5 Alternative Materials Used for Truck Seat Covers

For around a hundred years, heavy-duty materials have been a part of truck manufacturing. These vehicles receive use as haulers and work units, so they’re generally made a whole lot tougher than your average car. This differentiation includes things like the gauge of the metals used, the thickness of the axels and frames, and more. It even includes seat covers. By and large, seat covers for trucks have very durable materials like leather at the heart of their construction. Of course, in the modern era, tons of trucks use a variety of blended fabrics, but leather has always been the go-to material for the thickness, toughness and reliability of truck seats.

 Are there any other options? The good news is that you can find a ton of different truck seat covers on the market today made out of high-quality materials. There are a ton of alternatives to those classic truck seats. So, when you’re buying seat covers, you have a whole lot of options on your hands. Here are five of the most popular options out there for seat covers today.

5 Materials You Can Find for Seat Covers

1: Nylon

 Nylon isn’t anything overly specific per se. It’s merely the name given to an entire family of synthetic polymers that are thermoplastics. The great thing about this particular plastic is that it has a silky smooth texture, and turning it into a fabric is easy. Of all the different materials one might find in use today for seat covers, nylon is undoubtedly the most popular, as it has been in use since DuPont began researching the material in the 1920s. That’s nearly a hundred years that this synthetic material has been around, which means almost a century’s worth of experimentation and tweaking formulas to ensure that the fabric is comfortable, durable and a great addition to any truck.

2: Vinyl

 When most people think of vinyl, they’re either imagining those old records from years past or thinking about a variety of flooring options that people use in their bathrooms and kitchen. Similar to nylon, vinyl is a group of polymers that come from vinyl monomers, a chemical group. The process is long and complicated, but suffice to say that the result makes a pretty good fabric, especially for truck seat covers. The material is durable, able to last a long time, and it’s incredibly easy to clean, which makes it a great alternative choice.

3: PVC

 Technically speaking, PVC is from the vinyl family though a bit different chemically. It stands for Polyvinyl chloride, and it’s a material that’s in very plentiful supply. Many people out there know PVC for being the undisputed king of plumbing pipes that came along and replaced copper after many generations. Though vinyl can be created very thin and soft like fabric, PVC remains much more rigid. PVC is the sort of material that makes good seat covers if you work a tough job and really want protection, or if you’re hauling stuff and don’t want to rip up your seats.

4: Neoprene

 Most people think of rubber when they think neoprene, and with good reason. Neoprene is the material so often used and associated with those SCUBA underwater divers’ suits. It’s very elastic, very resistant to water and moisture in general, and it’s incredibly durable and able to handle even sharp objects. Technically speaking, it is a synthetic rubber, though it does great with seat covers if people need the protection of PVC with the comfort of vinyl.

5: Polycotton

 Polycotton is a blend of natural and synthetic fibres and is undoubtedly the most comfortable alternative seat cover listed. So many of today’s automobile seats contain cotton, polyester, or a blend of both. Cotton gives the seats that plush, lush comfort, while the polyester gives them more durability and an ability to be cleaned well. So when it comes to seat covers, this is the material that’s most like the original seats.

 These are just five of the many alternative materials that you can find with seat covers for your truck. When seeking out a cover, make sure you understand the material so you know how comfortable it will be, how easy it is to clean, and how long it will last. It’s important information to know.