finishing touches on.
For this installation, I got:
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Cardinal Red Standard Tweed for the center |
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Black Standard Tweed for the arms |
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Cardinal Red Vinyl for the piping |
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Black Vinyl for the back |
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Rear pocket |
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Removable cushion |
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Slider Mounts (short) |
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Angle mounts |
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Seat Covers |
The PRP website is very informative, and provides the
customer with all kinds of information including detailed seat measurements
for all seats and their variations (extra wide, extra tall, etc) so you can
be sure to make the right selection for you. The order process is nice
as well because it allows you to choose your colors/materials for each
location as you go along, highlighting the section you are selecting for.
Below is a step-by-step installation procedure we followed in order to get
the seats in their new mounts, as my old Beards were hard-mounted and built
into the cage. The new PRP's would have fit perfectly in these same
mounting holes, however, the existing mounts would have to be modified in
order to account for the sliders.
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First, a nice look at a few shots of the seats. You can see the comparison to the Beard seats here |
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As you can see, this seat is much bigger and much more plush than my old one. When I say "more plush", I can't stress how much more padding is in these compared to the Beards. Even when the Beards were new, they didn't come close to the comfort that these PRP's provide. |
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Another nice feature is that the bottom seat can be pulled up from the back. The benefit to this is that you can clean out all the twigs and dirt that may get caught in the seat, you can easily route your center harness through the holes, and you can even remove some of the padding in order to adjust your ride height if you wish! |
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The nice rear-pocket option. I can't wait to put this to use. |
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A shot of the bottom, where you can see how everything is stitched and put together. All holes for the webbing (suspension for the seat) are reinforced in multiple ways to assure that the webbing doesn't tear through the seats. Much, if not all, of the suspension is hand-fed and hand-knotted! |
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First thing I did was put the sliders together. There are four pieces total. The rails are the black pieces you see in this photo on top, and they are what the seats attach to. The sliders are the silver pieces at the bottom, and these are what mount to your vehicle. The black "feet" on the bottom are simply to protect the threads and are removed for installation. Hardware to put these together is included. |
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When viewing these images, the front of the seat is to the left. In order to slide the seats, you would move the lever (pointing to the left in the image) towards the bottom of the image. Or, to your left if you were sitting in the seat. This level releases the right-side rail. There is a provided steel rod (not shown) that you will bend into place to attach it to the left-side rail. As you can see, there are lots of holes to choose from when routing this rod. I chose the ones furthest to the right in the photo, as they provide the best leverage to release both sides for sliding. |
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Meanwhile, Steve was busy cutting out the old fixed-position seat mounts and readying them for the new sliders. Here you can see the passenger side, prior to modification. |
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The old fore-aft square-tube mounts are removed and replaced (for slider clearance purposes). |
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Angle iron is added for the bottom of the sliders to mount to (remember those protective feet?) As well, once those are in place, the front bar is cut out (also for slider clearance) |
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I drilled some holes... |
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Steve welded some washers into the open tube holes to cap them off. |
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This is the finished mount for the driver side. |
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Next, you will need eight (four for each seat) 3/8" nuts and bolts to mount the seats to the slider/rail assembly (your local Napa, Auto Store, or Home Depot should have them cheap). After fighting with my imperfect hole drilling, we managed to mount the seat/slider/rail assembly to the mounts. Nuts for the bottom of the sliders are included. |
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If you're running harnesses, some of the holes are not cut all the way through the padding inside the seats. This, however, is easily remedied with a long kitchen knife. Simply stick your fingers through both holes in the seat material to figure out if the cut was made to the padding or not (the top two were done, the side and center were not). Then determine where the cut needs to be made by feeling around inside the seat. Just be careful you don't poke through your seat material. The padding cuts very easily...and only takes a few seconds. |
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Here's a photo of the rig with the vinyl seat covers. They fit nice, and have velcro loops to tie each side down with. |
Aside from having to do mounting modifications, these seats were a snap to put together. If you had purchased the pre-built mounting brackets for your specific vehicle, I can't imagine the whole process taking more than an hour or two assuming your existing hardware and seats aren't seized up with rust or something. Probably even less time if you're quick!
I can't repeat how happy I am with these seats, I've taken them out on the trail already and they certainly hold you in place nicely when you're riding on your side along some desert ruts at 3am! The high sides really keep you in place, but if that's not your style there are seats that have sides that aren't as high (or are almost flat). The comfort level is something you really should experience for yourself. Here are some finished product photos. They also make my Jeep look much prettier than it actually is!
Visit PRP on the web at: http://www.prpseats.com or call them at 800.317.6253
Click HERE to see all of the pictures taken for this install.