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Common Problems with Seat Covers (and how we solved them)

A lot of seat covers suck.

They fall short on fit, installation, warranty, and wear. We've reviewed some of the top seat cover brands on the market, and even some of those have struggles.

So here are eight roadblocks we hear when it comes to buying seat covers. We've addressed them to eliminate the suckage.

Problem 1: Seat Covers Suck to Install

First off, any seat cover that fits well will take a little time to install. If it just slips on, it will slip right off the first time you sit on it. 

TigerTough Solution:

We’ve worked our tails off to ensure that TigerTough seat covers don’t suck to install. It won’t be a breeze, but we'll make it as easy as possible.

  • Everything is held on the seat with hook and loop fasteners (you may call this VELCRO, but that's a brand name, and we aren't allowed to call it that) except a string that runs under the seat. That’s held together with our patented Stringlock. More on that later.
  • When designing a new seat cover, we also shoot a detailed install video and write up an install guide for that seat. We don’t do generic instructions because vehicles aren’t generic. 
  • TigerTough seat covers aren’t one-piece covers. The back, bottom, and headrest of your seat are all covered with separate covers, so you can work on one section at a time and end up with something that fits properly.
  • There’s a very fine line between seat covers that fit well and feeling like you’re putting five pounds of potatoes in a four-pound sack. We tip-toe right down that line. Johnny Cash would be proud.  

Problem 2: Seat Covers Never Stay In Place

TigerTough Solution:

  • Everything is held on with hook and loop, string, and the Stringlock. None of these have any “give.” Your cover is secure once you’ve snugged everything up, pulled it tight, and slammed it into place. We don’t secure anything with elastic or adjustable clips because elastic stretches as soon as you put pressure on it, and adjustable clips tend to self-adjust over time.
  • This is another reason for the three-piece cover. When you can completely wrap the seat back, bottom, and headrest separately, the seat cover conforms to the seat's shape and has no room to move.
  • Everything is fully wrapped. Rather than run straps under the seat where you can’t see them, we run the cover all the way under the seat and connect it together in the back. Some seat covers are like aprons. Ours is like a pair of trusty coveralls. Which would you prefer on the job?
  • Stretchy fabric is notorious for moving around. Since TigerTough seat covers are made from tough, tightly woven fabric, there is no stretch at all.  

Problem 3: Seat Covers Never Fit Right

TigerTough Solution:

Every TigerTough seat cover is designed specifically for one seat style or one vehicle.

Here’s how the process works:

  1. We get the seat into our factory for the most accurate measurements.
  2. Our design team spends 2-3 days designing a cover that matches the seat exactly.
  3. We install the cover, taking detailed install photos and videos so you can see precisely how it goes when installing it.

If you’re hesitant to use seat covers based on past experiences with covers that fit like socks on a rooster, you have every right to be!  

No seat cover we make is designed from pictures or manufacturer specs. It’s all done the hard way, by hand, using the seats they'll cover.

Problem 4: They’re Unsafe

Okay, some seat covers aren't safe. Or hey, maybe safety never even crossed your mind. We actually reviewed a very popular seat cover brand that isn't considered safe when it comes to airbag deployment. You might also be think it's not safe to use them with heated seats.

TigerTough Solution:

Any TigerTough seat cover designed for seats with airbags built into them is designed to tear open exactly as the factory seat does if the airbag deploys.

A third-party lab independently tests our designs to ensure they work just as they should.

As for the whole heated seat thing, most covers are safe for heated seats. There will be some that perform better than others though.

Problem 5: They’re Ugly

Well, this is pretty subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

Seat covers have come a long way, though, and you can likely find a cover in a style that suits you. Whether you want something tough, floral, camo, or fluffy. Heck, even Carhartt has covers.

TigerTough Solution:

We design for performance first, not looks. You won’t find bright colors, elaborate patterns, or luxury quilting on any of our seat covers. 

The fanciest we get is camo covers and custom embroidery.

We skip the decorative stitching so the covers are as tough as possible and look a little plainer than the factory seats.

If you want something that looks like a custom interior, you may not love our covers. If you’re looking for something that’ll keep your seats in good shape for as long as you own the truck, you’ll think they’re perfect.

Problem 6: They Wear Out

Remember the cheap parts store ones that we talked about? Those do wear out. 

If you’re going to spend good money on seat covers to keep your seats looking good, you’re kinda getting the short straw if they’re made from cheap, stretchy fabric that wears out in a few months. Leave that material for yoga pants, not your truck.

TigerTough Solution:

You can be confident that your TigerTough covers aren’t going to give up on you. Since they’re designed for work, they’re made from military-grade fabric. The solid colors are made from the strongest fabric, a 1000-denier CORDURA, and the camos are made from almost-as-tough 900-denier polyester.

They’ve got a two-year unconditional warranty and we really mean unconditional.  If anything wears out or breaks for any reason, we’ll fix or replace it. (But we want to hear how it happened because we know there's a good story behind it.)

Here’s how a set looks after eight years and 235,000+ miles in a heavy equipment service truck:    

Used TigerTough seat covers in a truck.
TigerTough seat covers in a truck after eight years of heavy-duty use.

Problem 7: They’re Sweaty

You had pleather seat covers once, didn’t you? Or did you buy some cheap vinyl ones once that gave you flashbacks of your days on a school bus?

Gross. We don't blame you for wanting to steer clear.

TigerTough Solution:

Both of our fabrics are breathable so you won’t have to deal with swamp@** or peeling any bare skin off your seats. These won’t feel any different than your factory seat as far as being breathable or making you sweaty.

When spending hard-earned cash on your truck, ensure you get breathable seat covers.

Problem 8: You're Not Sure What to Get

This is tough. First, we recommended finding the best brand for what you need. 

TigerTough Solution:

We’ve designed the lookup on our website to make it easy to find the covers for your vehicle. All you need to know are the following details.

  • The year (2020)
  • The Make (Ford)
  • The Model (F150)
  • The Trim Package (XLT)
  • The Cab Type (SuperCrew)

Once you punch in all that info, we’ll show you only the seat covers that will fit your truck!  If there could be a couple of different seat configurations in your vehicle, we’ll show you the different options and explain the differences between the two.

Find the best seat covers for your truck

If you're still not sold on seat covers, that's okay. But here's our list of things you should consider when shopping around:

  • Multiple-piece covers
  • Waterproof
  • Custom-fit
  • Made in the U.S.A.
  • Airbag-compatible
  • A strong warranty

Seat covers are an investment, and you want to be sure you're making the smartest choice for your needs.

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Airbag-compatible seat covers: Are they safe?

To be direct, yes, airbag-compatible seat covers are considered safe if they allow the airbag to deploy in third-party testing.

But for those who want to know more details, this article is for you.

Airbags are relatively new in automobile history. They were heavily considered for passenger vehicles in the 1950s, according to The Rough Road to Airbags. The concept was brought to Chrystler, but they weren't interested. Ford and General Motors experimented with prototypes but couldn't mass-produce them. 

But it wasn't until 1990 that the first collision with two cars deploying airbags was recorded. Since then, airbags have saved over 50,000 lives.

So what are airbag-compatible seat covers, and why are they important?

What are airbag-compatible seat covers?

Seat covers are considered compatible airbags when holes or flaps allow the seat airbag to deploy. They're considered safe for installation.

TigerTough seat cover showing the airbag compatible tag
TigerTough seat cover with airbag-compatible tag

When you install seat covers on a newer (2012+) vehicle, you're almost guaranteed to cover up an airbag in the side of your seat. If your seat cover doesn't allow the airbag to deploy, you will likely be smashing your head and upper body into the side of the vehicle in the event of a crash. That's not something fun to think about, but it's true.

Watch this video and see how the torso airbag in the seat works with the ceiling airbag to protect the driver from hitting the side of the vehicle:

That doesn't mean you shouldn't install seat covers on your vehicle. Just don't install cheap, universal-fit covers. But watch out; even well-known manufacturers don't always have airbag-safe covers.

WeatherTech Seat Cover warning
WeatherTech Seat Cover instructions and warnings

If the seat cover doesn't mention anything about compatibility, and you see straps or anything covering the side airbag, it's probably best not to install it in your car, truck, van, or SUV.

A seat cover with straps covering the side airbag.
A seat cover that's not compatible with airbags.

Which brands of seat covers are compatible with airbags?

In our research, we've found the following top brands to be considered safe:

  • Covercraft
  • Wet Okole
  • Canvasback
  • ShearComfort
  • TigerTough

We haven't looked to see if these brands (other than TigerTough) have been independently tested, but according to their websites, they're considered safe with airbags. We suggest you only install seat covers that are independently tested and verified for airbag compatibility by a qualified third-party laboratory.

So TigerTough seat covers are airbag-safe?

Yes.

TigerTough seat covers have been independently tested and verified by MGA Research Corporation in Troy, MI. Watch the airbag deploy in under 30 milliseconds in the testing video below:

Whether you're installing truck seat covers or if they're for your car or van, check and make sure that the cover will allow your airbag to deploy. You owe it to yourself and your passengers.

Why are they important?

When adding aftermarket parts to your vehicle, you need to ensure that you don't hinder any of the safety features of your truck, van, car, police vehicle, etc.

All vehicles today have airbags in the steering wheel and passenger side dash. Most vehicles come with them in the side of the seat back. Some cars have airbags in the A-pillar (by the dash), the B-pillar (by your head when you're in the seat), the ceiling, and other locations in the vehicle.

We HIGHLY recommend checking your owner's manual before modifying your vehicle's interior to ensure you aren't compromising your and your passengers' safety. And when you're ready to install seat covers, be sure they're compatible with your airbags.

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Who TigerTough Is Right For and Who We're Not.

We get it a lot; people looking for seat covers for vehicles that we don’t cover, crazy colors, or other really custom stuff that we don’t do.

So here’s who we’re right for and who we’re not.

First off, let’s start off with who we’re not right for. That way, if you’re in that category, you don’t have to waste any time.

If you’re looking for seat covers for a passenger car or SUV, a side-by-side, or a custom dog bed, there’s a good chance that we’re not your best bet. If it’s the dog bed one, we’re definitely not a good choice. 

We're not the right people if you’re looking for seat covers with the logos of your favorite sports team, vehicle manufacturer, or motorcycle (yeah, that one) on them. We do offer embroidery as an option to customize your covers, but we don’t do any licensing of copyrighted logos. Honestly, it’s really expensive, and we’d rather put the cost into good materials instead of a cool logo.

If you want seat covers that are two-tone, alligator skin or have crazy colors, we’re not the right seat cover. The same applies if you want extra foam padding, heated covers, or options like that. 

If you’re looking for a seat cover that you can quickly pop on to take the dog to the vet or trees to the dump, we’re probably not right. Our seat covers are going to take 30-60 minutes to put on and about half that to take off. So this one is your call.

Finally, the last thing we aren’t is cheap. And that’s for three major reasons.

  1. We won’t send our manufacturing out of the USA. We’ve passed up opportunities to cut our labor costs to a quarter of what they are by sending everything across the border to get made. We’d rather pay American workers a fair wage. 
  2. We use the best, toughest materials we can get so our customers get the best seat covers possible.
  3. Every seat cover is designed specifically for a vehicle. That involves bringing trucks to our factory and spending hours designing the best seat cover possible.

If we’re not right for you, no hard feelings. We’d rather you find out now than after you spent your hard-earned dough and ended up disappointed.

Now, who we ARE right for.

We make seat covers for work. And by work, we’re talking blue-collar, hard work. Contractors, pest control, last-mile delivery, service trucks, and law enforcement, just to name a few industries. 

The people who use our seat covers are typically doing some of the following:

  • Multiple entry/exits every day.
  • Getting dirty
  • Wearing tools and/or weapons on their belts
  • And, most often, a combination of all three.

TigerTough Ironweave seat covers are made from 1000-denier CORDURA, some of the toughest material we can find to wrap around your seats. In fact, it has a higher abrasion rating than Kevlar. We use it because while it’s almost impossible to tear, it’s easy to work with, it’s water-resistant, and it’s made in the USA.

You’ll probably notice that our covers have no decorative stitching (aside from the optional embroidery, if you choose that) and very few seams. That’s because seams and stitching are the weakest points in anything sewn together. Since our customers use their vehicles as tools in their toolboxes, we’re doing everything possible to eliminate weak points.

Actually, a customer who goes by the name R00ster said it best. He’s a farmer from Virginia and says

“I would not say they are luxury but most definitely built for work.” 

R00ster - A VA Farmer

R00ster goes on to say he throws grease guns, screwdrivers, and fencing tools (even his chain saw) on his seats and doesn’t worry about it anymore.

We build seat covers for people like R00ster. The people whose day-to-day jobs are the ones that make the lights come on, the food hit your plate, the gas come out of the pumps, and the packages show up on time. Ours are some of the best work truck seat covers on the market, and we're darn proud of that.

If you’re looking for a seat cover that isn’t luxury but most definitely is built for work, TigerTough is the best choice. 

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Harrisonburg Police Testimonial

Sgt. Chris Terrell has been using TigerTough seat covers in his fleet since 2016. See what he thinks of his experience.

Since we've been working together, he's been able to significantly reduce wear to the seats in their police interceptors rather than fixing the wear & holes they were dealing with.

Seems smart, doesn't it?

Check out Police Car Seat Covers Here.

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What Are Tactical Seat Covers?

A lot of companies sell "Tactical" seat covers. But what exactly makes them Tactical? Is it the use of military grade fabric? Or is it the strips of Velcro across the back that make them look like a military backpack? Maybe it's a spec-ops theme so they sound tough.Let us demonstrate what makes a seat cover Tactical. We make a truly tactical seat cover. It is a cover designed specifically for men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us. TigerTough Tactical seat protection is designed specifically for police vehicles. Our Ironband protects your seat from your duty belt. Our fabric is more abrasion resistant than Kevlar.They aren't camouflage and they don't have miles of Velcro on them, but TigerTough Tactical covers DO stand up to the abuse of being part of a police car.

Why do we make seat covers for police vehicles?

If the seats take a beating in any vehicle, its police vehicles. Officers can easily be in an out of their vehicle up to 50 times in a shift. That alone puts a lot of stress on the seat, say nothing about the duty belt wearing the back of the seat while the officer is seated as well.

Why should a department use seat covers?

There are three major reasons that you should be using seat covers in your patrol vehicles:

1. Improve Driver Morale 

If your officers are getting into a vehicle that has a ripped, torn, and worn out interior, they're not going to feel good about their cruiser.

Happy employees take better care of corporate assets in terms of exterior appearance, interior cleanliness, and timely reporting of maintenance issues. - truckinginfo.com (Source)

2. Increase Resale Value 

Your vehicles are going to be worth more when you're finished with them if the seats are in great condition. When you install tactical seat covers in your new police vehicles, the seats are preserved until the covers are removed.

3. Save Money and Reduce Downtime 

Again, this is another benefit of covering your vehicles' seats when they're new. It far less expensive to put TigerTough seat covers on your new vehicles than it is to remove torn seats and re-upholster. TigerTough seat covers install in about 15 minutes, depending on experience. That beats a couple of days of downtime at the upholsterer!

Are you ready to save your department money and look good doing it? It's an easy click away. Either give us a shout or see if your favorite up-fitter is a TigerTough Tactical Dealer.

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Five Reasons to Use Custom Seat Covers on Fleet Vehicles

When you're managing a fleet of vehicles, you probably don't think about something as simple as a seat cover being able to erase some pains. There are many ways that using custom seat covers can benefit your company and make you a more effective fleet manager. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Improve Your Resale Value

This is probably the biggest one. (That's why its number 1). Using seat protection on your fleet vehicles will definitely improve the resale value of your vehicles. By installing TigerTough custom seat covers when the truck is new, (Your upfitter can do it for you) you preserve the seats from all dirt, grease, and wear that happens over the life of the truck.

2. Improve Driver Morale

Nobody wants to get into a vehicle that has a broken down, worn out interior. Custom covers prevent that. TigerTough's Ironweave fabric will stand up to the abuse that a fleet vehicle takes far better than the factory upholstery will. Your trucks will look better and your drivers will be happier because of that.

3. Save Money on Maintenance

Investing a few hundred dollars in proactive seat protection will pay off big time. According to Law and Order Magazine, small problems will quickly become big problems. Once a vehicle starts to have a few minor issues (a light not working, a cracked windshield, a torn seat) the operator starts to care less for the vehicle and neglect will result in bigger problems.

4. Customize Your Fleet and Promote Your Brand

This is where the custom comes in. TigerTough seat covers are available with custom embroidery so you can promote your company's image, a safety message, or whatever you wish. There is very little that we can't do to customize your seat covers.

5. Be More Comfortable

Over time, the foam in the seats of a vehicle start to break down and the seat loses its support. TigerTough covers hold the seat in place, offering more support and comfort over the life of the vehicle.

Check out all the reasons heavy duty seat covers will benefit your fleet.

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