Aftermarket seats or headrests that create more headroom / stop head from hitting crossbar?

[iwishiwereadinosaur]

I'm a tall guy (6'6") and have always wanted a Wrangler. That was impossible with the JK, but the JL made it kind of feasible. The one hesitation I have with the 2018 and 2019 JL is that when you push the driver's seat all the way back the bar is essentially right overhead and it's possible to put your head back and hit it if you're tall enough.

Are there any aftermarket seats that drop the seat like half inch?

Or are there any aftermarket headrests that come further forward? I've test driven and wrapped a few towels around the headrest and it creates enough space. We're not talking much more than an inch needed in either direction.

It's such a bummer that they don't test these things and make them drivable for people up to 7'. I have a Liberty and have headroom for days.

Sponsored

 

[Smooth9883]

I'm a tall guy (6'6") and have always wanted a Wrangler. That was impossible with the JK, but the JL made it kind of feasible. The one hesitation I have with the 2018 and 2019 JL is that when you push the driver's seat all the way back the bar is essentially right overhead and it's possible to put your head back and hit it if you're tall enough.

Are there any aftermarket seats that drop the seat like half inch?

Or are there any aftermarket headrests that come further forward? I've test driven and wrapped a few towels around the headrest and it creates enough space. We're not talking much more than an inch needed in either direction.

It's such a bummer that they don't test these things and make them drivable for people up to 7'. I have a Liberty and have headroom for days.

It’s crazy no one has figured this out yet. When I bought my JL a year ago my logic was, “there is no other vehicle with an aftermarket industry like Jeep. Someone will have a solution in a month.”

I took a video of the underside of the seat while raising and lowering. It looks like there is a stop on the driver side rear that keeps it from being cranked down one or two more cranks. I’m going to try and look today and see if I can grind that stop off.

if anyone has an idea of a solution with a thinner after market seat and bracket please post. There are numerous threads on this with no solutions.

 

[Redbaron73]

It’s crazy no one has figured this out yet. When I bought my JL a year ago my logic was, “there is no other vehicle with an aftermarket industry like Jeep. Someone will have a solution in a month.”

I took a video of the underside of the seat while raising and lowering. It looks like there is a stop on the driver side rear that keeps it from being cranked down one or two more cranks. I’m going to try and look today and see if I can grind that stop off.

if anyone has an idea of a solution with a thinner after market seat and bracket please post. There are numerous threads on this with no solutions.

I would love to get one or two more turns. Let me know if your idea works.

 

[ChattVol]

It’s crazy no one has figured this out yet. When I bought my JL a year ago my logic was, “there is no other vehicle with an aftermarket industry like Jeep. Someone will have a solution in a month.”

I took a video of the underside of the seat while raising and lowering. It looks like there is a stop on the driver side rear that keeps it from being cranked down one or two more cranks. I’m going to try and look today and see if I can grind that stop off.

if anyone has an idea of a solution with a thinner after market seat and bracket please post. There are numerous threads on this with no solutions.

I actually had a fab shop that makes vehicle seats look at it and ended up having an upholstery shop remove 1.5" of seat foam. It helped lower it for a few months and then I started feeling the metal seat supports in the seat. Had foam added back. I'm almost 6'4" and my head touches the roll bar if I sit up straight. The high seat height is my only real gripe with the JL...please let me know if you have any ideas.

 

[John Galt]

I would also be interested in the head rest option, I believe on another thread the verdict was that the seat could not be lowered any further, but a added cushion or memory foam on the headrest would work for me.

We tall guys have a tough time in the Wrangler, but I still love mine

 

[roaniecowpony]

I'm not a tall guy, but have done quite a bit of fabrication. Seems to me you might look into finding a race car chassis shop or shop with similar talents and have the lateral roll bar moved or modified. Just moving that bar out of the way will gain you a lot of headroom.

 

[ChimpanZed]

At 6’4” with a slightly long torso I fit fine, but I don’t look through the middle of the windshield as I’d prefer.

I’ve researched tall guy mods and have found some aftermarket seat brackets, but they allow the seat to move back further rather than drop it. Legroom is not the issue.

I had a ‘67 Mustang Fastback and cut the seat risers a inch and welded it back together. Such a mod is not possible these days.

 

[Smooth9883]

So after looking at the videos I took and the mechanism that raises and lowers the seat here is what I’ve come up with.

1) you could probably fab a seat bracket that would easily give three+ inches of height.
2) An aftermarket seat might give more headroom as well.
3) There is roughly another inch of travel that could be gained from the stock bracket and seat, but it looks like the gear that controls the height has a stop on it. I’m not sure if you can grind the stop off or not. Below is a picture of this. I outlined the gear in red. This is with the seat all the way up.

So I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I might take it into a fab shop again and see if they can make rails, but I also want something that will hold up in an accident.

Part of me feels like I could remove the bracket that allows the seat to slide and drill holes in the rail and attach the seat to that and leave it fixed. That would easily gain 1+ inch.

 

[bigfoot21075]

So after looking at the videos I took and the mechanism that raises and lowers the seat here is what I’ve come up with.

1) you could probably fab a seat bracket that would easily give three+ inches of height.
2) An aftermarket seat might give more headroom as well.
3) There is roughly another inch of travel that could be gained from the stock bracket and seat, but it looks like the gear that controls the height has a stop on it. I’m not sure if you can grind the stop off or not. Below is a picture of this. I outlined the gear in red. This is with the seat all the way up.

So I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I might take it into a fab shop again and see if they can make rails, but I also want something that will hold up in an accident.

Part of me feels like I could remove the bracket that allows the seat to slide and drill holes in the rail and attach the seat to that and leave it fixed. That would easily gain 1+ inch.

Not to revise old threads... BUT... Did you ever try any of these solutions? Did you meet with any success? I tried a combination of the Misch bracket (gives more seat travel) and replacing the rear seat legs with 1 1/4" square tube. That combination raises the front edge of the seat way too much making it super uncomfortable and with the Misch bracket in place, the overall seat height is actually higher than stock!

However, the leg room is PERFECT, my right leg is not mashed into the dashboard and my right knee is not digging into the transfer case lever - that is really nice, too bad it can't stay that way.

Next, I will take the Misch bracket out and try just the rear square tube leg modification by itself, but I am not all that hopeful however. I may also try a slightly larger square tube. When I cut the rear seat bracket, I spent the extra $15.00 and bought a 4.5" metal cutting wheel for my angle grinder, that allowed me to cut just the welds to remove the brackets so I can easily reattach the rear legs whenever I want.

It is RIDICULOUS that Jeep would build this thing this way. This JL has less room than my '17 JK did and it's not like I am Andre big. Now that I have seen it close up it would have been easy for them to make extra room with a better thought out seat bracket. At least I waited before I sunk another 10 grand in modifications in to it just incase I can't fix this problem and have to move it along for something else. I really don't want to get into MAJOR modifications. There MUST be away to make this work....

 

[jeepdawg]

OUS that Jeep would build this thing this way. This JL has less room than my '17 JK did and it's not like I am Andre big. Now that I have

 

[jeepdawg]

I'm wondering if anyone has removed the stock "sport bar" assembly and replaced it with a real roll cage. It seems this could be designed to give those of us that are headroom-challenged more room. Has anyone done this?

Also, would just removing all the plastic cladding (crap) attached to the bar give enough headroom? You'd want to cover it with a foam wrap or something, which would give some of the gains back. . .

Sponsored