Custom extended seat rails group order

Yes, its too bad that happened.

 

As others have mentioned, New England Wheels in Billerica, MA did an excellent job of modifying my seat rails. Now the range of motion of my front seats is shifted back three inches in a high quality and safe manner.

It seems the easiest and least expensive way to move the seat back is to modify existing rails, rather than create new ones. Creating new ones involves replicating the specifically shaped pedestals that hold the rails to the floor as well as developing the unique slotted rails.

It would be much easier to do what NE Wheels did -- cut off the pedestals, weld strong steel to the front of the seat rail, weld the pedestals back on three inches forward from their original position, paint it black. Presto, new seat rails that work perfectly in the Prius and shift the seat three inches back.

My car is WAY more comfortable after this mod!

 

Hi Dogfriend, Please let me know how you lowered your seat. That's my one remaining complaint about the Prius.
Thanks!

 

I posted the steps in this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-modifications/21751-seat-height-adjustment-2.html#post549147

My modification is similar to how MrBigh lowered his seat, except that I cut the other side of the bracket to avoid any welding to the seat rail(s).

 

Thanks Jason, Seeing all the work you had to do gets me even more annoyed that Toyota didn't put seat height adjustment in the Prius.

The Prius has height adjustment everywhere in the world except the US and Canada. Every Toyota car in the US has height adjustment except the base model Yaris ($11,300) and all versions of the Prius. The Yaris sedan ($12,200) has height adjustment. But the nicest Prius costing about $30,000 doesn't have height adjustment. Is there any other $30,000 car sold in the US that doesn't have height adjustment. What the ___ was US Toyota thinking! It's idiotic! I can't think of any other feature that provides more driver utility and comfort for lower cost. At least 2/3's of Prius drivers would us it.

I asked US Toyota customer service why they didn't install height adjustment. They told me for marketing reasons. Marketing reasons? What the hell does that mean? It must mean they have morons in the marketing department.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, do you think it's possible to lower the front of the seat too? I like the seat back all the way up. Lowering only the back would tilt the seat too far back for me.
Cheers, Frank

 

Yes, I think it would be possible to lower the front of the seat also, but would require making new brackets to replace the originals. It would require some metal fabrication skill.

At the risk of making you more angry, I thought that it is interesting that the Prius seat frame has extra holes and tabs formed that do not appear functional. Also, the seat rails at the rear have a half circle cutout that allows the tubular support at the back of the seat to lower down farther than if the cutout weren't there. My speculation is that the non-adjustable seat that we get in North America shares a lot of common parts with the adjustable seat offered elsewhere. The non-adjustable seat may be a subset of the parts used for the adjustable one. But unfortunately, some of the parts are permanently welded together, which would prevent substituting the adjustable parts on our non-adjustable Prius seat.

After looking at the adjustable Corolla seat, I have an idea to convert the Prius seat into a height adjustable seat. This would require fabricating new front and rear brackets and a mechanism to raise and lower the seat. I don't know if I will try to do this; I am pretty satisfied with the results from just lowering the back.

 

Thanks Dogfriend, someone else on PC did just what your saying -- using a Corolla seat to make the Prius seat adjustable. I think their post was called: Finally I've got a height adjustable seat.

I'm sure what you're saying is true about the US Prius seat being largely the same as others without the height adjustment parts.

I keep wondering how Toyota could have made such a stupid decision. But then I remember, Toyota did not make the decision. US Toyota made it. There's a big difference. The parent company is the best in the world. But their US operations emulate the stupidity of other US car firms. Like other US car companies, there is probably a bias toward large vehicles and SUVs. Maybe they figured real men wouldn't drive a Prius. So why bother with seat height adjustment.

Even the Yaris has seat height adjustment as an option. Why isn't it an option on the Prius. They should make the height adjustable seat available as a retrofit. This way current Prius owners won't be annoyed every time they get in the car since the seat can't be adjusted to the appropriate height.

 

Dear ProblemChild, Please put me down for a drivers seat set of rail extensions.

Thank you,
=GoCarGo.

 

I'm attaching three photos. I have the seat back all the way for the photo. Normally I only have it back 2 inches from the farthest back OEM position. So the rug cuts and navigation aren't normally showing.

This mod makes the car so much more comfortable, it's unbelievable.

I wish Toyota would realize that drivers in the US are taller than drivers in Japan, on average, and adjust seat positioning accordingly.

Edit: I tried to upload the photos. But PC kept saying: Uploading photos, please wait. But it never loaded them. I posted them in another past around May 2007. But I can't find it.

Sorry

 

I am interested!

 

Bob,

The group order is no longer happening. But do read this thread anyway because it's interesting and informative about the issues.

 

Whoops, I sent it twice. Oh, no chance of ordering rails. Hum.

 

I fabricated an adaptor for my wife's Corolla that used the existing floor bolt pattern. The seats bolt to bolt to the adaptor about four inches aft. This did not require any permanent alteration to the car. I can now streach my legs completly. My only complaint is that the car does not have a steering colum telescopic feature.

Many years ago, I easily modified the seats in a VW type1 (Beetle) to adjust aft about four inches.

I looked briefly at the seat in my Prius and think the rails could be modified or reproduced. I will compare them to the Corolla. If they are the same, I will go to Pick-a-Part and buy a set of rails to modify or have copied.

 

I guess the only solution is shorter legs. I'm right, I'm the perfect height at 5' 6"
There is just no need to be any taller.

 

LOL! But judging from your photos in the What Do You Look Like thread, I had thought you were 6' 5".

 

I think there might be a 6' 5" "seppos" headed your way on a Quantas flight. He has a gun and he wants your adjustable height seat. :boxing:

 

I just tried to post the pictures of my seat mod to this thread for the third time, but it didn't work. I emailed them to you. Please post them to this thread if you can so others can see them.

Cheers, Frank