The all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD PRO has IsoDynamic Performance seats and they’re not meant to be subtle. Well, they’re supposed to make bumps in the road more subtle. Here’s how they work and where Toyota thinks they’ll come in most useful.
It’s worth noting from the outset that these aren’t intended to provide the same sort of ride one might find in a big rig. Seats in those sorts of trucks travel many inches in an effort to reduce the effect of poor road conditions on the driver. These seats are specifically designed for off-road use.
Toyota says that the IsoDynamic Performance seats will “stabilize the driver’s field of vision to improve focus, comfort, and reduce fatigue while on rugged trails.” To accomplish this, it incorporates two air-over-oil shock absorbers that manage vertical and lateral seat travel. Interestingly, they’re tunable too.
More: 2024 Toyota Tacoma Is The Swiss Army Knife Of Pickups
Toyota says that users can tune their IsoDynamic Performance seats “based on body mass and occupant preference.” Strangely, there’s no chart or graph to help us understand what weight corresponds to what setting. What we do know is that the pair of gauges on the back of each seat shows a minimum pressure of around 60 psi and a high of about 170 psi.
The nipple-esque protrusions just below the gauges are Schrader valves for adding air pressure. Users will need to manually change the pressure and they can engage them or lock them out with a knob at the bottom of each damper. Oddly enough, the dampers in each seat are independent so it’s possible that one could set them to different pressures or even lock just one out.
More: 2024 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter And TRD Pro Debut With 33-Inch Tires And 326 Hybrid Ponies
Considering that they’re on the back of the front seats it’s plausible that the rear-seat passengers could play some pranks with them too. We haven’t had a chance to see how they impact the rear-seat knee room either. Will these fancy new seats end up setting a new tech standard or simply be a fancy gimmick? Only time will tell.
