seat covers ideas

[ddenney]

Whats everyone doing for seat covers in their power wagons. I usually try to keep covers on mine to keep the wear and tear off the factory cloth. My last truck had wet okole neopreme but thought i'd try something different because they faded so bad. I have heard that they have some sort of UV protectant in the material now or you can at least get a treatment for them.
Need to tint these front windows too to keep the sun off the interior.

[SheepdogOutdoorsman]

For the windshield I recommend a Covercraft Fitted Sunshade ... Very pleased with mine

http://204.228.150.1/products/index.pht ... 1396648391


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[Ducky's Dad]

I just researched the tint question because my wife and I both need to protect our skin from the sun after a couple of skin cancer surgeries. Settled on 3M CR90 for most light transmission (passes about 86% of available light), but with max UVA/UVB protection (99.9%) and SPF over 1,000 (up to 1700 SPF, depending on how/where measured). The Skin Cancer Institute has a list of "approved" auto films, but they give only manufacturers and not specific film designations, so you still have to do your research. A friend had the CR90 on all the windows in his black Tundra, including the windshield, and he said it made a huge difference. There are other manufacturers of approved films, but my friend has a connection with 3M so we get a decent price.

I am on my second set of Wet Okoles on my PW, and the first set wore through before it had a chance to fade. Good fit, good looks, pretty comfortable, but very expensive and short lived. I have a 15-year old set of cordura covers on my GMC and they are dirty but otherwise perfect. Crappy fit, ugly, uncomfortable (lots of wrinkles), but moderately priced, wear like iron, and you can throw them into the washing machine. I'm researching covers for my recently acquired '08 Tundra and spoke with CoverKing yesterday. They have a bunch of different cover materials, from imitation neoprene to polycotton, poly, cordura, neoprene, and leather. Costco lists about three of the CoverKing lines on their website, in neoprene, breathable poly and leather, and at good prices. If you go directly to the CoverKing website, you get the full range of materials and styles. I'm kind of leaning toward the tactical cordura with the MOLLE attachments on the seat backs, so that I have places for all the crap I always carry in my trucks. The MOLLE pack sets are available for another $75 or so. There is another outfit in Canada, FIA I think, that has a line of nice looking covers, but priced close to the Wet Okoles. If you decide you want leather (very tempting), I don't think you can beat the price of the leather CoverKing from Costco.

[bstefanic]

I've got King's Arsenal covers and love them. They have the Molle backing and come with a bunch of pouches to store things in. Fit is great, the covers are actually made by cover king but for some reason are cheaper through kings arsenal.

http://store.kingsarsenal.com/kings-ars ... covers.htm

[fbenross]

Don't believe in them..I'm going to enjoy and wear out my nice leather seats. Which are holding up great by the way. Either me or the new owner can put covers on when necessary...

[Ducky's Dad]

Don't believe in them

All of my trucks have cloth seats, and aside from keeping them sorta pretty for the next guy, it's nice to be able to take off the seat covers and wash them to get rid of sand, mud, blood, coffee, etc. Spilled some coffee in the Tundra a couple of days ago and it soaked right through the seat fabric and into the foam padding. Even with quick cleanup the interior now smells like stale coffee. The cordura covers are impervious to that kind of stuff. If I had leather, I probably wouldn't cover them either.

[fbenross]

Jeeze - your cab sounds like a Super Fund cleanup site...

[Ducky's Dad]

Jeeze - your cab sounds like a Super Fund cleanup site...

Funny, but that's what a friend said about the GMC I'm trying to sell. Thinking about pressure washing the interior.

[MSCH2112]

this is why i like leather seats. don't need seat covers cause leather can sure take a beating and cleanup well.

mike

[Ducky's Dad]

I've got King's Arsenal covers and love them. They have the Molle backing and come with a bunch of pouches to store things in. Fit is great, the covers are actually made by cover king but for some reason are cheaper through kings arsenal.

http://store.kingsarsenal.com/kings-ars ... covers.htm

How is the fit around the edges of the bottom cushions and the centers of the seat backs? I looked at customer pics on the CoverKing website and their cordura covers look like the fit is somewhat inconsistent from vehicle to vehicle, with lots of wrinkles on some of them.

The King's website doesn't provide much info and their online fit selector is not working. I called both their numbers on Friday and just got voice mail. Will try again on Monday. Thx.

[Stickman]

I have a full set of Cover King genuine neoprene seat covers on mine and I couldn't be happier with them, fit and finish is near perfect. I go four wheeling in creeks a lot so when me and my buddies get back from riding and jump inside I don't have to worry about the seats getting wet or grinding sand into them, or when I take our dog for a ride there isn't hair and drool all over the fabric. Quick pass over everything with the shop vac and everything looks perfect. I was tempted to go with the Leather, but I don't like leather in the really hot summers and really cold winters unless they are heated and ventilated, which isn't possible. The only thing I hated about them was the install, they took every bit of 2 hours to get the full set on front and back. You have to stretch and pull and yank and tuck more than you would think, but after they are on you can't even hardly tell you have covers on. Everyone I've had in the truck thought they were the factory seats. One thing that isn't perfect is the front of the arm rest were the handle is, it doesn't fit snug enough and it sticks out a little further than I would want, but it's not bad. And the inside of it has elastic across it that keeps it snug but kind of gets in the way, and with the added thickness of the material you have to slam the arm rest to get it latched. On the back seats there is 2 holes on each side for a baby seat to be able to buckle in without removing the cover and it leaves 2 big holes if you can't get them tucked in. Anyway that's about the only little annoyances which aren't major, here's some pics.

[SheepdogOutdoorsman]

Those look really good!


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[Ducky's Dad]

One thing that isn't perfect is the front of the arm rest were the handle is, it doesn't fit snug enough and it sticks out a little further than I would want, but it's not bad. And the inside of it has elastic across it that keeps it snug but kind of gets in the way, and with the added thickness of the material you have to slam the arm rest to get it latched.

I have the same problem with the Wet Okoles on my PW, and I live close enough to their factory that I let them install the covers (free) and even their guys couldn't get the console cover to fit. On my first set, they remade the the console cover and then it was just OK. When that set wore out, I got another set of Wet Okoles, installed at the factory, same console fit problem. They remade the cover again and fit was so bad that I just took it off. Other than that, neoprenes seem to be the best fitting and best looking covers you can get, but with a relatively short life span. The guys at Wet Okole actually told me that I need to protect their covers from the sun to extend the life of the covers. What a laugh.

[Ducky's Dad]

Here is another alternative for seat covers:

http://currentcamo.com/

I was referred to them by CoverKing for custom options, such as leather seat facing with MOLLE backs. They can order custom combinations from CoverKing that we mere mortals cannot order. They can also tweak the covers with heavier duty fabric, odd pockets, etc. Based in Phoenix.

[jeep_boy02]

Oooh... nice. I'm very interested in molle backing

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[bstefanic]

I've got King's Arsenal covers and love them. They have the Molle backing and come with a bunch of pouches to store things in. Fit is great, the covers are actually made by cover king but for some reason are cheaper through kings arsenal.

http://store.kingsarsenal.com/kings-ars ... covers.htm

How is the fit around the edges of the bottom cushions and the centers of the seat backs? I looked at customer pics on the CoverKing website and their cordura covers look like the fit is somewhat inconsistent from vehicle to vehicle, with lots of wrinkles on some of them.

The King's website doesn't provide much info and their online fit selector is not working. I called both their numbers on Friday and just got voice mail. Will try again on Monday. Thx.[/quote

I really didn't have any issues with the fit...there are a few wrinkles on the seat itself but nothing that has bothered me. King's is a pretty small company, I would try sending them a message on facebook...I've always had good luck getting a hold of them through that.

[bstefanic]

http://forum.powerwagonregistry.org/vie ... enal#p9491

here's the link to a few pictures of my Kings covers. Both the center console and passenger side seat look a lot better than in the picture...I hadn't tightened them all down when I took the pictures. I've been really happy with them.

[Ducky's Dad]

From what I can tell at this point, CoverKing has deals with a bunch of "distributors," such as Costco, King's, Current Camo, and probably others. Costco offers a limited range of CoverKing products, but their prices are the best if they offer what you want. King's is primarily a pistol/rifle/tactical builder and dealer and has some pretty interesting stuff if you can get to them and get their attention. Current Camo offers everything in the CoverKing line, can order custom variations on the CoverKing products (including fabrics that CoverKing does not offer directly), and can also make up completely custom covers on CoverKing patterns or on their own patterns. So far, it looks like Current Camo has the best pricing and most flexibility for odd orders (I qualify as odd). I am waiting for fabric samples from Current Camo.

[Ducky's Dad]

For those of you who wish you had MOLLE backs on your seats but don't need new seat covers, here is another alternative from CoverCraft (not CoverKing):

http://www.global-accessories.com/produ ... 1396974039

[Ducky's Dad]

Re bstefanic's seat cover pics, that's similar to what my old GMC Cordura covers look like, with lots of wrinkles on the bottom cushions. One way around that problem is to order a different weight of Cordura to get a better (tighter) fit. Cordura has little or no inherent stretch and it does not seem to shrink when you wet it, so the fit you see is the fit you get. The most common weights for Cordura seat covers seem to be 500 denier, 1000 denier, and 1680 denier. 500 is the weight often used for day packs and frame packs for recreational use, 1000 is often used for mil spec and tactical packs, and 1680 is the stiff stuff. From what I have been reading, there are different grades of Cordura, even at a given weight, and there are blends with other materials (like cotton), and abraded varieties that give some surface softness. I had some jeans a few years ago that were Cordura/cotton blend and they did shrink just a little and wore like iron.

Consensus on some of the other websites seems to be that if you don't abuse your seat covers, 500d is a good choice, but if you use the truck hard, 1000d makes more sense, and 1680d may be overkill for seat covers. I suspect my old GMC is wearing 1680, and those covers are tougher than they really need to be.