Hi All,

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my son's driving position in his JK was dangerous.

Let me explain, He's 6'4'' and with the seat as low as it would go, the back of his head would hit the roll bar in an accident .

Here's what I did,
I made new seat brackets to replace the factory ones.
I lowered the seat 2.5 inches and moved it back 2 inches.
Also I rasied his head rest 2 inches.

I have attached some pictures for any other tall guys out there to see how it's done.

Goatee

 

Excellent job!!! More of the taller members of this forum need to check this out!

 

Do you happen to have any drawings for the new brackets? I have no chance to make them myself, so I'd need blueprints to take to a local machine shop.

BTW, I heard of this from this thread at old wranglerforum. It has a picture of my head approximately I suspect where your son's was:

wranglerforum.com/f33/i-want-to-lower-my-seats-in-my-2010-wrangler-54106.html

-- Pete

 

Way to come up with a cheap and easy solution! I always like it when people solve an issue that they have by thinking it out and designing their own fix!

Fortunately, I am a short bastard, so this isn't an issue for me.




Anthony

 

Being 6'8" I hear you on this one. I like it. I will be doing this mod when I get my new JK. I miss the old '09. I was going to buy a 4-Door Rubi. Now with my place of work not getting a lot of new work, I am scared to pull the trigger. Who knows, looks like I will be getting another two door sport.

 

haha if you lean it back pretty good it's not too bad, worst problem I have is my knees in the steering wheel (6'4").

cool solution!

 

Please don't take offense, but this sounds like an incredibly bad idea.

"A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my son's driving position in his JK was dangerous."

With respect: Is this based on analysis, or observation and opinion?

A lot of design engineering goes into seating position and human factors analysis. Fabricating your own brackets away from the factory design changes the load paths of forces in an accident.
Simply changing the angle of the seat could possibly induce fatal g loading onto your body in an accident by increasing the force transmitted through the frame to the new brackets. The seating is designed to be as survivable to the occupants as possible in an accident.
Also, did you use an equivalent or stronger material for your bracket fabrication? Does the heat treatment on the material grant the same properties as the original material in elasticity and strength?

Look, there is a reason things are designed the way they are. Please just make sure you are not taking an unnecessary risk just to increase your ride comfort!

There are aftermarket alternatives to the factory seats that you may find more comfortable or appropriate.

Be safe out there!

 

yes, so u mean to tell me that the chrysler engineers design the seat for someone who is over 6' tall to smash the back of their head on the roll bar in the event of an accident. or maybe they figured this would be comfortable? i wonder if they used the "human factors analysis" to figure this out. lmao

 

I was just rear ended two weeks ago and hit my head on the plastic crap above my head and was knocked unconscious briefly and I'm 6.3" so I can totally see how this modification might be helpful as long as its strong enough to withstand the same stress as the factory parts do.

I'm a little hesitant to try to re-engineer the Jeep but I'm hopeful that I never get clocked like that again so I don't have to.

 

Sorry to hear you were in a wreck!

I never said it was a perfect design. Being as tall as you are puts you over a certain percentile in height. Seating is designed to accommodate the largest cross section of body sizes. That's why there are seat adjustments. I believe you'd be classified as higher than a 95th percentile.
I will concede these are Chrysler engineers we are talking about...
If you really feel it is a design flaw, then put in a complaint to the NHTSA. Looks like several guys have this problem so it might warrant an investigation.