| The Mastercraft Pre Run seats
come with vinyl backed cutouts, ready to accept 5-point
competition harnesses as standard equipment. The vinyl backing
protects the seat foam from wear, and hides it from external
view. Pretty slick! |
After a weekend trip up the Rubicon, or down the Baja
peninsula, you crack open a cool one, and settle in for a good vid on
the VCR. "God that was a rough one," you say to yourself as
you creak and grown your way across the living room. There it sits,
beckoning you seductively; that all new whale skin covered, vibro-heat
equipped (low, medium, and flash fry), tortoise shell patterned Lazy
Dude recliner.
Sure looks comfy don't it?
As you settle in, and the tingling fingers of the V-Twin powered back
massager begins to work it's magic on your battered and beaten frame,
another thought crosses your mind....
" Ahhhhhh...........'Best investment I've ever made."
Of course since you've just spent a couple days punishing your body
worse than a Spanish Inquisitor with a new whip to crack, you NEED a
$2,000+ therapeutic chair to sit in. Perhaps an additional couple
thousand for season tickets to the 50 yard line of your Chiropractors
office wouldn't hurt either.
While there's as many different ways to go off-roading as there are
people who enjoy it, there are 2 basic schools of thought when it comes
to hitting the trail.
1. Full dresser rigs equipped with everything from DVD players,
Playstations, and 5,000 Watt stereo systems.
2. Rigs stripped of everything but the bare essentials, built to
maximize performance out in the rough.
The one common thread shared by the rival schools is that in 99% of
the cases, they will be running stock, or stock type seating. All well
and good, after all, they look good, match the interior, and they're
comfortable on the highway.
| Multi-layered / multi-density foam
covers the tubular steel seat chassis. With reinforced wear
areas, and additional foam in all the right places, the Pre
Run's will keep you comfy for some time to come. |
Well they may be comfortable on the highway, but if you think back to
your weekend trip, you'll likely remember sliding around in the seat, up
against the door or console on the sidehills, and feeling every rock and
bump between point "A" and point "B".
Are you still wondering why you're unit's hurtin' Bevis? Simply put, stock type seating is not, nor was it ever, designed to
work in a demanding environment like off-road motorsports; Whether that
sport constitutes rockcrawling, desert running, or even recreational
trail running. So what's a wheeler to do? Ever heard of suspension
seats? No wiseguy, not the kind you can find at adult bookstores, the
kind that will keep you firmly planted behind the wheel of your truck,
in style, and in comfort over the long haul.
Back in 1970, Jack Miller and Alan Taylor designed the original
suspension seat, a radical departure from the traditional Foam / Spring
concept in use since the days of the horse and buggy. Over time,
Mastercraft has refined the design in a variety of configurations to
meet specific applications, and progressively built on it's reputation
as the best seat of it's kind. Today, Mastercraft seats are the choice
of many of the top drivers in off-road racing, yet for many off-roaders,
the name conjures up images of pleasure boats more often than it does
truck seats. All that is about to change.
| The heart of the Pre Run's design
exposed. Nylon cord, elastic banding, and a textile mesh combine
to "suspend" the user. The end result is like having a
couple extra inches on your rig's suspension. |
Since its recent acquisition by ARC Manufacturing, Mastercraft
has chosen to expand it's reach beyond the deserts of the southwest, and
into the mainstream of recreational off-roading. With seating already
suitable for mini and full size trucks, Robbie, Peri and co. are about
to usher in a new era in Jeep seat design, guaranteed to make many a
rockcrawler rethink their sitting arrangements.
So What's All This "Suspension" Stuff About Anyway? Glad you asked. Built over a tubular steel frame, suspension seats
achieve a level of comfort, strength and durability unequaled by any
"factory" style seat on the market. While retaining foam
(albeit multi-layered / multi density) as their formost padding
material, suspension seats utilize a combination of textile mesh
"slings", and elastic banding to cradle and fit the body.
Additional foam inserts built in to the structure shape the seat to
better conform to the body's natural contours.
Mastercraft utilizes the tube frame chassis to best advantage,
turning cagework into lateral support for the hips and torso during
off-camber / hard cornering situations. As if that weren't enough,
there's even an optional adjustable SchUkra lumbar support available to
maximize your seating comfort over long trail, or highway runs. The
result is a seat you sit "in", rather than simply
"on".
After much begging, pleading, and a promise to gut and restore our 79
F-150's "worn" interior, Robbie was finally conned into fessin'
up a pair of Mastercraft's "Pre Run" seats for the cause. With
a bit less side height for easier ingress and egress than the
"race only" Pro seats, and being more option laden than the
"Sportsman" model, the Pre Run seats make for a perfect
addition to the interior of any off-road vehicle.
Whereas many factory type seats come in a mere handful of colors,
(usually grey, tan, and black), Mastercraft provides you with a broad
spectrum of colors, trim, and fabrics to choose from. Heavy gauge
Naugahyde/Vinyl, combined with a high thread count textile ensures a
long wearing, durable cover that's both attractive, and easy to
maintain. You pick the color / Fabric combo, Mastercraft makes it
fit. Things don't get any easier than that.
Details, Details, Details........Get your Details! * .065 wall, 3/4 mild steel chassis
* Pirelli rubber strapping
* .055 stitching
* Brass Grommeting
* Nylon Lacing cord
* 1.4 lb.. foam
* Slotting for 5 point harnesses standard
* Reinforced belt holes
* 6.5 in. Hip Containment
* 5.5 in. Upper Torso Containment
* 35 in. height, 22 in. width, 28 in. depth
* 5.5 in. sitting height from floor
* Optional Lumbar Support
* Naughayde/Vinyl/fabric cover (in your choice of styles and colors)
* Lightweight Because these are custom seats designed to be installed in a variety
of vehicles, the Mastercraft's come with their mounting flanged "undrilled".
While this may seem an inconvenience to the "bolt on" crowd,
the reality is that you're free to mount the seats to fit
"you", and your vehicle, not having to rely on someone else's
idea of where you should sit. With wide metal strapping constituting the
mounting surface, you can drill and mount the seats to adjustable
sliders, or once positioned correctly, bolt them in solidly to a purpose
built race/recreational vehicle.
Yea, so how do they work? Well, I'll tell you. Over the years, I've had a variety of seats in
my off-road vehicles; Everything from bucket seats pulled from junkyard
Firebirds, to Dick Cepek "Super Truckers" to fiberglass
"buggy seats". It wasn't till I dove head long into the desert
scene that I was turned on to suspension seats.
| For a few extra bucks, Mastercraft
can install an adjustable lumbar support. Having experienced the
results of the Mastercraft design firsthand, I think it's safe
to say that it's well worth the investment. |
At the 2000 San Felipe 250, I had a chance to ride shotgun in Scott
Steinberger's Ford F-150 "Protruck"; a 450 HP land rocket that
chews up and spits out desert faster than you can say "BIGROCK!!!"
(Yup......ahhhh...., all in a day's work for a fearless & dashing
ORC editor ;-) Fortunately the F series flyer was equipped with a pair
of Mastercraft Pro seats, that except for the greater lateral support,
are nearly identical to the Pre Runs. Talk about doing a product review!
I'll leave all the gory details for another article, but I'll tell
you this. After nearly 200 miles at an average speed of nearly 50 MPH,
over one of the most brutal SF250 courses in history, I climbed out of
the truck tired, but surpassingly pain free. Oh, there were a few
muscles I hadn't used in a while letting me know what they thought of my
little jaunt, but all in all, I was intact. With the adrenaline level
still crankin', the real test would come the next day.
I awoke the next morning to no back pain, no posterior discomfort,
and in justifiable awe of just how effective a properly designed seat
can be. Looking back on our dash across the peninsula, I remembered
whoops and jumps that even 20+ inches of wheel travel couldn't overcome.
Fortunately, the Mastercrafts gave their all to absorb the shock that
the coilover's couldn't, and by and large they were very effective at
doing it. Bearing witness to this fact was my fully ambulatory person
loading a Weekend Warrior, for a 10 hour trip home in......(it hurts to
say it)....factory seating.
Fortunately, that won't be for long. Stay tuned as next month, Off-Road.com
will be bringing you the full scoop on installing the Mastercraft
"Pre Run" seats in our 79 F-150, with a little help from the
folks at Autofab and their custom fit mounting brackets.
Until then, can someone pass the Advil?
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