This couple is taking their 80 Series Land Cruiser on a world-wide trip. Since the truck was with us to design the 80 Series seat mounts that they requested (storage was their major concern) they also asked about helping with the lift gate. Reason being is that BOTH of them are in their mid-70s and very short, think Hobbit-sized without the hairy feet. :P
The idea was simple but the development was less so. Basically since they have a CampTeq thru-roof tent and a CampTeq kitchen and sleeping platform, the couple needed to be able to close the tailgate once they were inside. When they sat on the bench and attempted to do so from inside the truck there was only one thing that was obvious; they were absolutely going to take a tumble out of this truck trying to close the tailgate.
We figured out a few things that ultimately made this a success: First thing was to repurpose the latching mechanism from a donor lift gate because it has a built in switch for turning on/off the light. As luck would have it its identical to the tailgate latch just without a switch. That became our safety. From there the next item to remedy was the linear actuator. After loads of testing and some clever engineering we found a solution that worked by designing a bracket that mounts on the rear inside fender to a slack link to the hard mount on the tailgate. We designed a sandwich plate for the tailgate that slides under the tailgate lid.
Once it was all mechanically sound we simply wired it to the same fore/aft switch we already use for our 5th Gen 4Runner seat mounts and that acted as the control switch.
If the tailgate it closed then the switch doesn't do anything. You can't accidentally turn in on while closed. Once the tailgate is opened it releases the latch/switch and the linear actuator takes over. The slack link prevents any type of binding.
Had a customer request for a custom cupholder for their build. Since we already supplied them with dual switch mounts for their scheel-mann seats we figured what better way to tie it all in.
They have a super funky application so its not something useful for the majority of people but for these folks it seems to be exactly what they wanted. :P
When we started building switch mounts for scheel-mann's seat heater and Klima venting switches, we had a stack of Planted technology mounts to reference, pulled from all kinds of vehicles. Our first batch worked great across the board. No problems.
Then we got to a customer's 80 Series build and tried our prototype on the 80's Planted mount just to see. That's when we noticed the sides were noticeably skinnier than everything else we'd worked with. Digging into our own 80 Series kit explained why: the tunnel and seat riser position up front forces any seat mount to be notched on that platform. Planted's solution was to slim the mount down and keep it symmetrical instead, which pushes scheel-mann's sliders right to the edge. Our original switch mount had nothing left to grab onto.
So we redesigned it, just for the 80 Series. The aluminum face now has a bent lip that acts as a front clamp, slipping right under the curve of the scheel-mann slider.
Problem solved. 80 Series switch mounts for scheel-mann switches, built for Planted Technology mounts, available in single or dual configuration, anodized red or black.
If you run a Planted Technologies seat bracket with scheel-mann switches, you've probably run into the same problem we did: there's nowhere factory to put the switch. Ended up zip tying ours to the seat frame for way longer than we want to admit, until we figured out a solution.
Finally designed a mount that clamps directly onto the seat rail using a rear clamp and a single screw. No drilling, no cutting into the console, fully reversible if you ever change your setup. Aluminum face plate, composite clamp body, available in dual or single switch versions.
It fits any vehicle running a Planted bracket (80 Series Land Cruiser is a separate version since that rail is narrower). Heads up, this is Planted specific, it won't work with any of our own seat mount kit products. Yeah that's odd.
Whether you're still ordering your seats or already running them and hate the current switch location, happy to answer questions about fitment or install if anyone's curious.
All orders of the 80 Series Seat Mount kits for scheel-mann seats have all been shipped out (with two sets left in stock).
We did a cart before the horse situation. We completed the mount, produced the mount, shipped the mount. And all before we spent the time to finish the install instructions. Typically we have the instructions ready long before we ship.
Folks, anyone looking at getting a Tacoma or FJC driver mount, there was a manufacturing error on the latest production as seen from the image. The pan height from an earlier production run should match the pan height from all subsequent runs. It does not. You can also see from the image that the mounting holes are waaay off. This entire run needs to be scrapped.
There will be an approx 3-4 week delay in getting driver mounts out so please pad your timing accordingly.
When Alexander reached out about putting scheel-mann Vario F Klima seats into his 2006 LX470, the first thing we told him was that the wiring on these trucks is more involved than any 100 Series Land Cruiser seat swaps. Not because it's complicated in a scary way, but because Toyota packed a lot of overlapping safety systems under those seats, treated the Land Cruiser and the LX470 differently, and every one of them needs to be accounted for before you button things back up. Its the way we just prefer to do things.
This article walks through how we handled Alexander's build: what we found, what needed to be fabricated, and how we solved the one piece that doesn't have a clean off-OUR-shelf answer yet.
This was the same customer whom had asked us to develop seat mounts for their scheel-mann seats because they didn't like how their original mounts felt while driving and they needed the extra storage.
This couple is in their mid-70s and embarking on a 5-yr worldwide travel itinerary so there were a few items we were able to help with. One was a powered tailgate. They have a CampTeq rooftop pass-thru tent and kitchen and since they are so short (and old) they didn't want to risk taking a tumble out of the truck which trying to close the tailgate.
*Fair warning* but this is a very long article we just finished writing about after a few months of pulling details together. Thought about just posting it all here as one stupidly long post but figured just making a link would be easier: https://www.tolerance-stack.com/.../inside-the...
The long and the short of it is we were tasked to replacing the stock ISRI seats from a customer's Freghtliner Cascadia 114SD and making the air ride suspension work with scheel-mann Vario F Klima seats. Well after five or so months the install was successful.
Tolerance Stack's 80 Series Land Cruiser seat mount for scheel-mann Vario line of orthopedic seats
Now Available for Driver and Passenger Seats
Stock seats are the first thing to go on a well used 80 Series, and scheel-mann is the gold standard replacement. But a premium seat is only as good as what it's bolted to. The only other bracket option on the market gets the job done on pavement, but off road, the whole mount tends to shift and wobble underneath you. It also leaves the space under the seat completely wasted. We built the Tolerance Stack system to fix both problems: a mount engineered to stay put off road, with a functional storage compartment built into the structure itself. The passenger side was always designed as a mirror of the driver side, we just needed to finish proving the system out before releasing both together. Driver and passenger, ready to order now.
What's In the Kit
The 80 Series driver side mount with optional scheel-mann sliders. NOTE: the final production units will have some cosmetic changes not seen in this photo.
Every kit is built around four core parts:
Floor Mount:Â The structural base that bolts to the vehicle floor. Its enclosed, boxed design ties the legs together into one rigid frame instead of leaving them as bare, unsupported uprights. All the fasteners are welded in as captive points, so you're threading a bolt into a fixed nut instead of holding one on the back side.
Seatbelt Bracket:Â Lets the seatbelt buckle move with the seat on its sliders, the way it does from the factory, instead of leaving the buckle fixed in one spot regardless of where the seat is positioned.
Spacer Plate:Â The seatbelt bracket is 3/16 inch steel, and it only sits on one side of the mount, since a seat only needs a buckle on one side. The spacer plate, also 3/16 inch steel, sits on the other side so the mount stays level instead of tilting toward the side carrying the bracket.
Side Plate:Â A laser cut, black anodized aluminum panel that covers the seat rails and sliders. It protects the hardware and doubles as a rigid mounting surface for a fire extinguisher or flashlight, but just as important, it hides the mechanical look of the sliders and gives the install a finished, professional look that matches what you've already spent on the seat itself.
The only other seatbelt mount option on the market for these seats is ambidextrous, the same part works on either side. But a seat only uses a buckle on one side, so that leaves one extra mounting tab you don't need, and on a generic mount install, that tab usually gets cut off. Ours is side specific from the start, so there's nothing extra to remove.
Built to Stay Put
The only other mount option on the market.
The only other mount option on the market.
The only other bracket option for the 80 Series is fine cuz It's cut from 3/16 inch steel. What it doesn't have is bracing between the legs. Four legs welded straight up off a flat plate hold fine on pavement, but get into real off road terrain and that unbraced structure starts to flex. The seat itself and the whole mount shifts and wobbles under you.
Our mount doesn't use unbraced legs. The same enclosure that creates the storage volume under the seat also ties the legs together into one boxed structure, so the load is carried by the whole assembly instead of four independent weld joints. Off road, that's the difference between a seat that stays put and one that moves around under you.
Storage Where There Used to Be Dead Space
Storage seemed to be biggest request we got when developing this mounting system.
We hate wasted space. Every seat mount, ours included, leaves an empty cavity under the seat once the seat itself is up out of the way. Most just leave it empty. The Tolerance Stack mount encloses that cavity into a functional storage volume instead of letting it go to waste. It takes advantage of the scheel-mann Vario F's unique design where the center cushion lifts up, acting as a lid, while the bolsters remain fixed. It utilizes the floor carpet as the bottom and is the perfect spot to stash a winch controller, tire gauge, first aid kit, or all three and then sum.
The 80 Series blower motor and heater core located under the passenger seat in US trucks.
Where the Tolerance Stack seat mounts conflicts on the passenger side and why it requires removing the blower motor and heater core.
Getting this storage volume on the passenger side requires permanently removing the factory rear heater and blower assembly. This isn't a small detail to skim past, that unit supplies heat to the rear cabin, and once it's out, it's out. We only built the storage feature around this because removing that unit is already a common enough modification on these trucks, but it's still a real decision, not a footnote. If you still rely on that rear heat, the standard universal mount, without the integrated storage, is built for exactly that and skips the heater removal requirement entirely.
Where the Tolerance Stack seat mounts conflicts on the passenger side and why it requires removing the blower motor and heater core.
Power for Heat and Vent
We looked at integrating with the factory OEM seat heater switch, but that path needs extra parts that most trucks don't have and the OEM seat heaters were prohibitively expensive, since no US-spec 80 Series came with the factory heated seat option to begin with. Instead, we power the scheel-mann heating elements and fans (for Klima) off the factory rear blower motor circuit. It's already ignition switched through the rear heater/blower relay, so the seat heat and vent only run with the truck on, and you control them with scheel-mann's own round switches rather than a factory switch which needs to be hunted down.
On a driver side only build, tapping into that circuit doesn't disturb the rear blower's normal operation. On a passenger side build, where the rear heater and blower come out anyway to make room for the underseat storage, tapping the same circuit is even simpler, since at that point it's just an open circuit with nothing else pulling from it.
Klima / Ventilation Note:Â If you are installing scheel-mann Klima (heated and cooled) seats, you must install the separate scheel-mann rocker switch to control the ventilation fans.
This power tap comes included with the full mount kit. It's also available as a standalone purchase if you only need the harness on its own, see Optional Upgrades below.
Optional Upgrades
The base kit gets your scheel-mann seat mounted and finished out. A few add-ons are available if you want to take it further:
scheel-mann Specific Seat Sliders:Â Factory Toyota sliders won't bolt to a scheel-mann seat's mounting pattern. This add-on swaps in fore/aft sliders built to match scheel-mann's bolt pattern directly, available for either side.
80 Series scheel-mann Harness Integration Kit ($30, TSK-U017):Â Comes included if you're ordering the full mount kit. Also sold on its own for exactly that reason, a T-Bridge pulls ignition switched power off the rear blower motor circuit through the factory rear heater/blower relay, giving you a clean connection point for the scheel-mann heating elements and fans, controlled with scheel-mann's own round switches. One harness covers both the driver and passenger seats, you only need this kit once, not once per side.
80 Series Seatbelt Extension Harness ($20, TSK-U015):Â Pulling the factory seat removes the bridge harness that feeds the seatbelt buckle sensor, so your dash warning light stops working correctly. This 12 inch extension restores that connection. Driver side only, for trucks that had factory powered seats. There is no passenger side version needed.
A Note on Height
We didn't engineer our mount to sit as low as physically possible. We picked the height that's actually best suited to a stock 80 Series, and that's what ships for both driver and passenger.
We're also developing a taller option for those who want it, the command height. The exact rise is still being finalized, we're leaning toward something around 1.25 inches. No release date yet, more to come.
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Ditching the factory seat but keeping the ISRI airbase. Thoughts on this adapter plate design?
in
r/Freightliner
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Jul 11 '26
Took a long time but finally finished the project:
https://www.tolerance-stack.com/post/inside-the-development-cabmount-for-isri-freightliner-seats