If you are tired of your 3rd Gen Tacoma cloth seat covers and ready for a user friendly and affordable upgrade for the interior of your truck, these may be the upgrade for you.
Find It Online
- KTJO 4×4 Leather Seat Covers (3rd Gen Tacoma): Check Price
Table Of Contents
Before
These seats have been put through a lot. The truck is going to love the refresh.
What Is It?
A seat cover is just what you might imagine. It is simply a covering that slides over your stock upholstery to upgrade and protect your vehicle. This route is usually a cheaper path to take while achieving the same look as new seats or even new upholstery work.
They usually come in many different materials and are available for every make and model of car or truck. The main purpose is to protect from wear and tear as your daily driven vehicle. It also prevent your fabric or leather from scratches or stains.
KTJO
When buying a Tacoma, you can choose a more expensive trim to upgrade the seats in your Tacoma. Whether you want to save some money, or your truck just didn’t come with an option for leather, KTJO 4×4 presents a good opportunity to do so. The covers truly are a bang for your buck, at (currently) around $250 for your entire interior, these are a steal.
When it comes to a quality product at a cost-effective price, these checked all of my boxes. Right out of the box I noticed the quality was good. Proper packaging to protect them from folding/creasing, and the feel was incredible. The leather is soft and comfortable with subtle additional accent leather materials to add style and flow to the interior of your truck. Not to mention, they included all needed parts and pieces for installation. The parts included gloves, a plastic rod used to push in the ends of the seat covers and all the hooks and ties needed for securing everything.
They are made of eco-friendly poly-urethane leather that is water and scratch resistant. If you’re wondering if they interfere with airbags being deployed, do not worry, the seat covers were designed with safety in mind and fully allow the airbags to deploy as a factory OEM one would.
Offered these in two trim options.
- All black
- Black with red accents
Although these were installed on my 3rd Gen Tacoma, they have the same custom fit for many other Toyota models including, 5th Gen 4Runners, and 3rd Gen Tundras.
Installation
This install is very straightforward. If you want/need to see more – check out this video.
- All tools and pieces are included for install.
- Optional: 14mm socket to remove seats (can help with install)
- Install time is about 1-2 hours
Kit Contents
- Covers
- Gloves
- Hooks
- Zip ties
- Plastic stick applicator
Step 1. Unboxing
Inside your box you will find all of your covers packed nicely and stacked on one another in packing paper, and a bag of hooks, zip ties and a helper tool.
All pieces are seat and side specific towards your front and back seats.
Step 2. Optional Seat Removal
Seat removal is optional. If you choose to remove them, this will be your first step and definitely speed up your install process. I chose to not remove mine because I have small hands and am able to fit my hands under the seats to attach and detach hooks and ties.
If you choose to leave them attached, it can be tedious and more time consuming. But, perhaps the time it takes underneath cancels out the time taken to remove and reinstall your seats.
If you have large hands and don’t feel like fumbling underneath, I would suggest removing them with your 14mm socket to better access underneath the seats.
Step 3. Lower Section
The same directions apply to the driver’s and passenger’s side. Be sure to check which side is which before proceeding.
First you will need to unclip the rear flap behind the backrest that wraps the factory one underneath. Seen above.
These hooks are located underneath and hold it in place.
The reason for unhooking the flap is to have access to the individual flaps of the new seat covers as you pull them through.
Place your cover on top of your cushion, align the cushion to the best of your abilities then proceed to pull the back buckle straps in between the backrest and cushion.
You want to pull these through as best as possible to obtain the best looking fit.
Pull the 3 straps from the front of the cover through and under the seat to meet with the buckles. Thread the straps through the buckles and cinch down, being sure to not bind any of the wires that live under there.
If you have a Tacoma with manual front and backward moving seats be sure to loop the front attachment straps above the pull adjustment tab to ensure the straps do not interfere with this mechanism.
It has a string in the front, pull this tight to create a tight, snug fit around the base of the seat and tie off. Tie any excess string off to keep the install tidy and tuck away.
Once the cushion is installed you will push back the extra lower material behind the plastic cover on the side of the seat where the angle adjustment handle is to ensure a clean appearance.
Step 4. Upper Section
The stock cover provides a pocket, be sure to remove any items you may have in this pocket so they do not get forgotten. The new one also has a pocket so you’ll be able to put all of your items back where they belong.
The install of the backrest ones are much like a sock or pillow case. Very user friendly and incredibly simple.
Line up the cover and proceed to pull down until it is lined up with the factory shape.
Slowly work out any material up to down to ensure a tight fit and make it easier to pull the Velcro tabs through the seat.
Proceed to pull Velcro covered tabs between the cushion and back rest once most excess material has been brought down. I found it was easier to pull these through with the backrest extended all the way back, laying down to provide a larger gap.
Once the Velcro portions are through, you can pull the back side tight.
Then, Velcro to one another to hold the front and back in place.
The cover has two elastic loop straps, attach one of the provided hooks on each of the two elastic straps.
Attach these hooks to the elastic straps to the bottom of the seat frame.
Remove your headrest. Use your fingers or helper tool to work the material around and under the plastic headrest mounts.
Pull the zipper on the side closed when all material is pulled to desired position.
Step 5. Head Rests (Front & Rear)
For this step, I chose to remove my head rests so I could see a full view to ensure they were properly lined up.
Make sure you have chosen the correct shape and size headrest for the front seat headrest. They are larger than the rears.
Line up the head rest cover and begin pulling down like a sock.
This is a tight fit, sometimes squeezing the side of the headrest helps pull the cover down.
Make any minor fitment adjustments by pinching and pulling to straighten the stitch.
There are two Velcro tabs underneath the headrest, pull these snug and attach to ensure security and fitment.Â
Step 6. Rear Lower Section
The rear cushion was quite simple.
Align the cushion to your factory shape and lines. Proceed to pull the cover over the seat making sure it is still in line. Pull the factory tab up to access the back of the cushion. Pull any excess material down and around the back of the cushion for a snug fit.
There is a string provided to tighten the cover to the back of the seat, tighten the string and tie off. Tie off any extra string and tuck away.
Step 7. Rear Upper Section
This was the easiest of them all.
Simply, this cover slides over like a sock with no additional attaching needed. Line up the seat cover to factory shape and lines. Work material down to a snug fit ensuring material stays in line. Remove headrest and use your fingers or helper tool to work the material around and under the plastic headrest mounts.
That’s all! You’re all done.
Final Thoughts
Wow, what an improvement! I am so happy I chose to upgrade the interior of my truck too. It has enhanced the look and feel of the inside of my truck and I cannot tell you how relieved I am to have gotten rid of the tasteless cloth the truck comes with.
After using them for a few weeks, I can’t say enough great things. The covers have held their shape, quality, and alignment. And they are incredibly comfortable. The heaters still work well through the extra material.
I no longer have to deal with my friends and or dog staining my seats when we are out and about having fun off-roading, riding bikes, or surfing! A simple wipe-down will make them look new again. On a side note, to all dog owners, I no longer have to vacuum my seats every day from my dog’s shed getting stuck in the cloth material. This is a huge bonus for me as my dog comes everywhere with me.
Altogether, I would highly recommend these to anyone, these are a 10/10! Thank you for reviving my interior, KTJO 4×4.
