Any alternative headrests?

[entropy]

What kind of shitty ass couch do you have that it's got an weird angled head rest pushing your head forward?

Theres no headrest...

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[Canucklesammich]

I've turned mine around & was looking at the pads Der suggested to help offset the rearward tilt. I was putting in my shipping location & noticed the option of shipping an item to...the San Diego county jail??? (Disclaimer: I'm not currently IN the S.D. county jail, for those wondering)

 

[Timmybung]

Do you have any photos of this? Or Part Numbers? This is the first suggestion that I'm interested in checking out.

So after seeing this post I did just that, and more.

Purchased Jeep Compass headrest. Part # 6WL9 3DX9 AB - 001. Black, fabric, tilting headrest. $136 from my local dealer. Got gray at first by accident, they wanted like $95 for it but I had them order the black before I realized I could swap the cover. My headrests in my Rubicon are leather but I wanted tilting/ratcheting so I didn't really care it was fabric.
Fit perfect, but quickly started thinking... Hey that's pretty close to the stock headrest size and shape. Wonder if I could swap the leather cover onto the tilting headrest... It took some doing but I was able to make the swap. I did a bit of Google-fu and found that once you had the cover off of both you could put a plastic bag around the headrest and use a vacuum to shrink the foam down a little bit, making it easier to put on the leather cover.

Fabric headrest on leather seat.

fabric cover pulled off of tilting headrest

Stock headrest with cover off. Note the remains of the plastic bag used during manufacturing to vacuum out the air to shrink it when installing the cover

Finished product. I tore like 1" of stitching on the fabric part on the bottom and stitched it back together without issue.
At first I had ordered :
Front Headrest - Mopar (6WL93SA5AD)
2022 Jeep Compass - 6wl93sa5ad

Consider getting that one if you can find it cheaper than the black since you're swapping the cover anyways.

Here's what I bought:

 

[El Jefe]

So after seeing this post I did just that, and more.

Purchased Jeep Compass headrest. Part # 6WL9 3DX9 AB - 001. Black, fabric, tilting headrest. $136 from my local dealer. Got gray at first by accident, they wanted like $95 for it but I had them order the black before I realized I could swap the cover. My headrests in my Rubicon are leather but I wanted tilting/ratcheting so I didn't really care it was fabric.
Fit perfect, but quickly started thinking... Hey that's pretty close to the stock headrest size and shape. Wonder if I could swap the leather cover onto the tilting headrest... It took some doing but I was able to make the swap. I did a bit of Google-fu and found that once you had the cover off of both you could put a plastic bag around the headrest and use a vacuum to shrink the foam down a little bit, making it easier to put on the leather cover.

Wait wait WAIT! Are you saying for roughly $100/headrest, you have adjustable, tilting headrests? Seriously???? And it was that easy? How well does the leather fit on the new Compass headrest?

 

[Timmybung]

Wait wait WAIT! Are you saying for roughly $100/headrest, you have adjustable, tilting headrests? Seriously???? And it was that easy? How well does the leather fit on the new Compass headrest?

Yes, that's what I'm saying.
"That easy" is subjective. Getting the covers off was a pain. The initial plastic closure is kind of a pain to undo. Maybe Google how to do it correctly. I used pliers and kinda forced it open. Popped a couple stitches this way.
Ended up clamping one leg of each headrest on a bench vise (with the rubber bench vise grips on there) and pulling each cover off.
Once they were bare had the wife hold the bag/vacuum setup, used my hands to squeeze the foam to shrink it more, and then the cover went on super easy. You end up tearing the plastic bag and leaving a lot of it under the cover, but that's also how it came from the factory. I used a smaller garbage bag from our small bathroom garbage, not a large kitchen garbage bag.
The leather cover fit surprisingly well considering the geometry of each headrest was slightly different. Couple puckers as you can see. Also see my crappy stitching in the pictures below where I tore it.

The bag I used

 

[Timmybung]

Here's a video I watched that made me realize I could do the vacuum trick

 

[El Jefe]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.
"That easy" is subjective. Getting the covers off was a pain. The initial plastic closure is kind of a pain to undo. Maybe Google how to do it correctly. I used pliers and kinda forced it open. Popped a couple stitches this way.
Ended up clamping one leg of each headrest on a bench vise (with the rubber bench vise grips on there) and pulling each cover off.
Once they were bare had the wife hold the bag/vacuum setup, used my hands to squeeze the foam to shrink it more, and then the cover went on super easy. You end up tearing the plastic bag and leaving a lot of it under the cover, but that's also how it came from the factory. I used a smaller garbage bag from our small bathroom garbage, not a large kitchen garbage bag.
The leather cover fit surprisingly well considering the geometry of each headrest was slightly different. Couple puckers as you can see. Also see my crappy stitching in the pictures below where I tore it.

Dude, I'm seriously impressed. Going to go out this weekend & mess with mine to see if I want to tackle it. Thanks!

 

[JasonInDLH]

@Timmybung That’s pretty sweet! Will probably try this as well.

 

[Lightguy]

So……a Compass can have an adjustable headrest & meet safety guidelines but a Wrangler not!? Could it be the bean counters said no to the $2 cost increase.

 

[weeitsmikelee]

@Timmybung sorry, am I reading correctly that this is just a straight switch if you weren’t changing the covers? Do the headrest adjust by ratcheting ?

 

[Timmybung]

@Timmybung sorry, am I reading correctly that this is just a straight switch if you weren’t changing the covers? Do the headrest adjust by ratcheting ?

Yes exactly. It moves up and down like stock but also tilts/ratchets forward and back. Direct install / straight switch.

 

[weeitsmikelee]

Good to know, thanks for trying this out!

 

[JasonInDLH]

Yes exactly. It moves up and down like stock but also tilts/ratchets forward and back. Direct install / straight switch.

Over at the Compass forum I see a lot of people complaining about how far forward these head rests push your head out (even in the totally “back” position). It does sound like the people complaining like to sit more vertical (not reclined), so maybe that’s the issue? How do the new head rests feel regarding the aforementioned? Do you recline your seat a bit or sit more vertically? I’m doing this mod for my wife who does like to sit more vertically, so maybe these won’t work.

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