The passenger's seat (bench) in my Gen III Screw built 7-17-01 has the passenger-side lumbar support like the driver's seat. This feature will be standard on the '02s but was a late-'01 running change. When did these seats make it into production? Does anyone else have this on a Screw built before 7-17? Should these models be called Gen III+ ?

By the way, these bench seat have very high bolsters that I find very uncomfortable. When sitting lined up with the steering whell and pedals, they press very hard on my left thigh, and I am on the small side; anyone wide of beam would be sitting on these bolsters, which should really hurt! These high bolsters also make the middle seat about 2" higher than the two side seats so the middle passenger has to balance precariously on turns to keep from falling into the other passengers. My friend's '97 Supercab bench seat is flat, is much more comfortable and is more what I was looking for in a bench seat. These seats are trying to imitate bucket seats -- if I wanted buckets, I would have ordered them!

Do the earlier bench seats without passenger-side lumber have these big bolsters?

 

I know what you mean. I bought the front bench seats for my oldest son to ride in the middle, but the drivers and passenger's side seat backs are hard as a rock. I thought about getting a hammer and letting my kids whack at the seats a couple of hours to soften them up, maybe its because its new or something. If anyone knows how to soften them up I would sure appeciate it.

 

The gen I and II seats are like the 99/00/early 01
seats. They are much flatter, though they still have a good contour to them. I like the look of the gen III seats (except the no center armrest in
the back with the captains chairs), but I find them not as comfortable as the earlier versions and I'm not a
large person either. I think the gen III seats are
going to wear out much faster in the outer bolster
area - cloth or leather, but esp. leather.

 

I thought the Gen I bench seat was about the best ever, and far superior to the captain's chairs in the 97 model. But in my new S'Crew, the captains chairs are superior... like StLoou said... hard and not contoured properly.

I agree that the drivers side is gonna wear out... been trying to fiure out what to put there... especially if you're wearing jeans, that leather will wear.

 

I test drove the bench seat model. Lariat 4x4. Felt like the side of my left leg was being pushed on the whole drive. I can only figure that they toughened that part of the seat because of the left side getting most of the abuse when getting in and out. (esp. slidding down from a 4x4.)

I feal it a little with the captain chairs but not nearly as noticable (annoying) as the bench seat.

 

When the SuperCrews came out in April of 2000 there were a lot of complaints posted here about the bench seats. Most of the posts complained about a lack of side bolstering or soft seat edges and a few people stated that they felt like they were going to fall out of the seat everytime they went around a corner. Maybe Ford is responding to those complaints. I drove some gen I's and could never feel any problems. Bought a late (?) gen II (Aug 2000 build) with a bench seat and it feels plenty firm.

Ever notice on the bench seats that the front passenger seat is about 2 inches shorter in length - back to front, than the driver seat? Everytime I sit in the passenger seat I feel like I'm sitting in half a seat or sitting on the edge of my seat. Does Ford think that only women will sit on the passenger side?