2019 Ram 3500 Tradesman - Katzkin

[Squatch]

I’m going to be installing a katzkin interior in my tradesman. Has anyone done this. Do you have any pointers for me? Thanks

 

[elephantrider]

i'm in for pics and results. been thinking about this since i got my truck.

 

[Squatch]

I’ll definitely get some before and after, even if it is to warn you about doing it yourself. I just have a hard time trusting anyone to touch my truck these days. At least if I screw something up I won’t try and hide it.

 

[Chris1911]

I am waiting to get mine installed as soon as my custom order arrives. I'll post pics of the results.

seat by Chris J, on Flickr

 

[Squatch]

I am waiting to get mine installed as soon as my custom order arrives. I'll post pics of the results.

seat by Chris J, on Flickr

Mines sitting in a box waiting for me to do it, I got the mahogany brown leather, I’ll post pics when I’m done with it. Example below

 

[TheKingOfHearts]

Mind if I asked what you guys paid? I've been debating the same, honestly.

 

[elephantrider]

my local interior guy quoted $1400 installed for my tradesman crew cab.

 

[Squatch]

Mind if I asked what you guys paid? I've been debating the same, honestly.

It was around 600 bucks uninstalled, I doubt I will get warranty with that, and they had all kinds of warnings about them advising me to have it professionally installed. Still haven’t gotten around to it, plan doing it this summer some time.

 

[TheKingOfHearts]

Thanks guys, that's around what I was expecting. My 2019 has a small hole in the drivers cloth, I've been debating going the Katzkin (or similar) route vs repairing the existing panel. Curious how long installation takes.

 

[Squatch]

There are some good YouTube videos on this, once I watched them I decided it was in my wheel house. You gotta get hog ring players, an upholstery stapler (I got a manual one) some headliner adhesive spray and a sharp razor blade. Doesn’t look too tough, the center console is the only pain in the ass part about it from what I can tell.

 

[Chris1911]

Mind if I asked what you guys paid? I've been debating the same, honestly.

$1498 installed.

 

[TheKingOfHearts]

Thanks! Just called my local "dealer" they wanted $1450 installed, or $600 for installation. Since I can get the kit for $600, means I could be all in for around $1200 (+ tax). Honestly trying to decide if it's worth it.

 

[M Penwald]

I have installed 6 of the Katzkin sets. Takes around 8 hours to do it by yourself for the first time, give or take. Definitely pull all of the seats out of the truck as you do them...don’t try to shortcut and install with them in the truck. You’ll be disassembling a lot but it’s not terrible. Getting the rear center armrest apart on Big Horn seats is a pain. You need some rather large Torx bits to do this as memory serves. Also, the small 10mm nuts that hold the center fold down seat to the front passenger seat are a pain as well.

The disadvantage to doing it yourself is trying to get the headrest covers on without a vacuum tool to help collapse the foam. It can be done by hand but it’s not hard to wind up ripping the stitching on the leather. Other big pain is getting the leather to position correctly on the side bolsters of the bottom and back cushions. Putting the seats in the sun to warm and help stretch the leather is a benefit.

Hog ring pliers are an absolute must as are gloves (or band-aids). The seats are made of thin metal with a rather sharp edge at the end of the various stampings. You’ll easily scuff and a rake the back sides of your hands and fingers most likely without gloves and draw some blood somewhere along the line. Take your time pulling the air bags out of the front seats. They sit in a sewn pouch on the existing upholstery and are held in place with 10mm nuts that attach to studs on the rear of the airbags.

In my experience, Katzkin holds up decently but the finish will wear either side of the stitching where you drag entering and exiting the truck.
Katzkin is a bit misleading. The standard $699 or so kit is a whole lot of vinyl with some leather. The rear seats in those kits are almost all vinyl. Upgrading to the higher leather content is highly recommended so that the full seating faces of all seats is leather but puts the cost of the kit around twice the price.

 

[TheKingOfHearts]

Circling back on this; my local(ish) Katzkhin authorized dealer just quoted me $1,080 total INSTALLED - which seems like a steal of a deal.

Also offered to add in seat heaters for $300, which I would also seriously debate..

Thoughts?

 

[M Penwald]

That’s the low end Katzkin set that’s heavy on the vinyl. If you do it, be sure it’s really Katzkin and not some really junky kit from Roadwire or others. Had a place named Auto Trim Restyling in Manchester MO sell me a Katzkin Rawlings Edition interior and the really installed a cheap Roadwire set and threw in some phony paperwork. That’s when I started installing them myself.

 

[Chris1911]

Just now getting around to posting pics. It was installed about a month ago.

They messed up my order and instead of getting the custom set i designed (pics above), they sent me the oem two tone that goes with my interior. I'm kinda glad cause the rear would have been a sea of black, with a little grey in the middle of the outside seats. May have been a little too dark. The grey lightens up the interior a little. Overall, i am happy. Ended up being $1395 out the door. Dropped it off when the installers opened at 8am and picked it up after work the same day.

 

[yycdiesel]

Just now getting around to posting pics. It was installed about a month ago.

They messed up my order and instead of getting the custom set i designed (pics above), they sent me the oem two tone that goes with my interior. I'm kinda glad cause the rear would have been a sea of black, with a little grey in the middle of the outside seats. May have been a little too dark. The grey lightens up the interior a little. Overall, i am happy. Ended up being $1395 out the door. Dropped it off when the installers opened at 8am and picked it up after work the same day.

Looks awesome , are they comfortable? Also have you spilled anything by chance mines a work truck and im debating doing this for easier clean up than stained cloth..

 

[Chris1911]

Looks awesome , are they comfortable? Also have you spilled anything by chance mines a work truck and im debating doing this for easier clean up than stained cloth..

I suppose it's just as comfortable as it was with the cloth.

Haven't had a chance to spill anything on it yet. It's rare that i would have anything in there other than a bottle of water. I would hate to have something spill into the perforated sections though.

 

[yycdiesel]

I suppose it's just as comfortable as it was with the cloth.

Haven't had a chance to spill anything on it yet. It's rare that i would have anything in there other than a bottle of water. I would hate to have something spill into the perforated sections though.

Appreciated im thinking ill cut the costs for the work truck and just do seat overs. Oh how i love the look of your interior for but over over 2k CAD not sure i can justify it.

 

[Hayden]

Looks great man ... and a hell of a deal ...