Club Cab Back Seat: What Fits, What It Costs, and What Is Actually Legal

Quick answer: "club cab back seat" covers two completely different products. One is a comfort cushion that makes the hard space behind your front seats usable. The other is a certified passenger seat with belt anchorages that a traffic officer will accept. They cost different money, come from different trades, and confusing them is how people end up with a child sitting on an unanchored pad. This guide separates them.

The cab-and-a-half back seat options in South Africa, ranked

Ranked for a buyer who wants a comfortable, good-looking rear seat and is not trying to certify a passenger seat. If belts and legality are the point, skip to the certified-seat section — a different list applies.

We make number one on that list, so read it with that in mind — the reasoning is in the sections below, and where a cheaper option is genuinely the right buy we say so.

First, the naming, because it causes half the ordering mistakes

Club Cab, Xtra Cab, Super Cab, King Cab, Space Cab, Extended Cab, cab-and-a-half, 1.5 cab, half cab. These all describe the same body style: a bakkie with a stretched cab and a space behind the front seats, sometimes with small fold-down jump seats. The name changes with the badge, not the vehicle.

Whatever yours is called, give any supplier the make, model, year and a photo of the rear cabin. The badge name alone is not enough to order from.

The part most listings skip: cushion or certified seat?

This is the question that decides everything else, so here it is without the hedging.

A comfort cushion — including ours — is upholstery. It sits in the rear compartment, makes a hard plastic or metal space comfortable and presentable, and lifts out when you need the room. It has no seat-belt anchorages and does not come with belts. It is right for short trips, kids on a farm road, workers moving between sites, dogs, and keeping gear off bare metal.

A certified passenger seat is a fitment. It needs engineered mounting points and seat-belt anchorages that meet the South African standards for restraint anchorages — SANS 1430 is the standard usually cited, with SANS 10168 referenced around installation — and it should be fitted by an installer who can hand you documentation that will stand up at a roadworthy inspection.

One thing worth knowing before you shop: most cab-and-a-half bakkies leave the factory with no rear seat belts and no belt anchorage points behind the front seats at all. That is exactly why a compliant rear seat is a specialist fitment rather than a bolt-in purchase — the anchorages usually have to be engineered in, not just bolted to existing points. Whoever you buy from, ask precisely what is being certified: the seat, the belts, the anchorages, or the installation. Those are four different things.

If your bakkie already has rear seat belts, say so when you order. Some cab-and-a-half models do have factory belts or anchorage points fitted behind the front seats. Where that is the case we cut the cushion with belt openings on request, at no extra cost, so your existing factory belts still feed through and buckle normally instead of being buried under upholstery. To be precise about what that does and does not mean: the restraint is your vehicle's own factory belt, anchored to the vehicle body by the manufacturer. Our cushion simply stops getting in its way. We are not adding belts, anchorages or certification, and if your bakkie has none fitted, a cushion cannot create them.

On SABS: our cushion is built from SABS-approved materials, which speaks to the quality and safety of the foam and the build. That is a materials standard and it is not the same thing as seat-belt or anchorage certification, which is a separate standard entirely. We would rather spell that out than let the letters do work they should not do.

Your actual options in South Africa, cheapest first

Here is the honest landscape, including the people we compete with. Prices move and stock changes, so treat these as a guide and confirm before you pay.

Comfort cushions and pads — roughly R950 to R1,700

Model-specific seat pads appear on Takealot for the Hilux Xtra Cab and for Ranger, Isuzu, Nissan and Mitsubishi Super Cab variants, at the cheap end of the market. Buckbag SA sells a padded club-cab seat in ripstop fabric with high-density foam at around R1,290. Bob Shop lists black imitation-leather club-cab rear seats around R1,400 in a removable two-piece build, with SABS-approved belts as an option. Kindo / Seat-Covers do a Ford Ranger T6 SuperCab bench in 50mm chipfoam at about R1,650 including VAT.

These are genuinely fine for occasional use. What you are trading away at this price is usually the base: foam-only or thin chipboard, which is what sags in the middle and cracks on a corrugated road.

Benches and made-to-measure seats — roughly R2,400 to R4,000

Booxe makes a bench to measure for the 5th-generation Ford Ranger SuperCab (2023 onward) at roughly R2,395 to R3,095. Our own Bakkie Back Seat Cushion is R2,499, built on a solid wood base with a leather-look cover. Marlin 4X4 in Delmas do a Toyota Hilux extended cab rear bench at about R3,375. Baobab make a universal 1.3m Super Cab / Xtra Cab bench at roughly R3,499 to R4,000, delivered nationwide on a 14 to 21 working day lead time.

Note that "bench" in this bracket still usually means seating furniture, not a certified restraint system. Ask each supplier directly whether belts and anchorages are included, because several do not include them and say so only if asked.

Certified seats with belt kits — quoted per vehicle

Tauro supply cab-and-a-half rear seats, including sets of two single seats, with SABS-approved seat-belt options. Airbag Repair Centre do rear seat-belt installation for Toyota, Ford, Nissan and VW Super Cab models. This is the bracket to be in if passengers are the point. Expect to confirm your exact model and year, and expect installation rather than delivery.

Custom foam, upholstery and used

New Foam in Cape Town's northern suburbs make custom bakkie club cab seat mattresses to vehicle measurements. McCarthy's Trim do custom rear-seat padding and upholstery for extended cabs. Stealth Seat Covers in Pietermaritzburg do custom-fit covers if you already have a frame and foam. Handel Street in Durban supply upholstery kits only — worth knowing, because they do not sell complete seats and people sometimes assume otherwise. And Gumtree carries used OEM extended-cab seats intermittently, which is often the cheapest route to a real seat if you can find your exact model.

Where we fit, and where we do not

We make a comfort cushion. We are not a seat-fitment business and we do not supply belt kits, so if this article has convinced you that you need a certified seat, the names above are more use to you than we are.

What we do differently in the cushion bracket is the base. Most rear-seat cushions are a foam slab, or foam glued to thin chipboard. Chipboard swells with moisture and snaps under point loads, which is why those cushions sag in the middle by month six. Ours is built on a solid wood base carrying the weight, with high-density mattress-grade foam doing only the comfort work, under a hexagon-stitched leather-look cover that wipes clean. That is the whole reason we sit at R2,499 rather than R1,290, and if a foam pad is all you need, buy the foam pad.

It drops in without bolts or drilling and lifts out when you want the space back. Free delivery nationwide, a 30-day money-back guarantee, a 365-night trial and a 10-year warranty.

See the Bakkie Back Seat Cushion →

A short checklist before you order anything

• Decide first: comfort, or legally carrying passengers? They are different purchases.
• Send make, model, year and the manufacturer's cab name.
• Send a photo of the rear cabin, including any existing mounting points.
• Measure the width and depth of the space rather than trusting a model name.
• Ask explicitly whether frame, brackets, belts and installation are included in the price.
• If belts are involved, ask who certifies the installation and what documentation you get.

Frequently asked questions

Is a bakkie back seat cushion a legal passenger seat?

No. A cushion, a foam pad or a universal bench is not a certified passenger seat, no matter how well it is made. A rear seat used to carry passengers needs engineered mounting points and seat-belt anchorages meeting the South African standards for restraint anchorages (SANS 1430 is the one usually cited, with SANS 10168 referenced for installation), and it should be fitted by someone who can give you documentation that stands up at a roadworthy inspection. Cushions are for comfort: short trips, kids on a farm road, workers moving between sites, dogs, and keeping knees and gear off bare metal.

What is the difference between a Club Cab, Xtra Cab, Super Cab, King Cab and Extended Cab?

Nothing structural. They are manufacturer names for the same body style: a bakkie with a stretched cab and a space behind the front seats, sometimes with small jump seats. Toyota calls it the Hilux Xtra Cab, Ford the Ranger SuperCab, Isuzu the D-Max Extended Cab (older KB models were Space Cab), Nissan the Navara King Cab, Mazda the BT-50 FreeStyle Cab and Mitsubishi the Triton Club Cab. South Africans also say cab-and-a-half, 1.5 cab or half cab. When you order anything for that space, give the supplier the make, model, year and a photo rather than relying on the name.

What does a club cab back seat cost in South Africa?

It depends which of two very different products you are buying. Comfort cushions and pads run roughly R950 to R1,700. Made-to-measure and universal benches run roughly R2,400 to R4,000. Certified seats with SABS-approved seat-belt kits are quoted per vehicle and installed. The Mr Mattress Bakkie Back Seat Cushion is R2,499, which sits above the basic foam cushions because it is built on a solid wood base rather than chipboard or foam alone.

Can I fit a rear seat and seat belts to a bakkie that never had them?

Sometimes, but it is a fitment job, not a shopping job. It depends on whether the vehicle has engineered anchorage points or whether compliant ones can be added, and it needs to be done by an installer who works to the relevant restraint-anchorage standards and can document the work for roadworthy purposes. Specialist seat and seat-belt installers do this. Buying a bench online and bolting it in yourself is not the same thing.

What should I send a supplier before ordering?

Make, model and year; what the manufacturer calls the cab (Xtra Cab, SuperCab, King Cab and so on); a photo of the rear cabin including any existing mounting points; the width and depth of the space; and a clear statement of whether you want a comfort cushion or a seat that can legally carry passengers with belts. Most bad outcomes in this category come from those last two being confused.

Do you make a cushion for an odd-shaped rear compartment?

Yes. If your bakkie, panel van or older model has a rear space that is not a standard cab-and-a-half shape, send measurements to 087 292 1957 on WhatsApp and we quote a custom cut with the same solid wood base and leather-look cover.

Bakkie back seat cushions by region: Gauteng · Cape Town · KZN · Free State · Mpumalanga · Limpopo · Eastern Cape · North West

Also see: Bakkie Mattress for the load bin · Custom-cut foam

Prices and availability quoted for other suppliers were correct at the time of writing and change without notice. This article is general information about product categories, not legal or engineering advice: confirm any seat or seat-belt installation with a qualified installer and your licensing authority.