New Ford F-150 seat design provides ‘Max’ comfort

Ford’s design and engineering groups have developed new “Max Recline Seats” for the company’s best-selling pick-up, the F-150. They will be available only in the upper trim variants such as King Ranch, Platinum and Limited.

The seats are a result of extensive field work. A specialised Ford comfort team took hundreds of hours of video and thousands of photos, capturing the ways in which existing customers use their pick-ups during normal daily activities with the hope of identifying any relevant “pain points”.

One of the main findings was that people would often lay across the back seats or on the floor in order to rest, as the previous seats on the F-150 did not recline fully. The Ford team decided to develop a proof of concept using hot glue, foam and pins attached to a standard seat frame, and then tested multiple iterations to find the most promising design.

The result is a seat that has been inspired by those used in upper class airline travel, as well as luxury adjustable mattresses. Added sections fold out when the seat is reclined, supporting the lower back and neck.

“There are no additional motors in these seats – just a simple mechanism that relies on the customer moving the seatback using the power recline function,” explains Ben Kulhawik, seat design and release engineer at Ford. “It’s simple, it’s effective, and we believe our customers will love how much more productive they can be just by getting a little more rest during downtime.”

There is one downside to the seats. As they are on the front row, the back seats must be folded up to allow them to recline fully.

Read the full story on the new Ford F-150 here.