Why You Should Put a Bose Ride in Your Truck

Sorry for the long post, but if you own your own truck I highly recommend the Bose Ride and below is a copy of a post I just put up on my blog (http://edmaclane.blogspot.com)

Also, this is not a paid endorsement and I don't work for Bose. This is my personal opinion of the Bose Ride. I have a Bose Ride in my truck and I would buy another one if I were to buy a new truck. If I add company trucks I'd even try to fit them in the budget for my company trucks for my employee drivers. My reasons are explained below.



Initial Impression of Bose Ride



The following post is a copy of a post and comments that followed the post. (Original post is from October 2012.)

500 Miles on a Bose Ride

I got my Bose Ride System installed yesterday. Last night I drove my first 500 miles in the new seat and I like it. Money well spent.


Many people focus on the fact that the Bose Ride System has a $4,000 premium over other truck seats ($6,000 for Bose). I'd like to address that with the following points.
1) Comparing the Bose Ride to conventional air ride seats is fine, but it should also be acknowledged that doing so is an apples to oranges comparison. Looking only at price as the reason not to buy then with that kind of reason why not save money and buy a seat without a suspension? That's cheaper than an air ride seat.


2) Focusing only on the price and ignoring the big picture is short-sighted. You can save money by not having a working a/c, heat, air ride suspension and all kinds of things if not spending money is the one and only priority. If you live your life as though it matters to you and take your health seriously (I know many don't) then it's an easy decision and Bose makes it about as easy as they can for an owner-operator to purchase.


3) Look at everything other than the price. To most drivers it probably makes sense right away and they would like to try it out. I don't know of anything else available on the market to do what the Bose Ride System does. And even if you could get a truck suspension to do what the Bose Ride does how much would that cost? Can you get a payment plan and change your mind for any reason in the first 60 days and get a 100% refund (if that suspension existed)?


Bose offers a 0% payment plan ($2,000 down and the remainder over the next 23 months) (this makes it affordable) and a 60 day trial period with a 100% money back guarantee (this makes it fairly risk free and eliminates buyers remorse). If you can't fit that payment in your budget you should consider selling your truck because you're probably on your way out of business.


Money can't buy some things in life (such as a healthy back).


First impression after a 500 mile trip... Feels more like riding on air than a regular air ride seat and also eliminates vibration. Even on a smooth road in a regular seat some vibration is transferred through the seat, but not in the Bose seat. You're legs move more because the truck is still bouncing up and down while your body is floating over the contours of the road. My only dislike is the seat cushion is too firm. My wish for improvement is Bose Ride System for the cab and truck suspension so I don't feel the road at all.



Comment 1

Reader Comment from BH: Thanks for the review Ed. How about an update in a month when you have gotten used to the new feel and ride? Even with the payment plan it could be a hard sell at my house. Xxxx wants a new desk for the home office (her office) and I said that when she puts in enough overtime to cover the cost, we'd get her one (she's already worked two Saturdays). $6000 could be a lot of overtime for me!​

Reader Comment from BK: I sat in one at Louisville year before last and liked it. Didn't know about payment plan. I might look into that. I bought a nice seat about 6 months ago. It has heavy duty base and very comfortable.​

BH, this is my counter argument to you. Of course I know I don't know your household budget and other important details so with that said here I go.


I think it is often a hard sell to someone who doesn't drive a truck full-time. If you look at what driving a truck does to your body and how the Bose Ride helps counter a wide range of vibration frequencies then what's the down side to that? Nothing. But then we look at the price and immediately compare it to devices that cannot do what the Bose does. Well, the price of those other products is irrelevant because it's comparing apples to oranges.


I understand some drivers may actually prefer an air ride seat rather than the Bose, but they can't know that until they've actually gave one some seat time.


Of course there is a limit that one can spend on things. If the Bose Ride cost $60,000 then it would probably be cost prohibitive for most operations. But at $6,000 well I'm about to spend almost that much on maintenance to my truck on Wednesday and those repairs won't come close to isolating my body from the constant vibrations like the Bose Ride will.


To me it's a no brainer. I'd like to know what are the objections to the Bose Ride if it were only two or three thousand dollars. If there aren't any, then the problem is the fixation on the price and comparing that price to things that aren't even close to being what the Bose Ride is.


[video=youtube_share;T_G9GCpWAcM]http://youtu.be/T_G9GCpWAcM[/video]


Imagine you're a factory worker and you work on a machine where you sit at the controls and this machine vibrates at various frequencies the whole time and you often work long shifts. The seat used to be bolted directly to the machine without any shock absorption. Then long ago when there was an invention they started using the current seat. Which helps with some of the harsher bumps but you still receive a wide range of vibraions all day long. Now there is a new technology out but the cheap ### company won't make the upgrade because they're too #### cheap to pay $6,000 to protect the workers. They don't care because they don't have to run the machine and it isn't their body taking the abuse that will have long lasting health affects. That doesn't seem right, does it? I bet if the boss's office was constantly vibrating while being bounced, jostled and pounded non-stop they would get that new seat technology for management.


BK, I think that is a reasonable dilemma. If you have a nice riding seat and you just bought it you're probably not going to get your money back out of it if you sell it and so to turn around now and buy another seat would be tough to feel good about even if it was to buy another $2,000 seat.



Comment 2

Reader Comment from M: How does the seat handle older concrete roads and where roads meet bridges? Do you still get that jolt? Or is the seat not designed to compensate for those type of ride issues? I notice even on smoother roads vibration does still come up through the seat, is the main purpose of the seat to eliminate those sort of issues? Just a few questions....​

The jolts are eliminated. Although I have bottomed out a few times, but it wasn't harsh. I talked with another driver that has the Bose and he noticed in certain dips in the road..or a set of dips...sometimes the seat will bottom out where you didn't think it should have. For me it hasn't happened much and it wasn't jarring.

The seat is designed to smooth out the ride over a wide range of incoming vibrations (or you could think of them as wave frequencies). You still move up and down so it's not like sitting still, but it's more like riding on air than an air ride seat. It's smooth and you gently float up and down without the jarring. Or sometimes the seat stays in the same place while the truck floor is moving up and down. Check out the video's and information on the Bose website.

Some vibrations/bumps/movement still transfer. But a lot less than normal. Bose says they eliminate about 90% of what you're normally subjected to. That's probably about right in my un-scientific trial of just using the seat and not taking measurements to objectively measure the data. If the incoming impact is an up/down motion the Bose Ride can reduce or eliminate it pretty well. But if it's from front/back or side then not so much because the mechanism in the seat counters up/down. So for example if you pull a tanker that sloshes you'll still get the front/back slap transferred to you. Or if you have a wobble you'll still feel that.

The only thing I don't like about the Bose Ride so far is the seat cushions are too firm. The one for my back doesn't bother me, but the one I sit on does. I also noticed that I can see the outline of the cushion through the fiber and I've only logged around 30 hours/1500 miles in the seat. Seeing the cushion outline isn't a big deal to me, but reinforces my hunch that to try to get the overall cost down they skimped on the actual seat part and went with lower cost options. And there aren't any options for changing out the seat tops.

So while I feel better at the end of a long day of driving compared to before...my butt starts hurting in the beginning of my shift. Which didn't happen with my old seat (or in other seats, new and old, in other trucks I have driven). The problem is the seat cushion. A Bose rep said some people reported they had to break in the seat (I guess they got used to it?). I don't want to hear about break in time for the first time after I have the product installed and find out how it feels. How about a seat without break in time? The suggestion that "maybe the seat needs broken in" is false and is an attempt to get you to forgive an inferior component of an expensive product. If the seat cushion technology used is also something special and requires break in then why is there no mention of this in the rest of the information about the Bose Ride? I'll tell you why...because it's nonsense. There's no break in required, but if you give it more time maybe you'll get used to it. Or just deal with it. Or get Bose to send you a pad.

Problem/opportunity... Hello Bose or aftermarket? Biggest complaint I have is the same others have... the seat is too firm. Which immediately brings up the next problem... no other option for changing seat tops.... can't use just the Bose Ride system bottom (where all the tech is).

Bose doesn't come out and tell you this, but if you tell them the seat is too firm they will send you a seat pad/cover that is something like memory foam to slip over top of your seat cushion. I didn't get mine yet, but I'm going to ask them to send me one. If nothing else it's a let down that this is a problem with this product and this is the solution. I know the seat is a hard sale to make and adding a quality seat on top of the technology will only make it more expensive, but when you do finally purchase one you don't want to find out that sitting in it for more than an hour or two is uncomfortable and the solution is a slip on pad.

Even with that complain/rant I would still recommend the seat. It's the only thing available on the market to do what it does to protect the driver against the constant vibrations they're subjected to. Other things help like alignment, round, centered and balanced wheels, suspension, drive line, engine damper and so on, but they all only do so much. And for where all that stuff leaves off you have the Bose Ride to absorb whats left over.