Ordered a set today. Looking forward to this.
TJ seat foam
- Thread starter Kevo1966
- Start date
What do the relays look like? Are they special two-level relays? I’m trying to understand how the switch setup works.
I just did the seat cushion. Thank you @hosejockey61. The vid was helpful.
I had applied the seat warmer to the back side of the Bartact covers. I used 3M spray adhesive as well. Stuff works fantastic. Watch the overspray and try not to get in on your hands.. you'll stick to everything you touch... which could be a real problem
The seat warmers.. When I first did this mod a few years ago, I tried to save a few bucks and bought a set off Amazon. Got them wired and installed and they were dead. Tried to return them to the Amazon seller and the merchant had closed up shop. I bought the Bartact kit, which I should have done at the start.
The cushion.. Love the feel of it. I am now torn between whether or not to use the seat risers. With them in I feel like I am driving a semi.. sitting way up high. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a decent amount of pressure on the backs of my thighs that over time will be real. Went back in and removed the risers.. too low. When I get a chance, I am going to cut the risers down to half height. That should be perfect.
Install.. not difficult by any means but not fun either. Reminded me of stretching a new skin on the soft upper frames.
I had applied the seat warmer to the back side of the Bartact covers. I used 3M spray adhesive as well. Stuff works fantastic. Watch the overspray and try not to get in on your hands.. you'll stick to everything you touch... which could be a real problem
The seat warmers.. When I first did this mod a few years ago, I tried to save a few bucks and bought a set off Amazon. Got them wired and installed and they were dead. Tried to return them to the Amazon seller and the merchant had closed up shop. I bought the Bartact kit, which I should have done at the start.
The cushion.. Love the feel of it. I am now torn between whether or not to use the seat risers. With them in I feel like I am driving a semi.. sitting way up high. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a decent amount of pressure on the backs of my thighs that over time will be real. Went back in and removed the risers.. too low. When I get a chance, I am going to cut the risers down to half height. That should be perfect.
Install.. not difficult by any means but not fun either. Reminded me of stretching a new skin on the soft upper frames.
The relay is a standard automotive relay that mounts on the seat frame. It just switches HI-LO.
It's maybe hard to follow but in LOW the two heaters are in series so each drops 6 volts. In HIGH they're in parallel so each drops 12 volts.
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Bartact sells the Metra seat heaters.
https://theinstallbay.com/product/IBHS1-XL
These worked great on my '04 LJ.
I’m trying to understand, but I’m terrible with wiring schematics
For each heater, power feeds the high/low switch. On high, the switch lowers the heater directly. On low, power flows both to the trigger pin of the relay (86) and the power-in pin (30), and then flows out of the power-out pin (87). Because the power is in series, the relay acts like a resistor and drops the voltage.
Is that right? Or even close?
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The relay is just a solenoid operated switch.
In high, the 12 volts flows through the HI-LO switch on the yellow wire to the common connection of the two heaters. The current flows in parallel through H2 to ground and through H1 then through the relay to ground. Each heater drops 12 volts for high heat.
In low the yellow wire is dead and the white wire has 12 volts. This energizes the relay and switches the 12 volts to the red wire. The current must now flow in series through H1 and then through H2 to ground. This divides the voltage so each heater drops 6 volts and produces half as much heat.
I got red, yellow, white, and black wire at NAPA and extended my wires to put the controls where I wanted them. The relays mounted on the seat frames. I took hot from a spare fuse in the glove box with a fuse tap. The ground went to the driver side dash board ground.
Bartact sells the Metra kit. I like them because you trim them to fit our TJ/LJ seats.
I took plenty of pictures if interested.
Installed the Summit Seat cushions and seat risers on my Son's Jeep. Man, they are great. Now I sit the same height on his Jeep as my 1998. The cushion gives much more support. We both love it.