I am going to install seat heaters in my truck. I have read through the threads on people who have installed the leather seat covers on their trucks to figure out how everything fits together.

My question - do I need to completely remove the seat covers, or can I just lift them a bit and slide the seat heater pad in? I just want to know if there is enough room to work with without having to fully remove the covers.

THANKS!

 

I removed a set of heating pads from a set of Lariat seats. I did not remove the covers. So I don't see why you would have to.
Chris

 

You know what would be really cool? Find a totaled Lariat with heated seats. Remove the heated seat pad and then get the switches (like the 04+ heated seat switches).

Then install the heated seats on the rear sets and then run the wires to the back of the center console and install the switches there. Now this would be a great modification!

Hey Chris, Does this sound possible?

Duke

 

Chris, can you give me a little more info on how I do the install? Do I need to remove the seats? Do I just pull up on the leather cover a little and slide the heating pads in?

 

F150 Duke:

Anything is possible, heated headrests sound awesome too as well as *chilled* seats.

 

Too bad we couldn't do a heated steering wheel - those things are sooo nice on a cold morning.

 

OK, to the two previous posts.

I picked up a set of Lariat seats; full everything, cloth, from an e-bay vendor last year.

I swapped the Screw power pedestals to my Regular cab.
I installed the passenger lumbar to my reg passenger seat.
I removed the pads-module-harness for the seat heaters but my wife was against putting them in my truck so I sold them rather cheaply in the classifieds here.

During the pulling, I flipped up one end of the seat cushions. As I had the seats apart, since I was pulling the power pedestals off at the time. I never touched the hog rings on those seats. I was able to separate the four pads (one bottom, one top per seat) without much problem. The pads were sorta glued in. Some small amount of the foam came loose, but not enough to matter to the seats.
With the pads out I sold the seats with my old manual tracks.
The modules that come with the F-150 are self-contained.

They have five wires. One wire is ground. One wire is hot. One wire is the switch control wire. The other two wires are for the high and low LEDs.
The way the heaters work, after you hook up the power and momentarily ground the switch wire, the modules send power to the heated pads. Momentarily ground it again, and they go to high power. Do it once more and they turn off. Works like a three position lamp switch. On-High-Off.
There is a built in ten minute timer in the module. Ten minutes and they turn off.
This would be an easy install in any vehicle.
You could do without the LED lights if you wanted.
The switch you use should be one that only grounds the wire when you are pushing it. Like a reset switch on a computer, or a starter button, etc.
Not a throw it and leave it switch.
You could put these heaters in anything. I thought about using them to heat my computer chair... But they require a lot of amps. You can not test these with a battery changer, or small power supply. My shop battery changer is a 400 amp floor role model. It would NOT power the covers. I had to use a 12volt car battery to test the setup.
If you wire it in, use 12-10 gauge wire.
You could put them under a back seat; put the switch anywhere you want.
You could put them under the floor mats and make foot heaters...
I would probably try to get some on e-bay, a wrecking yard, or you can always buy them retail from several aftermarket companies.
Chris

 

Awesome! I was concerned about the hog rings, but if you are saying there is enough space to lift the leather cover a bit to slide in the pad - then I am good to go!

Thanks Chris!

 

hmm, I'll keep my eye out for the new lariat switches and these heated seats pads and modules.

Meanwhile I suppose I should search about how to "pull up" the leather on the back seats. I have no idea about what you were talking about. I'm assuming there is two foam pads and the heater pad goes in between them.

I'd also like to find the chrome rings and colored vents that go on the AC vents in the Lariats. That way I can put those on the back two air vents in my supercrew. Anyone know how to remove those?

Duke

 

thais0n, I don't know what kind of seat heaters you are getting, but the pads that I installed had a peel-away paper liner on the back to expose the adhesive. I can understand how ChrisAdams was able to take out the old pads without completely removing the seat covers, but I don't see how you are going to be able to get enough clearance between the cover and foam to get the new heating pads positioned properly.

Don't be too concerned about removing the hog rings. When I took mine out, I used two needle nose pliers to open up the hog rings and then spin them around until they came off. I purchased hog ring pliers with 100 hog rings off ebay for about $12 to re-install the covers.

 

Thanks for the info Big Blue!! The ones I am looking at too also have the adhesive backing....but I was thinking if I was super careful I might be able to get away with it....but would probably be better to take off the cover and do it right the first time.

 

It's really not that difficult to completely remove and re-attach the seat bottom cover. If your seat heater kit includes the pads for the backrests as well, you can probably undo the bottom hook on the cover and then roll it up far enough to get the pads on before you encounter the first row of hog rings.

 

Cool, I will have plenty of time and space so I should have no problem.

Big Blue - still have enough hog rings and the pliers laying around where I could buy them from you?

 

There was plenty of room to put a sticky pad in there. This is with the cushion out, 4 nuts, and on the bench. You can push the foam down with one hand, push the pad under, then peal the sticky back out.
Or, if you have some help, you can pull it up with two hands and have someone else slip the pad in there. The glue is not so sticky that it presens a problem if you are careful.

The seat back you can just roll it up as BIG_BLUE_FX4 says.

I agree with BIG_BLUE_FX4 as to how easy it is to pull the hog rings.

I later recoverd my seats with black leather.
Not a big thing.
A true value set of hog rings and a hog ring pliers is about ten bucks out the door. And they may be handy for other jobs.
Chris

 

Oooo, I will check True Value - I hate buying little things from ebay cause you get a good deal, but then the deal is killed by shipping.