Advice: How to clean King Ranch leather

[SciFi]

A while back I posted a few questions about the care and feeding of an F250 King Ranch I recently picked up on the used market. Most of the questions were answered right away (many thanks, y'all!), but the question about the leather was kinda left hanging.

So, I read the manual. No kidding. Right there in print it said to contact the King Ranch saddle shop (www.krsaddleshop.com) if you have stains in the leather. So I did. The gal that answered the phone seemed to see my questions coming.

My particular case was not unusual. A couple of years on the leather without any visible signs of care. Some stains from coffee, water, food, and the previous owner only knew what else. Her advice? A couple of drops of "no more tears baby shampoo" in some warm water and a soft rag. After that, use a "high quality leather conditioner" every two weeks for two months to get some moisture back into the leather. After that, maybe every 6 months, depending on the shape of the leather. Interestingly enough, she wasn't pushing the King Ranch Leather Conditioner. When I asked what was considered "high quality" she said "well, Brothers is one..." along with the KR leather conditioner. I'll try the KR first and let you know.

I tried the shampoo this evening. The water turned out pretty dark when I was done, and the leather looked a bit better, but I won't know until after it dries. I can certainly tell that it's thirsty though.

More after the first conditioning. I'll try to remember "before" and "after" pics.

[Banshee34]

So sorry your leather question was missed!

I actually got a cleaning and conditioning set from Costco that works wonders!!!!! I.E.,.... dogs, coffee, sand, soda, everything you can think of while traveling!

How much were they charging for the King Ranch stuff?

[SciFi]

Please don't misunderstand. No heartache here. There were a lot of questions there.

The King Ranch conditioner is $9 for an 8oz. bottle.

[Rodslinger]

Cool - thanks Amigo! Pics would be great if you get a chance.

[SciFi]

OK, lesson #1 with a bullet: Do not under any circumstances SCRUB this leather with anything. I used a standard wash cloth and really got on a couple of small stains and ended up with suede. I'm hoping the conditioner will help here or at least not highlight the damage. We'll see.

Where I didn't lean into the scrubbing, the leather looks really good now, if not a bit dry. Some of the color has come back and is more even. Just wipe down with a damp cloth under an open palm. The leather will be dark with some light veins running through it. This is OK and will definitely come back to normal. Stop and let the leather dry when you see this.

I'll post an update when I get the KR conditioner applied.

[andrews4691]

I used Kiwi saddle soap on my KR seats ive had the truck from new so no funk to get rid of just "proect and beautify"

[kingranchstroker]

I've had the best luck with the conditioner from the King Ranch website, and it makes the truck smell just like it did when it was new,,, bonus!!!

[2006KR]

My seats, etc are great but show a bit of aging which to me looks good, but the top of my steering wheel is much darker. Anywho, I read somewhere (F150 Online I think) about KR leather that it could be cleaned pretty effectively using unscented baby wipes (again, no hard rubbing). After 3 or 4 wipings, the color is starting to come back to the original shade.

[SciFi]

That's too funny. I had my 2 year old with me shortly after I got the truck and used her wipes on the wheel too. Only had two of them, but they did the trick real well. They ended up black and the wheel had a nice "aged" color.

Anyway, it's probably time to post an update to this. I have used three bottles of the KR conditioner on the front seats to date. 4.5 months later the drivers seat looks just like 2006KR described his, aged but good. The passenger seat will likely take a bit more. One interesting thing to note is that not all of the leather came back to (what I think is ) it's original softness. The edges seem to be quite a bit harder or stiffer than the middle sections. This might be by design. I haven't been in another well maintained 3 yr old KR.