Has anybody put a third row in the back of a 2nd gen? I was thinking of going to the auto wreckers & pulling either a small bench seat or 2 small buckets. Any ideas?

I don't want to spens $1000 for the nice aftermarket seat

 

I used the third row seat from a Dodge Colt wagon. I think it worked pretty well. This mod is great if you have younger kids. But, if you want to fit adults back there, decapitation would help.

 

ya it is for the kiddies. Which way did you face the seat (forward or rear)? Seatbelts? how is the fit? Do you have pictures?

ps - I offer free decapitation for jeep owners wanting a ride in the third row - jk lol

 

I have the seat facing forward. I'll try to post some pictures and give more details later this evening.

 

Itd be cool to replace the standard rear bench with two captains seats, and then relocate the bench to the back of the runner, although I don't think it would work because of the carpeting and whatnot. I'd really like to see pictures of this though

 

I'd love to do that to my 1st gen. It would be hard to get people in and out of the rear seat, though. Maybe the rear-facing ones would be the best with access from the tailgate only!

 

Is it completely legal to have seats facing the opposite way? I can imagine that a cop would throw a fit if pulled over?

 

OK...pictures as promised. Don't give me a hassle about all the junk back there. Keep in mind that these seats weren't in great shape when I got them. I've had them for several years and I haven't done anything to keep them in good condition myself.

I know yours is a 2nd gen, but it should be similar.





As you can see the seatbelts are mounted to the seat in the center. In the second image, you can see the seatbelt buckle at the side. This is bolted to the floor. This seat normally has headrests, but I have them sitting in my shed somewhere.



Here you can see where one of the buckles is bolted. Also, you can see one of the latches that holds the rear of the seat down. In the Colt, the latch is mounted in a pocket is below the level of the floor covered with a plastic panel. Normally the back of the seat has a carpeted cover....this is another thing in my shed.




These are some pictures of the front mounts. On the Colt, the floor bends down at the front of the seat to give the passengers some leg room. So, these mounts started out with a bend of 90*. I had to cut a wedge out of them and hammer them flat. Since the rear mounts were no longer sunk into the floor, the front mounts needed to be a raised slightly. You may notice the high tech approach of using 1x2 pieces of lumber that I applied.



The seat is designed to fold up. In this postion, in a Colt, it would be sitting snug against the second row of seats. But, where I have it mounted, it sits in the middle of the cargo area. It isn't a very useful position for me.



I do find it very helpful that the back of the seat fold nearly flat. The kids have very few problems getting in through the tailgate.

I would say that there is probably enough headroom for someone ~5'2" tall on the driver's side. The passenger side has the rear wiper motor hanging down and shorter people should sit on this side.

 

Gibby has a 3rd row in the back of upndair.... I have seen them, but its been years..dont remeber much else...

 

I thot Jeep owners had already been lobotomized.

OH,, It appears that the 3rd row is pretty close to the back glass. It would be really good to have the headrests in there for passengers in the event of a rear-end collision.

Mike in AR

 

I just scored a bench seat. My neighbour cleaned out his garage & had one sitting in there. I think it is from an old magic wagon but it came with the seatbelts integrated into the seat. It is one of the removable benches so I need to go & find some brackets to bolt to the floor, this way I can remove it. The back fold forward & the seat slides front & back. It is a 3 seater but really on 2 people any bigger than a 6 year old would fit. I haven't measured it yet but it looks like it will fit. The only down side is that there might not be much head room? It is grey & my interior is blue - oh well I guess I will spring for a seat cover

 

What about the rear seats out of a Brat, you know, the ones that have the handle bars on them? I think that they wll fit in the rear.

 

Yes, it is legal. The new (or older ones) Dodge Caravans (or it was some kind of van I saw) have a seat in the back that faces the opposite way, as do a lot of other newer model cars. As long as there are belts, a police officer can not pull you over for having a rear facing seat.

Also, on the pictures above, how close is that back row seat to the original rear seat? Did you have to do any extra welding and drilling?

 

ive seen a few ford explorers with a third row seat flush against the second row seat facing back. so i asume its leagal.

on another note.... Ford =

 

We had a merceds wagon growing up, it had rear facing seats from the factory, so I assume its legal as long as you have a leagal seatbelt.

 

My wife has tasked me with putting a third seat in my 4runner since we have 4 kids and can't put them in one vehicle right now and she'd like to be able to.

Any more news on which seats work and how to mount? The previous pictures are obviously not working any more.

Thanks!

 

A suk rear bench may fit the bill just right.

 

Not sure who's thread I saw it on but someone had a nice jeep jump seat that folds forward against the back of the 2nd row seat. He had a link to where he got it aftermarket and I think it was like ~$300.

 

Glad this thread was resurrected... been thinking about this mod for a while. I would def avoid having the seats close to the tailgate of these rigs... I have seen some get rear ended,and they crumple like a paper bag... I was thinking off having the 3rd ow against the back seat, facing the rear... but decided the best mod would be a land cruiser w 3rd row...lol

 

good posting^^ not much room

if you do go through with it don't count on kids fitting back there for very long..
oh and better rear springs
. aftermarket 3rd row seat and a ton of stuff comes up.
http://www.discountvantruck.com/suv3...uv3rdseats.htm