Rear seat with good support for a kid?

I'v got a little bit of a quandary and need some suggestions. My son is 5 and loves to go wheeling with me and my wife. He normally rides around town in a booster seat, but after an hour of wheeling with that his neck and back hurt from the bouncing around, even if he does love it. So now when wheeling I put in his old full-sized car seat that doubles as a booster. With a 5-point harness (in the seat, it's attached with a lap belt) and lots of bolstering, it makes it really comfortable for him.

Problem is, he's less than an inch from being too big for the seat and he's already over the weight limit by a few pounds. What options do I have? I've seen the threads on adding headrests to the stock rear bench, but that has no bolstering and he'll still rock around a ton. I thought I saw some aftermarket bench seats, but they appear to have no headrests.

Folks with kids, what do you do?

My little siblings love the back of my Cherokee, they're 4 and 7, but they have nice booster seats that are pretty secure / supportive. Neither one has ever complained about hurting (even when I'm sore).

Also, if your rear suspension is harsh it really beats up the people in the back. My girlfriend's XJ is a lot less fun to ride in than mine because you get tossed around so much. Maybe look into shackle relocation brackets? That's at the top of my list, even though my shackle angle is decent it would ride tons better at a 'perfect' angle.

Edit: another thought, what year is your XJ? My personal experience is that 97+ seats are WAY more comfortable than the older style seats.

It's a 2000 with 4.5" RE leafs and a YJ shackle conversion kit. It's kinda stiff but doesn't seem that harsh. His current booster seat is the super-simple booster with just a platform and a couple handles. No back on it at all.

With the 'moderate' trails we normally run, the rig just tends to rock around a good bit regardless of how nice a suspension it is.

Look into Recaro booster seats. They are not the cheapo bottom pad only, rather they are a full frame seat that uses the factory belts to hold the seat and child in. They have a large head restraint with side bolsters that keep the head from banging side-to-side.

My only complaint is I wish they had 4-5 point belts on the seat.

Dude, I have no suggestions, mine is 18 with his own jeep, but back when he was cute he used to say, "Dada, drive down a bumpy road."

The booster seats we have aren't too expensive, but they have back / head and neck bolsters. We do some pretty rough trails and the little kids love every bump

Fred said:

but back when he was cute he used to say, "Dada, drive down a bumpy road."

Click to expand...

I remember those days:loveu: now, she says "do we have to take the Jeep? It's such a P.O.S....."

Ugh. The kids hate my XJ. In their mom's car they only need boosters, but in mine they have to have the big ol' headrest/back support portion of their car seats. I've seen some how-to's on swapping out a Grand Cherokee back seat (with built-in headrests) for the XJ back seat, but that probably won't solve your booster issue.

Sorry man.

How about some rear bucket seats?

there is some info on this here on pirate http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=860142

my aunt had a cherokee when i was a kid i use to ride around the back no booster seat or anything at the age of 5 this was before all the laws came out and im still here even after a rear end collision but i too am thinking of adding a headrest or something just for safety reasons for my rear passangers