Rear seat ideas

OK, so with the cage the bucket idea will not work out as after test fitting the seat, my head was right on the halo crossbars (and they are tight against the roof).
Anyways, I'm toying with couple ideas now and I'm wondering if anyone has tried any of them:
1. Stick with the rear buckets, but use buckets from a CJ (or similar). Their benefit is that they are not as high on the cushion park (the underside bracket seems to be way shallower which allows for lower mounting point).
2. Keep the bench but modify it. One idea I've got now is to keep the back piece in place but take the seat cushion and split it into two pieces (or find two cushions that would work). The split would allow for isntallation of a center console piece where I could keep a first aid kit and some other items (that are good to have a quick access to). It would also allow me to keep one cushion in or both, so that if I have one passenger only I can strap down tools, fridge or whatever else I got in the place where the other cushion was.

How big/comfortable do they need to be? I've seen some old Land Rovers that have seats mounted in the "bed" on the sides. When someone isn't sitting in them they are spring loaded to fold up against the rear cushion, somewhat low profile. Some pick up trucks have similar seats in the back of the cab, but they usually seem to be much narrower and not as comfortable as the Land Rover seats. I sat in one for a short trip and it wasn't too bad, and I'm not exactly small (just under 6 ft.). HTH!

YJ / TJ rear seat - so you can hack them rear fenders WAAAAY in if need be...

XJ_ranger is on to something!

If you put in a TJ seat and took the time to fab up the correct mounts, you would have a fold-and-tumble rear seat that would be easily removed through one of the rear doors. (and for a bench seat they're really comfortable! :laugh3: )

nhrocker said:

XJ_ranger is on to something!

If you put in a TJ seat and took the time to fab up the correct mounts, you would have a fold-and-tumble rear seat that would be easily removed through one of the rear doors. (and for a bench seat they're really comfortable! :laugh3: )

Click to expand...

Hmmm, not a bad idea, but I want to be able to set it up for 0, 1 or 2 people in the back. That's why I'm considering the CJ seats (or similar).
I'd love to get some rover seats and put them in the back, but I doubt I will be able to get any of those at a reasonable price.

Anyways, I wish that the frame on the bottom of the XJ seats didn't have so much crap on it (I'd have to cut and redo the whole bottom frame piece to make it work )

nhrocker said:

How big/comfortable do they need to be? I've seen some old Land Rovers that have seats mounted in the "bed" on the sides. When someone isn't sitting in them they are spring loaded to fold up against the rear cushion, somewhat low profile. Some pick up trucks have similar seats in the back of the cab, but they usually seem to be much narrower and not as comfortable as the Land Rover seats. I sat in one for a short trip and it wasn't too bad, and I'm not exactly small (just under 6 ft.). HTH!

Click to expand...

They don't have to be extremely comfortable, as long as they don't make the passengers feel like killing me after they recover from the pain

Anyways, if the seats are anything like the seats I had in the 97 extra cab ranger they are a torture seat. If they look like (or are somewhat similar to) the 3rd row seating I saw in a recent model range rover then that's definately the way to go.

Go to the junk yard and look at other seats....I know old escort seats used to be popular because of how low they sat. Im sure if you want buckets you could find something even better then CJ seats. Although I do like the idea of a TJ or YJ seat. I wanted to put buckets in mine so I could mount the 35 inch spare in between them somehow and keep some space for other things...Besides....a tire between the kids would keep them from fighting....If I could fine a mount strong enough to keep the tire there and not land on one of them(or me) in a wreck or rollover.