jeepin08

that looks awesome!

tibbar

That is great, just had a kid and was trying to figure out how to get the car seat in the back without killing myself.

Snap-Off

Sweet mod, practical too. Thanks for the idea!

bags

great idea. especially the fact that using one seat is so ideal with a kid back there. you can access him/her behind the passenger seat or from the tailgate.

makes room for a 'changing station' too

HappyCurmudgeon

The only way i can get mine in there is through the driver's door with the passenger seat fully ahead and forward, finagle it between the seats. Or, with the top down.

Bluewaterrider

But for the safety of your child I HIGHLY suggest swapping out the seat belt latch from a front seat and NOT grinding down the rear buckle.

Hoovis

This is the whole reason I came up with the idea. Now, I can simply open the tailgate, slide in the infant carrier, and it is really quite easy to get it in from the back. Would then need to click it in from the front seat, most likely, but the hassle factor just got cut down by 90%.

Bluewaterrider (or any others who may have knowlwdge to chime in), I haven't done anything yet, as I absolutely am concerned with safety. But could you please explain in more detail. I ask, because the concern, obviously, would be in making the metal too thin. But that won't be the case, as the rear seat latch is simply about a 1/16" thicker around the sides. It is just a bit wider than the front on the two sides and bottom.

I tried to swap out the latch last night, but to do so, I would need to re-sew the belt back together to itself near the bolt that holds it to the floor. This is the only way to get the latch on or off.

I think both could be done "right." But which way will ultimately be "safest," I don't know. So please chime in with your thoughts.

(BTW, I could not for the life of me figure out why these would be manufactured as different belts. Then someone said, "so that somebody doesn't permanently leave the front belt buckled into the back to avoid the 'use seat belt' chime." Ah, that makes sense, now.)

Bluewaterrider

I just compared mine and I think if you remove the metal VERY SLOWLY making shure not to heat it too much it should be OK. You may also want to remove the material/tab on the inside of the square hole to make it the same also.

Take your time and keep comparing the buckles frequently as you remove material. Once the OD and ID are good then round/smooth the sharp edges and hit it with some chrome paint.

Hoovis

Thanks Bluewaterrider, that is pretty much the same conclusion I had. Appreciate the input.

That being said, I'm not going to go either of those two ways I previously described. After I made that last post, I looked into another option. I'm going to remove the two buckles from the center of the factory rear bench. It is a single torx bolt holding the two buckles as a single unit on a metal plate (something higher than a Torx 50 bolt, so will need to get a new Torx socket). Then I will simply replace the buckle on the seat with the 2 original buckles from the rear bench.

This is undoubtedly the safest way to go. And the seat belt for the 4th seat will already have the buckle ready for later use.

Bluewaterrider

Even better call