scheel-mann Seats – 2 Year Review

TL;DR - The scheel-mann seats I bought two years ago are the most comfortable seats I have ever sat in and continue to work as designed. The only thing better would be Toyota OEM seats that were built/upholstered to provide the same support but with a slightly less bulky form factor.

Without a doubt, quality seats.

It's been just more than two years since I installed scheel-man seats in the Tacoma, hoping that they would be the last seat I would ever install. In that time, I've posted a few updates as to my impressions, and I think that I'm now at the point where I can give my final take - at least, for several more years - about how I like them.

I assure you, it's mostly - but not entirely - unsurprising.

In fact, none of my impressions from my first, second, third, and 9-month reviews have really changed, though some have become more or less important. Therefore, to make for easier consumption, I've included them all below, and added updates in red for this two-year milestone as well as a new two-year review section at the end.

First Impressions

I've driven about 20 miles in the scheel-mann Vario R seat - around town and a little bit of freeway. Actually, I was busy testing the new (used) transfer case to ensure that it was trip-worthy - or at least, worthy enough to start a trip.

So far, the seats are great - and
exactly what I was looking for, comfort-wise.

Like

By far the most important thing is comfort. The scheel-mann seats are certainly comfortable. They feel like what I would think of in a high-end German luxury car, though the closest I've gotten to actually sitting in one of those is a 2008 Audi A4 Avant. These seats certainly offer a lot more support than the stock Tacoma seats, and I'm really digging the larger bolsters and thigh support. After two years, I can say that these seats have maintained their comfort, and I can easily drive for 20+ hours without any of the pain that I'd feel from the original seats.
The side bolsters - both on the seat as well as backrest. When driving with my foot on the accelerator, I have often found myself propping my right leg up - by shoving my hand under the middle of my thigh - to keep it aligned, since there are no bolsters on the stock seats at all. The scheel-mann seats make this a thing of the past; the seat keeps my leg aligned properly.
I must admit that having the seat belt receptacle move with the seat as it slides forwards and backward is really nice. I didn't like the Corbeau's for that reason, and I'm very happy to have purchased the bracket that allows for the movement.
The seat heaters seem nice too, though I admit that I only got them since I was spending so much money anyway. I've never missed the lack of heaters in my stock seats, but I am a frequent user of the seat heaters in @mrs.turbodb's Audi.

Meh

I don't love the fold-forward and slider designs in that they not spring-loaded like the stock seats. I'm sure I'll get used to it but sliding and/or folding the seat forward is now less convenient than it was previously. This has become a bigger issue for me recently; check out the two-year update below for details.
The seats weigh a lot more than the stock seats. Each one weighs in at 60lbs with the mounting bracket, which is quite a bit more than the 36lb stock seat. Obviously, I'm not lifting them except to install them, but driving around extra weight is something I'm always trying to avoid. Of course, I'm sure the additional heft adds to the comfort, so this isn't a total detractor.
The seats look good, but they aren't as snazzy or color-matched as my Wet Okole covers or even the Corbeau Baja XRS. I really wish I could have gotten a custom logo stitched in place of the scheel-mann branding, or that the fabric choices were a better match for my truck, as I've really enjoyed that on my covers. On the flip side, I totally understand why these seats look the way they do - they are perfect for the cars they end up in most. This really hasn't been as big of an issue as I thought it might be at the beginning.

Dislike

Thickness of the backrest. I'd say that it's a good 2" thicker than the stock Tacoma seats. That doesn't seem like much, but when the entire backrest is only 5" thick, it's another 50% thicker and takes up room in the Xtracab. The reason for this is the lumbar support system (which seems very nice so far). I'll need to see over time if it's worth it.
The headrest in one of my seats doesn't work correctly - as in, it's nearly impossible to make it go up and down. Indications are that this is a manufacturing defect, since "clearing out" the internal runners for the head rests didn't fix the issue; my impression is that the runners weren't welded quite parallel, and so they make pushing the headrest in/out nearly impossible. Frankly, not something I'd expect from this caliber seat. scheel-mann was great about this issue, and sent me an entirely new backpanel to the seat in order to address this issue.

Second Impressions

I've now driven a six-day, 2,600 mile trip to Death Valley in the scheel-mann seats (see Lipstick on the Pig). They are good seats; orders of magnitude better - for me - than the Corbeau Baja XRS that I'd previously installed. The scheel-mann were comfortable for the entire 1200-mile trip down to Death Valley, but I noticed that they were a bit firmer in the butt than I was used to with the original Toyota seats. No surprise there, but the second day of driving - approximately 400 miles due to some re-routes in my original plan - I noticed that, by the end, my butt hurt a little bit.

My hope is that over time as the seats wear in a bit, they become a bit more comfortable as they form to my body, since - beside this issue, all my first impressions still seem to be right on.

Third Impressions

A second trip to Death Valley (Hiking Saline Valley) is now in the books. Unlike the prior trip, I never had any butt soreness on this trip - perhaps the seats are wearing in a bit. I will say that there are a couple things about them that I wish were a bit different - or that I miss about the original Toyota seats:

I find myself missing the spring-slide forward and spring-fold forward. Those features made it easier to get into the extended cab, which is tougher now. This has become a bigger issue for me recently; check out the two-year update below for details.
The scheel-mann get dirty easily. Or, they show dirt more readily. This has turned out to be not that big of an issue. The seats are easy to clean and look the same now as they did two years and 65,000 miles ago.

There are some things I find myself like now more as well:

The seat heaters. I've now got these hooked up so that they are only powered on when the key is in the Accessory or On position - so I don't need to worry about them draining the battery if they are left on accidentally. I have to admit that they are very nice.
The bolsters provide much more support - for my legs especially - than the Toyota seats, and that is great for my knees.
The seats are very comfortable - provide a lot of support and keep me planted - on bumpy dirt roads. I never realized how much I bounced around in the seat prior to my last trip. After two years, I can say that these seats have maintained their comfort, and I can easily drive for 20+ hours without any of the pain that I'd feel from the original seats.

9-month Impressions

I've had the scheel-mann seats for nine months now, and I continue to like them conceptually. My previous impressions - both good and bad - continue to be true. I do find myself wondering - for two main reasons - if I should have tried re-foaming my original seats prior to buying the scheel-mann:

I am worried about the lack of seat covers. The seats still appear to be in great condition, but I know that with all the dirt and dust that they are subjected to, covers extend the life by a good margin. Like, years. This has turned out to be not that big of an issue. The seats are easy to clean and look the same now as they did two years and 65,000 miles ago.
Cost. Even if the cost doesn't really matter for me from a budget standpoint, I still feel like the cost of these seats was so great that I have a hard time justifying it. I probably should have spent half the amount on a really good re-foaming - perhaps adding larger bolsters in the process - to the OEM seats, before I bought these.

Two-Year Impressions (new)

While none of my impressions have changed significantly, my biggest takeaways after two years are as follows:

The comfort is nothing short of spectacular.

Really Like

By far the most important thing is comfort. After two years, I can say that these seats have maintained their comfort, and I can easily drive for 20+ hours without any of the pain that I'd feel from the original seats. The comfort is nothing short of spectacular. I'd put these seats up against any others in terms of long-distance comfort, both on and off-road.
The side bolsters - these are a big part of the comfort for me, especially on the seat, as those bolsters help to keep my legs more aligned - especially my right leg - with the pedals, easing the strain on my knees.

Things I'm No Longer Worried About

I am no longer worried about the lack of seat covers. While I'd like to be able to put on some Wet Okoles for the visual appearance they give, the seats are easy to clean and look the same now as they did two years and 65,000 miles ago. I have no doubt they are going to last much longer than a pair of Wet Okole seat covers would last.

Really Dislike

The folding and sliding functionality of the scheel-mann seats - compared to the OEM seats - is terrible and getting worse. There are two aspects to this that I dislike:
1. Spring-slide-forward - there is no spring that pulls the seat forward, and movement on the track mount is difficult enough that I cannot move the seat without sitting in it. That means, if I am in camp and want to move the seat forward to access the rear of the cab, I have to physically climb into the Tacoma to lift the locking bar and use my butt momentum to move the seat forward. It's such a pain that I never do it.
2. Spring-fold-forward - more annoying than the lack of sliding forward is the fold-forward mechanism. The scheel-manns use a lever near the top of the seat to release a catch that holds the bottom of the backrest to the bottom of the seat, allowing the backrest to manually fold forward.
  
  Articulating the lever on the top of the seat pulls this hook out of the way, releasing it from the post on the seat bottom.
  
  This mechanism has always been clunky, but over time I got used to it. However, recently, it has begun to malfunction. The lever - which pulls a cable that releases the backrest lock - no longer works all the time. The reason for this appears to be that the cable which releases the backrest lock seems to have stretched out over the last two years, and no longer allows the locking mechanism to clear the catch.
  
  Given that the problem is most pronounced in hot weather, I believe this cable has stretched out over time.

And Now, For a Real-Life Customer Service Experience

Given my impressions after two years, I figured that another great data point would be to see how scheel-mann's customer service was, now that I was a long-forgotten customer with seats that were well out of warranty (I suppose).

This last issue mentioned above - difficulty in fold the seats forward - is very frustrating. Essentially, one of the most important functions of the seats no longer works. I reached out to scheel-mann, and sent a video that demonstrates the problem.

The problem, at least as it appears to me.

The back-and-forth with scheel-mann was not quick, but my responses to them were also slow - due to various summer trips - as well, so I can't fault the back-and-forth speed too much.

When I heard back from Toby - the U.S.A. scheel-mann distributor - he sent a clear, concise video, asking me about the operation of a little cable that pulls the locking mechanism clear of the catch.

Hi Dan,

Please watch this video, and let me know what you find out.

Best,
Toby

Toby's video was great, and with a very specific operation to check out, I let him know that I'd check my seats as soon as I was back from a family reunion. Yep, it was going to be a week before I could reply to him!

Upon my return, I fired up the phone and gave the levers a pull. Sure enough, Toby had hit the problem on the head - the cable on the passenger side of the driver seat was getting caught up on a little plastic clip, pulling it just far enough off-track that it prevented the locking mechanism from clearing the catch. Great diagnosis Toby!

I sent the following video back to Toby, along with a message:

Hey Toby,

I’ve uploaded two more videos here: [redacted] which begin with 20240722 (the last two, if sorted by date).

The first one (20240722_002959000) shows the driver side of the driver seat. You can see that when I operate the lever, the metal “hook” does not come all the way up to the stop. I didn’t see anything “blocking” the hook from coming up, until I looked over to the passenger side of the driver seat...

The second video (20240722_003115001) shows the passenger side of the driver seat. You can see that on that side, the wire that runs to the metal hook is initially in front of a plastic clip, and when it is, the hook cannot be pulled all the way to the stop (which prevents the catch from releasing the back of the seat). When I manually push the wire behind that plastic clip, it operates correctly.

So, what’s happening is that sometimes as I’m driving the wire seems to vibrate to the front of that plastic clip, inhibiting operation of the seat. To me, it seems like one of two things needs to happen:

Best: some sort of retainer to hold the wire in place behind that plastic clip, so the metal hook can always travel through its full range of motion

Possible fix: Seems like the metal hook might have too much in-out play (note how far “out” it is in the first frame of the second video). It seems like keeping it sucked in might help to keep the wire in place, though this is just speculation on my part.

Let me know what you think the best next steps are.

Cheers,
Dan

When I heard back from scheel-mann, it was via both a voicemail and email from Jesse, which I thought was a nice touch, since I was out on the trail exploring, and contacting me both ways meant that I could get the information in whatever way was most convenient for me.

Dan,

We are creating a short tutorial on a fix you should be able to implement on the road, and will have it ready very soon. Watch for an email as soon as it is ready.

Thanks for your patience.
Best,
Jesse Fairbank

And, a couple days later, I got a PDF from Kevin that had a set of troubleshooting steps for me to try.

Greetings Dan,

I hope this email finds you well, I've put together a few things this morning to problem solve the issue your having with your seat.

Thank you for your patience and continued understanding as we try to get your seat back into action.

Cheers,
Kevin VanBlarcom

I wasn't sure these would make a difference, but I was willing to give them a shot!
(click for larger image)

Ultimately, step 1 and step 3 of the scheel-mann troubleshooting guide did seem to solve the problem - or at the very least, it never presented itself on our Unexpectedly Wet trip to Canada - which was awesome! Ultimately, I'm happy with the support I received, and the fact that these guys really worked through my specific situation - remotely - in order to get my seats back into working order.

Kudos scheel-mann.