Rear fold and tumble- don't do it like I did.....

[peteinjp]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Johnny- unfortunately I don't have any shots of the seats before I put them in. The difficulty was that they do not mount to a flat surface easily. 3dogs- yes rounding the corners would be a good thing. I was planning on that as well as capping them just simply ran out of time. I'll get it next time its out though and post some pics up. How would you tie in to the body? At first I thought of running a longer bar that the front could also tie into. I'd have to remove the stock tie in in the front to do so. I looked at what was anchoring the bolts for seats and seat belts in my other cars to get an idea of how the industry is required to do it- often if was not much more than a smallish section of thicker plate welded to the sheet metal of the floor. For race harnesses they often just say put some big washers in under the mount. In this case however the frame has to hold the entire weight of the seat and passengers so maybe I should beef it up a bit. Usually that would be accomplished by 3 mounting points per side and in this case there are only 2.

And the reason you should not do it the way I did is that you should find something that would be easier to get into the truck. This took too much time to fab up due to the fact that the seat belts were not integrated and the bases for the seats were not for a flat surface (and because I'm damn slow!) The outboard supports were 2" or more lower than the inboard. I live in japan and I can not read- so I just have to go with what I can get easily and make it work. If I could have easily found a set of fold and tumble seats with headrests and integrated belts from another 4x4 then that would have been the way to go.

I may be taking it out again and throwing it into a bj43 while I tear into some rust issues on this body. Other thoughts on improvements are surely welcome.

Thanks-

Pete

 

[cjgoode]

Very impressive work. Great job

 

[3doghouse]

...3dogs...How would you tie in to the body?

Pete, I was really just grasping at straws to find anything that we shouldn't do. You did a great job, and the project looks very well thought out.

I am not trained as an engineer, so I tend to over-engineer everything for the "belt and suspenders" approach. I was thinking more along the lines of anchoring to the body mounts or frame, but that's probably overkill. The factory front seats are basically anchored by sheet metal only.

And the reason you should not do it the way I did is that you should find something that would be easier to get into the truck. This took too much time to fab up due to the fact that the seat belts were not integrated and the bases for the seats were not for a flat surface (and because I'm damn slow!) The outboard supports were 2" or more lower than the inboard. I live in japan and I can not read- so I just have to go with what I can get easily and make it work. If I could have easily found a set of fold and tumble seats with headrests and integrated belts from another 4x4 then that would have been the way to go...

Again, you did a really good job, and I haven't seen a fold-and-tumble option I like better than yours.

 

[77HesterSue]

Nice work! Thanks for all the photos, especially the one of your kids!

 

[lostmarbles]

Lovely job Pete.

I made up 3 rear rearward-facing seats for the back of mine from office chairs (off all things). I have no pics but they had a similar arrangement of having a piece of solid pipe threaded through the bases of all three to solidly lock them all together. While this setup wasn't anywhere near as well-engineered (or as sophisticated as yours because it couldn't fold out of the way), I could install and remove them with just 3 bolts.

Now that our children are adults (and grandkids don't seem to be on the agenda) I went on a weight-reducing spree a few years ago and threw out those seats (that had seen many years of heavy usage), my roofrack, my bullbar, my airconditioniing etc etc to enable my little 2977cc B to compete better on the hills in highway traffic.

I was always conscious of trying to minimise weight so I certainly appreciate what I see of your fabricate work because it looks to me like you've done the same in your design. (Concentrating on safety and functionality while avoiding the tendency to beef components up too much where it is unnecessary).

Well done!

 

[Weber Sarge]

The only options that may have been better are some of the flat-floor minivan seats that are removable - and with that you'd have to cut up the floor to mount the rail inserts and latching systems . Don't knock what you've done - great build and from my fab knowledge well built and stronger than necessary . Your daughter is adorable , btw ....I'd keep her in a second . LOL....
Sarge

 

[lelandEOD]

Good job on this project! I'm in the same boat as you with regard to child seating. I really wanted to put in the factory jump seats on my resto-mod, but it just wasn't in the cards with a 2-1/2 y/o daughter. I went the easy(er) route and just bought a fold and tumble Bestop bench seat. But, I like what you did with your setup. I heavily reinforced the mounting locations for the seatbelts and bench attachment points as well, out of shear parental paranoia.

When I saw your design, the first thing that popped into my head is that you should try to add a sliding rail attachment to the wheel wells so that the bench seat could slide fore and aft. But, it looks like you've got plenty of room as it is with the seat folded up and out of the way.

Good job!