Replacing Seat Covers...

[Steve Cloud]

Okay, bought a set of oem seat covers for my truck. When I purchased it, there was some minor tearing, etc. on one of the seat bottoms. Got a good deal on an entire set, so will be changing at least the seat bottom cushions front and back.

I'm pretty good at doing mods myself, but have never tackled anything in the upholstery realm. I know a guy locally that does REALLY good work, and he will not charge me a lot to put them on. Should I just save myself the headache, or are hog rings a pretty easy thing to do?

Lastly, should I replace the driver side foam? No issues there, but since I've got it off, and my truck is a 2016, it might be worth doing. Any thoughts?

 

[KC Cryptkeeper]

Have the pro do it and have him replace the foam while he is at it, if he is reasonably priced.

 

[Dan Lockwood]

I have a '12 RAM 3500 with heated/cooled seats and when I purchased my truck a couple months ago, both lower front seat covers were in bad shape.

I purchased mine from Richmond Upholstery out of Houston TX. I also got my driver's seat foam from them.

I will say that I had a bit of a snag when doing the install. The replacement covers were great looking except the perforations were not as defined as the OEM covers had, but still pass the cool air okay, or seem to do so.

But the attachment points on the sides in a couple places were NOT correct. One place had two side panel clips to hook to the seat frame, but the original only had one in the center that was longer, but again, just one clip. I had to cut both clips off and use washers and zip screws to attach the covers. They told me that they were guaranteed to fit and I should have returned them. I'm not going to put the old covers back on and reinstall the seats just to get the right clips on the covers. I had to "doctor" each front lower cover just a bit to make them work. They look great when finished, but just a hassle.

My driver's seat looked good around the edges before it took it apart so I had no idea what the foam would look like. So I ordered a replacement foam as well.

The new foam seemed to be okay, but I do find that my seat is VERY uncomfortable on longer drives. It seems to be mounding up in the center of the lower seat cushion and it gets a bit sore on the butt after a while.

I cannot remember if my seat was that bad before I changed it all out or if the new foam did something strange to the seat comfort wise.

I also agree that if you don't have any experience in doing seat covers, it may be better to farm it out to someone with some experience doing them. The can be a bit tedious to do.

I may look at one of the other companies for covers and foam if you don't have cooled seats. Richmond seemed to be the only one to offer cooled seat covers. They ARE different and not work just because they have perforations. The perforations are only a small part of the air circulation system designed into the covers.

 

[Steve Cloud]

Wow, that sounds pretty crazy. The covers I have are from another forum member's truck, and are OEM. Even so, I'm thinking I'd be better off letting the guy I know do it.

 

[chrisbh17]

FWIW Ive done my drivers seat twice and it wasnt hard either time

There arent many hog rings to deal with, the mounting points for them are very well defined so you are pretty much guaranteed to know where to put them. The rest is just clipping onto the seat frame itself.

As far as replacing the foam....probably a 50/50 shot you will see an improvement. After actually using my seats I noticed the driver seat bottom cover looked "loose" after driving and getting out of the truck. Eventually it got "tight" again, so I assumed it was the foam (the seats I re-covered were from 2015). New foam helped but did not eliminate the issue. I think the real reason is because the only "side to side" fastening of the actual cover to the foam is at the forward-most seam in the seat cover. The other left to right seams are not fastened because the seat heat pad is there....this lack of fastening doesnt stop the rear of the seat bottom cover from moving when you sit on it.

An installer might know this, or at least recognize it when they install, so it might be worth having them do it. A guy I was texting about it suggested adding hog rings on the plastic clip that goes under the seat behind the seat bottom, after putting downward tension on the cover to take up the slack.

 

[mjf6175]

I have a '12 RAM 3500 with heated/cooled seats and when I purchased my truck a couple months ago, both lower front seat covers were in bad shape.

I purchased mine from Richmond Upholstery out of Houston TX. I also got my driver's seat foam from them.

I will say that I had a bit of a snag when doing the install. The replacement covers were great looking except the perforations were not as defined as the OEM covers had, but still pass the cool air okay, or seem to do so.

But the attachment points on the sides in a couple places were NOT correct. One place had two side panel clips to hook to the seat frame, but the original only had one in the center that was longer, but again, just one clip. I had to cut both clips off and use washers and zip screws to attach the covers. They told me that they were guaranteed to fit and I should have returned them. I'm not going to put the old covers back on and reinstall the seats just to get the right clips on the covers. I had to "doctor" each front lower cover just a bit to make them work. They look great when finished, but just a hassle.

My driver's seat looked good around the edges before it took it apart so I had no idea what the foam would look like. So I ordered a replacement foam as well.

The new foam seemed to be okay, but I do find that my seat is VERY uncomfortable on longer drives. It seems to be mounding up in the center of the lower seat cushion and it gets a bit sore on the butt after a while.

I cannot remember if my seat was that bad before I changed it all out or if the new foam did something strange to the seat comfort wise.

I also agree that if you don't have any experience in doing seat covers, it may be better to farm it out to someone with some experience doing them. The can be a bit tedious to do.

I may look at one of the other companies for covers and foam if you don't have cooled seats. Richmond seemed to be the only one to offer cooled seat covers. They ARE different and not work just because they have perforations. The perforations are only a small part of the air circulation system designed into the covers.

Yes, I know this all too well, I learned the hard way just why this is. There are 2 different types of bucket seats. The upper level one is usually called the LARAMIE seat on here. The other bucket seat is the standard seat. These seats have different seat bottoms, seat cushions, AND seat covers that are different in their shape and in the way the covers clip onto the seat frame underneath. They cannot be interchanged without going through the headache explained above. I pasted pics below of both types of seats. The first pic is of the standard bucket with custom leather covers on. The second pic is of the Laramie seats I finally got and put custom covers on them as well and are in my Ram now.

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[adam ant]

nice seats...

 

[chrisbh17]

IIRC the seat BOTTOMS are the same between the Laramie and non-Laramie seats.

But the backs are (very) different, as are the patterns used for the leather covers.

 

[mjf6175]

IIRC the seat BOTTOMS are the same between the Laramie and non-Laramie seats.

But the backs are (very) different, as are the patterns used for the leather covers.

No seat bottms are not the same and one of the reasons why the bottom seat covers of one will not fit the other. The frame attaching points for the clips are different and located in a different place. The seat frame for the Laramie has to accommodate the extra motors, memory module and the ventilated seat motors. Even the foam seat cushion is different.

 

[chrisbh17]

ok then!

Im glad I didnt try to convert my seats from Big Horn buckets to Laramie buckets

 

[mjf6175]

ok then!

Im glad I didnt try to convert my seats from Big Horn buckets to Laramie buckets

I tried that too! SLT to Laramie. I bought a complete Laramie frame and tried to marry the 2 seats-"CALLING DR. FRANKENSTEIN" . HA!.........lol

So in the end I found and bought a set of Laramie seats that where almost brand new and then putting LeatherSeat.com covers on them that I custom ordered.

 

[Dan Lockwood]

Richmond requests that you give them your interior alpha code along with your interior color code.

Mine should have fit. Once installed though, they do look okay now. But again, even their perforations were not the same. Not as defined.

Yes, mines a Laramie 3500 and they knew that going in.

 

[Brianmp01]

When I did mine the fronts were the easiest, I did one seat at a time and there is a good video on YouTube that give a good brake down.

 

[Steve Cloud]

probably easiest to remove the seat?

 

[Brianmp01]

Yea I pulled them out and did it on my work bench

 

[Walter Mc]

I have a 2011 Laramie w/dark gray leather OEM seats. The driver's seat bottom has about a 3" tear in it. I called the local Ram dealership and they me that as of January this year that RAM no longer carried seat covers for a 2011, but it they did just that seat would be over $600 just for the cover not including the labor. Any suggestions for OEM covers that would match (I know my seats have some fading over the years) and not cost through the roof?