What’s the difference in seats?

[novelmike]

Is the only difference between a 2012 and a 2013 the airbags in the front seats? If my 2012 has the airbags then would the 2013+ seat cover fit?

I see a lot of Katzkin seat covers on EBay for 2013+. But I see very little for 2009-2012.

My driver side seat is starting starting to show some wear and it’s only a matter of time till it rips. So might as well upgrade to leather.

 

[OnSale]

Is the only difference between a 2012 and a 2013 the airbags in the front seats? If my 2012 has the airbags then would the 2013+ seat cover fit?

I see a lot of Katzkin seat covers on EBay for 2013+. But I see very little for 2009-2012.

My driver side seat is starting starting to show some wear and it’s only a matter of time till it rips. So might as well upgrade to leather.

No the entire shape and structure of the seat is different.

This is why everywhere you look the seats are labeled as 09-12 and 13-18.

09-12 Rams would be considered 4th Gen “A”
13-18 Rams would be considered 4th Gen “B”

2013 was the first year of the mid-model reface. New headlights, hoods, tail lights, center dash, gauge clusters, seats, etc. Even though a lot of 13-18 parts will fit into 09-12 trucks, a lot of them won’t work properly (electronically) while other parts just flat out won’t fit, like the leather covers from the 4Gb won’t fit the 4Ga Rams.

Your best bet is to look for a set of “take offs”. Lots of members on here will reupholster their 09-12 Rams with new Katskinz so they have their Oem covers just sitting around. Try posting in the Want To Buy forum in the classifieds section.

 

[OnSale]

Is the only difference between a 2012 and a 2013 the airbags in the front seats? If my 2012 has the airbags then would the 2013+ seat cover fit?

I see a lot of Katzkin seat covers on EBay for 2013+. But I see very little for 2009-2012.

My driver side seat is starting starting to show some wear and it’s only a matter of time till it rips. So might as well upgrade to leather.

Oh and I forgot to add that the airbags from the 09-12 Rams are the same as the 13+. I know this because I have a 2012 with SRS airbags and I swapped my seats foe 2015 Black Leather Sport Bucket Seats and when I went to swap the air bags, they were the same exact ones with the same wiring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[novelmike]

No the entire shape and structure of the seat is different.

This is why everywhere you look the seats are labeled as 09-12 and 13-18.

09-12 Rams would be considered 4th Gen “A”
13-18 Rams would be considered 4th Gen “B”

2013 was the first year of the mid-model reface. New headlights, hoods, tail lights, center dash, gauge clusters, seats, etc. Even though a lot of 13-18 parts will fit into 09-12 trucks, a lot of them won’t work properly (electronically) while other parts just flat out won’t fit, like the leather covers from the 4Gb won’t fit the 4Ga Rams.

Your best bet is to look for a set of “take offs”. Lots of members on here will reupholster their 09-12 Rams with new Katskinz so they have their Oem covers just sitting around. Try posting in the Want To Buy forum in the classifieds section.

Thank you for the reply and info.

I don’t think I want to get a OEM cloth seat cover, I think I want to upgrade to leather.
I was hoping to find a OEM leather interior and just do complete seat swap. But I haven’t seen a good condition 09-12 on EBAY in years! A couple members have made the mods to install seats that weren’t from their specific year, but it seems like to much work for me to take on.

So I guess I’m gonna have to go with Katzkin or Clazio leather!

 

[OnSale]

Thank you for the reply and info.

I don’t think I want to get a OEM cloth seat cover, I think I want to upgrade to leather.
I was hoping to find a OEM leather interior and just do complete seat swap. But I haven’t seen a good condition 09-12 on EBAY in years! A couple members have made the mods to install seats that weren’t from their specific year, but it seems like to much work for me to take on.

So I guess I’m gonna have to go with Katzkin or Clazio leather!

Well i have a 2012 and i put a set of black leather sport heated and cooled full electric seats into my truck. Granted the heat/cool feature doesnt work (modules and computer differences) the power was a simple red-to-red and black-to-black and the seats move in all directions. SRS Air Bags aswell if yours has them, mine did, and was easy to swap them from my old seats to the "new" ones, took 20 minutes a seat.

If you really want to swap 2013+ seats into a 09-12, its 100% possible with very minor hands on work.

 

[OnSale]

Thank you for the reply and info.

I don’t think I want to get a OEM cloth seat cover, I think I want to upgrade to leather.
I was hoping to find a OEM leather interior and just do complete seat swap. But I haven’t seen a good condition 09-12 on EBAY in years! A couple members have made the mods to install seats that weren’t from their specific year, but it seems like to much work for me to take on.

So I guess I’m gonna have to go with Katzkin or Clazio leather!

Here is my old 2012 stock cloth seats... looks so old and outdated and basic.



And here were the new seats from a 2015 Sport.


Also did a center console swap, i hated the jump seat setup.





And here is my interior after installing my 12.1" Tesla Style Android Radio

 

[bigred90gt]

Have you considered Clazzio covers? They look and fit like OEM leather.

 

[Chaplain]

Will the 19/20 seats "bolt-in" or is their footprint completly different?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[OnSale]

Will the 19/20 seats "bolt-in" or is their footprint completly different?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

What are you trying to put them into?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chaplain]

What are you trying to put them into?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

06 quad cab 3500. Thanks

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[OnSale]

06 quad cab 3500. Thanks

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Well I doubt they will be a direct bolt in, I know that the 09-18 seats require bracket modifications to make them work.

Your best bet is to take the seat rails off your seats, then take the rails off the new seats, bring them to a shop and ask them to custom fabricate one new set of rails from the old and new seats rails, and then that way they will bolt right in and would probably cost maybe like $100 to have that done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GTyankee]

I remember that my 2009 Ram 1500 Bighorn
had electric seat, drivers side only
There are identical to my 2016 Ram 1500 SLT Bighorn electric seats



3 motors, same controls, same wiring

3 different views below

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173871338384?_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:AQAFAAAAkOO1xEc3kBkEkTntf4RXvEJAjJKpST0wQHUx1YtJK+6jcOVRlByclx7FOv+dTR/JfIO+ntg+UTR9D0X5Kb6VkmXQ9LxE5nsglfUJC5xSCEU1BU71h9frKBaz+l0hgp80hfUySc9PbS91sjy5J9DaWr5lspp3gGDGeLu3wdE7QDiXDSK8X5SN9aL/HlKTOhM/+A==&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=173871338384&targetid=1263068211546&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9031291&poi=&campaignid=12518993209&mkgroupid=123059888835&rlsatarget=pla-1263068211546&abcId=9300518&merchantid=8459684&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy4L_-Mnm8AIVAxLnCh1gkgotEAQYAiABEgKtuPD_BwE

 

[Chaplain]

Circling back on this: I ended up finding a complete set of 2020 Ram 2500 Limited Crew Cab seats for my 2006 3500 quad cab. Not sure if they are limited longhorn, just limited or something else. They are air cooled/heated front AND rear with fancy stitching and gray piping with air bags. I'll add pictures later if someone is interested. Previous seats were only power on dr side with no air/heat/air bags.

Front fitment was near spot on. Rears required modification: Brackets were too long and holes don't match up. I had to choose between running them far forward drastically limiting the limited leg room or putting them straight up and down. I basically split the difference and compromised on leg room and seat angle.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Rear seats seat padding is longer/deeper then 3rd gen stock so you will loose leg room no matter how you mount them. All the seats (front/rear) sit up higher then 3rd gen stock. Some of this is due to more seat padding and some of it is the brackets are taller. Either case if you are tall, you will loose head room, if you are short they require another inch to jump up into the seats.

QUESTION: still looking for a good tutorial to wire the air/heat up for both front & rear seats. Plus the rears have little lights under them. I have managed to get power to front and rear so I can adjust them for the immediate future. Looking for a clean setup not a hack job like a couple tutorials i've youtubed.
Also, seats didn't come with the center console so I'm looking for suggestions, options, out-of-box ideas. Truck has a manual transmission so I can't run something up to the dash.

Thank you!

 

[Fishstickz]

The main issue with wiring up heated/cooled seats is theyre all controlled by the heated seats module (HSM) under the drivers seat. It needs a CAN-bus signal to operate and turn things on/off, which just isn’t possible to get out of a 3rd gen unless you somehow managed to spoof the signals it would get out of a 4th or 5th gen.

The only way I could imagine getting things working is getting a custom controller/switches and bypassing the HSM entirely, but even then I’m not sure what would happen

IIRC theres two wires for each pad, a power wire and a return wire. I would imagine you could just add a switch and regulator to the sending wire, then ground the return wire, but there may be more than that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ricks Ram]

There are 3 wires for the factory heated seat pads. Heat sense heat return and heat control. I'm not sure if you would be able to regulate the heating pads with any type of aftermarket switches or setup. The seat vents have two speeds in the factory setup but you could wire them up to just turn on with a switch. The best alternative would be to carefully remove the seat covers and install aftermarket seat heaters but you run into two main problems. The factory seat heaters and vent system is all one piece so you can't just replace the heating pads. The factory heaters also have holes in the heating pads for the vented seats to circulate. This is a picture of the back of a Laramie seat. You can see the heat and vent are all one piece. The bottom seat pad is the same. They are completely sealed except for the holes to circulate the air. Another thing to note is the heated seat pad barley goes up to your lower back which sucks. It would have been much nicer if they brought them up to at least the middle of your back.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Fishstickz]

There are 3 wires for the factory heated seat pads. Heat sense heat return and heat control. I'm not sure if you would be able to regulate the heating pads with any type of aftermarket switches or setup. The seat vents have two speeds in the factory setup but you could wire them up to just turn on with a switch. The best alternative would be to carefully remove the seat covers and install aftermarket seat heaters but you run into two main problems. The factory seat heaters and vent system is all one piece so you can't just replace the heating pads. The factory heaters also have holes in the heating pads for the vented seats to circulate. This is a picture of the back of a Laramie seat. You can see the heat and vent are all one piece. The bottom seat pad is the same. They are completely sealed except for the holes to circulate the air. Another thing to note is the heated seat pad barley goes up to your lower back which sucks. It would have been much nicer if they brought them up to at least the middle of your back.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

Ah my mistake. I wonder what the true purpose of the heat sense wire is? The only thing I can think of is it returns a temperature signal to the HSM so it can adjust amperage to regulate the temperature

One of these days I’m gonna hook up a bench tester to my 2017 seats and (carefully) play with sending some power straight to the pads just to see what happens


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk