How To Add Heated/Ventelated seats and Heated Wheel to Express/Tradesman

Baggio95 · Jan 24, 2019

Thanks Rick. Yeah, that's exactly what happened to me. I've been searching for a decent leather electric seat w/air bag that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and stumbled upon a Laramie at a salvage yard. I had them double check and I check the spread on on the frame bolts so I thought it would fit.

If wasn't until I got it back to my truck that I realized the connections were completely different. I'll give it some more time to see if I can find another seat. If not I will probably try to isolate the power wires for the different functions and make my own. Do you happen to have a wiring diagram for you seat?

Ricks Ram · Jan 24, 2019

Baggio95 said:
Thanks Rick. Yeah, that's exactly what happened to me. I've been searching for a decent leather electric seat w/air bag that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and stumbled upon a Laramie at a salvage yard. I had them double check and I check the spread on on the frame bolts so I thought it would fit.

If wasn't until I got it back to my truck that I realized the connections were completely different. I'll give it some more time to see if I can find another seat. If not I will probably try to isolate the power wires for the different functions and make my own. Do you happen to have a wiring diagram for you seat?

Yes I do. I will try to shoot a picture of it to you when I get back to my house. I personally would not even try to install the seats. You will most likely run into issues with your seat airbag wiring plus you seat belt warning because they are wired differently. If you plan on possibly selling the seats you bought I recomend you don't cut or tamper with the wiring on them. It will greatly affect their value. If you just want the power adjust feature to work you need to run a constant 12v power source to the solid red wire in the yellow seat plug and a ground to the black wire in the yellow seat plug. Off the top of my head without looking at the schematics the rest of the wires in the yellow plug are for the heated seats power which are the two pink wires with yellow stripe and then two wires that go to the CAN system on the truck and then the rest of the wires in the yellow plug are for the seat belt warning and seat airbags. The grey 20 pin seat plug is for all the other functions such as heated/vented seats heated,wheel,adjustable pedals,memoryl ect. I will shoot you a picture when I can.

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Baggio95 · Jan 24, 2019

Ricks Ram said:
Yes I do. I will try to shoot a picture of it to you when I get back to my house. I personally would not even try to install the seats. You will most likely run into issues with your seat airbag wiring plus you seat belt warning because they are wired differently. If you plan on possibly selling the seats you bought I recomend you don't cut or tamper with the wiring on them. It will greatly affect there value. If you just want the power adjust feature to work you need to run a constant 12v power source to the solid red wire in the yellow seat plug and a ground to the black wire in the yellow seat plug. Off the top of my head without looking at the schematics the rest of the wires in the yellow plug are for the heated seats power which are the two pink wires with yellow stripe and then two wires that go to the CAN system on the truck and then the rest of the wires in the yellow plug are for the seat belt warning and seat airbags. The grey 20 pin seat plug is for all the other functions such as heated/vented seats heated,wheel,adjustable pedals,memoryl ect. I will shoot you a picture when I can.

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Thanks Rick, greatly appreciate it! Yeah, I'm not going to hack up the connectors just yet in case I find the correct seats. I may just do the power for now.

Ramit2016 · Jan 30, 2019

Just want to thank everyone who helped me out with advice and answers to make this install happen (especially Nathan and Rick). Got my Laramie seats installed in my 2016 2500 Big Horn that had no heated options. Now have heated/cooled fronts, heated wheel and heated rears with all memory options working.

Ricks Ram · Jan 30, 2019

Baggio95 said:
Thanks Rick, greatly appreciate it! Yeah, I'm not going to hack up the connectors just yet in case I find the correct seats. I may just do the power for now.

Sorry got sidetracked and forgot to send you the pics of the Schematics. Do you still need them?

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STecoD · Jan 31, 2019

Ramit2016 said:
Just want to thank everyone who helped me out with advice and answers to make this install happen (especially Nathan and Rick). Got my Laramie seats installed in my 2016 2500 Big Horn that had no heated options. Now have heated/cooled fronts, heated wheel and heated rears with all memory options working.

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No problem @Ramit2016 Looks good. Are you going to sell me that big horn glove box?

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Baggio95 · Jan 31, 2019

Ricks Ram said:
Sorry got sidetracked and forgot to send you the pics of the Schematics. Do you still need them?

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No problem, thanks Rick. I think I've got most of it figured out but if you have them handy I'll take.

Pretty sure I've isolated what I need and pretty sure I can make it work. I think the easiest and cleanest method for me is to get the female yellow Can Bus connector and make my own harness. That way I don't need to cut anything. I'm going to try and reach out to DeerGuy again and see if he can help me locate the 14 pin yellow connector, unless anyone on here has 1 floating around.

chrisbh17 · Jan 31, 2019

Somewhat related - I see connector C3 on the heated seat module is what is used for rear heated seats. On the seats I got (presumably from a big horn because they were cloth heated), I have no pins coming out of the C3 cavity on the module. Ive opened it up and can see the landings on the circuit board, but there are no pins soldered on.

In this case, any idea if the landings on the circuit board indeed do have power going to them? So all that would be necessary is to add the pins?

Ive looked at a bunch of parts diagrams but every configuration seems to have the same heated seat module, so Im not sure what signifies if one has the pins populated and one doesnt.

Just trying to figure out if I could use that to power aftermarket heated seats without having to run a wire the length of the truck.

Thanks.

-Chris

Ricks Ram · Jan 31, 2019

Baggio95 said:
No problem, thanks Rick. I think I've got most of it figured out but if you have them handy I'll take.

Pretty sure I've isolated what I need and pretty sure I can make it work. I think the easiest and cleanest method for me is to get the female yellow Can Bus connector and make my own harness. That way I don't need to cut anything. I'm going to try and reach out to DeerGuy again and see if he can help me locate the 14 pin yellow connector, unless anyone on here has 1 floating around.

This is the drivers side 14 pin yellow connector

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Ricks Ram · Jan 31, 2019

Baggio95 said:
No problem, thanks Rick. I think I've got most of it figured out but if you have them handy I'll take.

Pretty sure I've isolated what I need and pretty sure I can make it work. I think the easiest and cleanest method for me is to get the female yellow Can Bus connector and make my own harness. That way I don't need to cut anything. I'm going to try and reach out to DeerGuy again and see if he can help me locate the 14 pin yellow connector, unless anyone on here has 1 floating around.

Driver's side 20 pin gray connector

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Ricks Ram · Jan 31, 2019

Baggio95 said:
No problem, thanks Rick. I think I've got most of it figured out but if you have them handy I'll take.

Pretty sure I've isolated what I need and pretty sure I can make it work. I think the easiest and cleanest method for me is to get the female yellow Can Bus connector and make my own harness. That way I don't need to cut anything. I'm going to try and reach out to DeerGuy again and see if he can help me locate the 14 pin yellow connector, unless anyone on here has 1 floating around.

Passenger's side 24 pin connector.....Remember 2012 trucks run on a completely different system that the 13 to 18 trucks. Even if you are able to figure out a way to rout all the wiring the chances of the seat modules communicating with your truck enough to have any of the heating or vented features work are slim to none from everything we have learned.

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Baggio95 · Jan 31, 2019

Thanks Rick! Appreciate all the info. I get it with the heated/vented feature. My truck doesn't have all the computer/digital stuff like '13-'18. That said, I'm pretty confident I can wire that feature separately using the typical rocker switch that aftermarket heaters use. I'll update as I can.

Shot DeereGuy a PM so hoping he can help me with the female 14 pin, if not, I'm searching the old interwebs.

Any chance you're able to confirm pins 3 & 4 (left seat thorax squib line 1 & 2) in the 14 pin connector is the airbag? I've pulled the seat cover and foam bag and that appears to be what it is but just checking.

Thanks again for all the help!

Ricks Ram · Jan 31, 2019

Baggio95 said:
Thanks Rick! Appreciate all the info. I get it with the heated/vented feature. My truck doesn't have all the computer/digital stuff like '13-'18. That said, I'm pretty confident I can wire that feature separately using the typical rocker switch that aftermarket heaters use. I'll update as I can.

Shot DeereGuy a PM so hoping he can help me with the female 14 pin, if not, I'm searching the old interwebs.

Any chance you're able to confirm pins 3 & 4 (left seat thorax squib line 1 & 2) in the 14 pin connector is the airbag? I've pulled the seat cover and foam bag and that appears to be what it is but just checking.

Thanks again for all the help!

Yes those are the wires for the seat airbags. Before I installed my Laramie seats in my truck and we had not figured out the wiring and we could not add the codes I was able to get the ventilation fans to run while I was doing some testing by connecting them to a 12 V source but I cannot remember where I tapped into the connector because it was so long ago. I do remember I completely unplugged the seat module because I did not want to damage it just in case we ever figured it out and low and behold we did lol! The problem with the factory seat heaters is they run on a 3 wire system and most aftermarkets run on a two wire system. The factory heaters are designed to run with a seat temp sensor,seat sensor return and seat heater control. It would almost be better to disassemble the seats and install after market seat heaters and hook them up to a toggle switch. The only problem with that is that on the Laramie seats the actual seat heater pads are incorporated into the ventilation system as one unit. I will also say the the factory Laramie seat heaters work well but the do go up very far on the seat back at all. A quality set of after market seat heaters that you could actually mount up a little higher would probably work better than stock anyway but of course you would lose your ventillation capabilities.

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Baggio95 · Jan 31, 2019

Ricks Ram said:
Yes those are the wires for the seat airbags. Before I installed my Laramie seats in my truck and we had not figured out the wiring and we could not add the codes I was able to get the ventilation fans to run while I was doing some testing by connecting them to a 12 V source but I cannot remember where I tapped into the connector because it was so long ago. I do remember I completely unplugged the seat module because I did not want to damage it just in case we ever figured it out and low and behold we did lol! The problem with the factory seat heaters is they run on a 3 wire system and most aftermarkets run on a two wire system. The factory heaters are designed to run with a seat temp sensor,seat sensor return and seat heater control. It would almost be better to disassemble the seats and install after market seat heaters and hook them up to a toggle switch. The only problem with that is that on the Laramie seats the actual seat heater pads are incorporated into the ventilation system as one unit. I will also say the the factory Laramie seat heaters work well but the do go up very far on the seat back at all. A quality set of after market seat heaters that you could actually mount up a little higher would probably work better than stock anyway but of course you would lose your ventillation capabilities.

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Thanks Rick!

I was wondering if the ventilation fan and heaters were all combined. I'll continue to mess with things and see what I can come up with. Looks like trying to buy the yellow connector in quantities less that 10 is challenging. Hoping that DeereGuy might be able to help.

Simpsj2 · Feb 5, 2019

Any help with powering seats 2013 up into a 2012 would be greatly appreciated.

STecoD · Feb 11, 2019

chrisbh17 said:
Somewhat related - I see connector C3 on the heated seat module is what is used for rear heated seats. On the seats I got (presumably from a big horn because they were cloth heated), I have no pins coming out of the C3 cavity on the module. Ive opened it up and can see the landings on the circuit board, but there are no pins soldered on.

In this case, any idea if the landings on the circuit board indeed do have power going to them? So all that would be necessary is to add the pins?

Ive looked at a bunch of parts diagrams but every configuration seems to have the same heated seat module, so Im not sure what signifies if one has the pins populated and one doesnt.

Just trying to figure out if I could use that to power aftermarket heated seats without having to run a wire the length of the truck.

Thanks.

-Chris

You will have to try it out and see if it works. That would be great so people don’t have to buy a new module. Of course you could always connect to the module and see if it’s even available in the programming.

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Mpgrimm2 · Feb 22, 2019

Just thought I'd share if anyone is looking since I have the following available...

- 13-14 Heated Seat Switch Assy (gas) > 68137063AA
- 16-18 Heated Seat Switch Assy w/parksense (diesel) > 68241382AA

Ricks Ram may be able to confirm if those pn's fit anything else.

Edit:
Ramit2016 has 2 clocksprings and heated wheels to go with this if needed...

https://www.ramforum.com/index.php?posts/1957852

Baggio95 · Feb 27, 2019

Simpsj2 said:
Any help with powering seats 2013 up into a 2012 would be greatly appreciated.

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The '13 and up seats have the yellow male section of the 14 pin connector and our truck harness has the female piece. My 3500 ST only has 4 wires in use, Positive, Ground, and the seat buckles. We have a separate airbag connector whereas the '13+ has it in the 14 pin connector. All you need to do is either unpin all the unused wires in the '13+ connector and tape them off, or unpin the wires you need and directly pin them into the 14 pin female harness in your truck.

Rick's Ram was gracious enough to post wiring diagrams of the '13+ seats on the previous page. All you need to do is worry about the 14 pin.

I'll try and post some pics. I haven't tied in the seat heater yet as I'm waiting for some aftermarket switches and harnesses.

I also only did the driver's seat. I haven't seen what the wiring on the passenger's side looks like, but I doubt it would be much different.

Simpsj2 · Feb 27, 2019

Baggio95 said:
It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The '13 and up seats have the yellow male section of the 14 pin connector and our truck harness has the female piece. My 3500 ST only has 4 wires in use, Positive, Ground, and the seat buckles. We have a separate airbag connector whereas the '13+ has it in the 14 pin connector. All you need to do is either unpin all the unused wires in the '13+ connector and tape them off, or unpin the wires you need and directly pin them into the 14 pin female harness in your truck.

Rick's Ram was gracious enough to post wiring diagrams of the '13+ seats on the previous page. All you need to do is worry about the 14 pin.

I'll try and post some pics. I haven't tied in the seat heater yet as I'm waiting for some aftermarket switches and harnesses.

I also only did the driver's seat. I haven't seen what the wiring on the passenger's side looks like, but I doubt it would be much different.

Thanks for info. I also talked to Rick. He is super helpful and an asset to this forum. Hopefully can get to this project soon. My wife jumps me through hoops plus still dealing with aftermath of hurricane Micheal. But I should be getting my 4th gen electronics accessory buttons any day now. Planning on hooking power to it. My delima is the airbags are not compatible. We're pretty sure that they can be swapped out though

Ricks Ram · Feb 27, 2019

This can actually be done either way pretty simply. Is actually not difficult at all to just remove the whole harness from the 2012 seat and use it in the 2013 seat. Of course you could never do this if the seats had any type of heating or heating and ventilation options because they are simply not compatible with the truck but just to get the basic functions to work you would be OK. As far as the airbags go there's nothing saying they wouldn't work but I could not find any cross reference between the two part numbers where they said they interceded each other. When I put the part number for the 2013 and up seats it said it was a compatible for a 2012 Ram, but that also doesn't mean anything sometimes because in many cases they are not accurate. The part number for the 2016 was
68239854AA
The 2012 was 52029429AA
If you were able to wire yours up and you don't have any issues or air bag warning lights then that would lead us to believe that maybe the 2016 airbag will work in the 2012.

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How To Add Heated/Ventelated seats and Heated Wheel to Express/Tradesman

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