Console to Jumpseat: The Quest for More Seating

[Buyer2021]

Whelp soon after the trucks first birthday, our family grew to 6. Uh oh... now what?

"Whelp" is probably the right word (congratulations on your new 'puppy'! )

And huge kudos on your modification to accommodate same - impressive job well done!

I'm particularly impressed that you managed to do this for <$800 and 'only' 16 hours of labor - that's excellent, IMO. I'm sure lots more time went into front-end research, planning, and parts-shopping but obviously that effort paid off!

it was ready for camping, off roading, and fun family trips

Now you're set again for the larger crew, wishing y'all many happy family adventures in your F150

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[Oceantide]

Any idea how much work a 502A would require? is the heated steering wheel, keyless, power tilt not going to work if I wanted to switch to a jumpseat?

 

[PulpoGrande]

Any idea how much work a 502A would require? is the heated steering wheel, keyless, power tilt not going to work if I wanted to switch to a jumpseat?

I would assume that as long as you source a column that has your options you should be OK. I would also do a quick search on here for people who have converted to a 502a and see what has to happen for wiring. If the wiring for those things is not part of the shifter harness itself, it should not be extra work or parts other than getting a power tilt column.

 

[FernVD]

I'm on the same quest as I just got twins (baby 3 and 4). Thanks for your post, It gives me hope to keep my truck while adding an extra seat.
I'm confortable with the mechanical part of the job, but not the electrical. I watched the video from Infotaiment.com and they seem to reuse the same column and harness to plug into the console shifter. Can we just do the other way around? (I know, seems too easy). I have a 302A and I guess it's a different column so we can't just add the steering shifter kit? But for the harness, let say I delete the ports from the console, can I reuse the harness in place with no modifications?
Thanks in advance

 

[PulpoGrande]

I'm on the same quest as I just got twins (baby 3 and 4). Thanks for your post, It gives me hope to keep my truck while adding an extra seat.
I'm confortable with the mechanical part of the job, but not the electrical. I watched the video from Infotaiment.com and they seem to reuse the same column and harness to plug into the console shifter. Can we just do the other way around? (I know, seems too easy). I have a 302A and I guess it's a different column so we can't just add the steering shifter kit? But for the harness, let say I delete the ports from the console, can I reuse the harness in place with no modifications?
Thanks in advance

Infotainment makes a custom harness that plugs in to the factory harness to do the column -> console conversion. The plugs would be the reverse when going from console -> column. Infotainment hasn't made the reverse harness yet but you can reach out to them and tell them you are interested. Enough interest and they might start the process. But honestly you might just have to make it on your own. It's not too bad!

 

[FernVD]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Boldcitypierce]

Awesome!!! That looks like something I could not take on lol.

 

[kdkool]

Thank you so much for putting this together. I was able to convert my F150 lightning to a column shifter as well. In my case, I've kept the console for now and bought the storage cubby bin and liner insert in place of the old console shifter. I'm just excited to get rid of the dumb folding floor shifter that crunches things when it shifts back into park when I momentarily open the driver door when it's not yet in park. I also love that I can now use the fold flat work surface when driving as well as the extra console space. I have a jump seat that's also ready to install but I'm holding off until I get all the dash trim panels.

I will admit the hardest part of doing this entire conversion was the crimping of those pins for the column shifter plug. They're tiny! I bought 25 pins to make the 11 connections and ended up going through most of my spare pins. The C215 connector side was a cinch. If I were to do it again, I'd look into depinning the C3245 connector and transferring it to the C2503 one in lieu of building a whole new harness. I suppose it'd be hard to go revert but I'd have no reason to revert.

I followed the wiring diagrams and made the following pin mapping in hopes of making it easier for the next person.

Signal Name	Color	C215 (Floor Shifter)	Floor Shifter (C3245)	Column Shifter C2503
GND	BLK/BLU	11	9	16
VBAT	WHT/RED	18	1	1
HS2 Can+	GRN/ORG	3	3	2
HS2 Can-	GRY/BLU	4	2	3
SigRtn	BLU	15	17	9
LF Door Unlock	GRY/ORG	7	4	10
SST+	GRY	5	5	11
SST-	GRN/VIO	14	6	12
Can+	BLU/GRN	1	14	13
Can-	WHT/VIO	2	13	14
LF Door Satus	GRN/VIO	6	15	15

 

[PulpoGrande]

Thank you so much for putting this together. I was able to convert my F150 lightning to a column shifter as well. In my case, I've kept the console for now and bought the storage cubby bin and liner insert in place of the old console shifter. I'm just excited to get rid of the dumb folding floor shifter that crunches things when it shifts back into park when I momentarily open the driver door when it's not yet in park. I also love that I can now use the fold flat work surface when driving as well as the extra console space. I have a jump seat that's also ready to install but I'm holding off until I get all the dash trim panels.

I will admit the hardest part of doing this entire conversion was the crimping of those pins for the column shifter plug. They're tiny! I bought 25 pins to make the 11 connections and ended up going through most of my spare pins. The C215 connector side was a cinch. If I were to do it again, I'd look into depinning the C3245 connector and transferring it to the C2503 one in lieu of building a whole new harness. I suppose it'd be hard to go revert but I'd have no reason to revert.

I followed the wiring diagrams and made the following pin mapping in hopes of making it easier for the next person.

Signal Name	Color	C215 (Floor Shifter)	Floor Shifter (C3245)	Column Shifter C2503
GND	BLK/BLU	11	9	16
VBAT	WHT/RED	18	1	1
HS2 Can+	GRN/ORG	3	3	2
HS2 Can-	GRY/BLU	4	2	3
SigRtn	BLU	15	17	9
LF Door Unlock	GRY/ORG	7	4	10
SST+	GRY	5	5	11
SST-	GRN/VIO	14	6	12
Can+	BLU/GRN	1	14	13
Can-	WHT/VIO	2	13	14
LF Door Satus	GRN/VIO	6	15	15

Awesome! Thanks for providing that. I still think its wild they are so different from each other.

I too used a few extras but I found getting the Molex crimpers really helped not messing them up.

 

[Trainmaster]

Anyone give any thought to how the airbags are involved with the jump seat? I know there's an indicator that will check to see if the belt is buckled. Is there a sensor that tells the Restraint Module if the seat is occupied..?. And it looks like Forscan can be programmed for these. But I'm probably playing with myself to even worry about them. There doesn't appear to be a tensioner that fires on the jump seat buckle when airbags go off.

I'm putting a jumpseat in an Expedition XL police SSV; which came with no seat and no console; probably a similar situation as the Police F-150 SSV.

Any idea what kind of harness would give me power to the USB and 12V sockets behind the jumpseat for the second row? Lots of parts book and eBay searching got me nowhere.

 

[PBXL]

Anyone give any thought to how the airbags are involved with the jump seat? I know there's an indicator that will check to see if the belt is buckled, and a sensor that tells the Restraint Module if the seat is occupied... And it looks like Forscan can be programmed for these. But I'm probably playing with myself to even worry about them. Is there a tensioner that fires on the jump seat buckle when airbags go off?

I'm putting a jumpseat in an Expedition XL police SSV; which came with no seat and no console; probably a similar situation as the Police F-150 SSV.

Any idea what kind of harness would give me power to the USB and 12V sockets behind the jumpseat for the second row? Lots of parts book and eBay searching got me nowhere.

Adding a jumpseat to an Expedition... I wish you the best of luck on your quest. That would be amazing and I wish more SUVs had that as an option.

 

[JCsTruck]

Impressive because:

1. That was very involved work.
2. You did it in 16 hours.
3. You did all that with 6 kids and still somehow found the time to do that and your wife didn't kill you. .
4. You found the time to write up this impressive post (+ 2 hrs).

 

[PulpoGrande]

Impressive because:

1. That was very involved work.
2. You did it in 16 hours.
3. You did all that with 6 kids and still somehow found the time to do that and your wife didn't kill you. .
4. You found the time to write up this impressive post (+ 2 hrs).

Luckily I only have 4 Kids! 6 total family members. I work from home so it was ok to have the truck down for a few days, and as you can see in the pictures I did most of the electrical in the house. That probably helped keep me out of the dog house since I could help with kiddos when needed.

Honestly spending time on these forums and learning from other peoples work helped me get it done efficiently. There were no real surprises in the process!

 

[Trainmaster]

Here's the 2023 Expedition XL with the jump seat installed. Now I have to find a middle seatbelt buckle. Seems like the seat has no wiring in it for an occupancy sensor or a belt tensioner. Not sure if any of them have that on the F150s as I only have the Expedition and its wiring diagram.

The XL Police Package came with the column shifter and a "consolette," which is a plastic tray screwed to the rubber floor mat. Also have to find a small harness for the rear seat USB and 12V jacks.

Here's a tip: If you mount the brackets to the console first and remove the plastic tray on the very bottom (two screws) to access the floor, you can mount the entire assembly - brackets and console with the four main mounting bolts straight into the floor.

A nice modification thanks to the F-150s.

 

[veloverland]

What would the front panel trim look like if I just did a console delete? And how involved is that? In my current truck I deleted the jumpseat to make room for my cooler. The new truck I'm going to get has a center console and I'm wondering how onerous it is to delete.

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