With the kids coming up to visit, I wanted to add a backseat that would allow more than two people to go jeeping. My goal was to combine the seat with a new tire carrier and have the entire unit easily installed and removed. This current setup doesn’t allow for a tail gate; however, I don’t care about that right now. In fact, I could create a back that is permanent with this unit at some later time if I wanted a tailgate.
So, here are some pics of the process:
I started with a couple brackets that bolted to each side of the rear portion of the roll cage that were connected by a heavy piece of angle iron (I have lots of heavy angle iron).
Next I bent a loop from some roll bar tube and then welded it to the angle iron (you can see that I needed to trim a bit from the bottom of the loop). Then, I added a left and right arm that I attached to half-tubes which I clamped to the roll bar. The loop leans backwards at the same angle as the front loop angle leans backwards.
The next step was to add an attachment for the rear tire carrier. I welded a piece of tubing to the top of the loop and a bent piece of tubing to the angle iron. In between, I welded a piece of rectangular tubing.
Then, I added a platform for the bottom of the seat.
After creating a template for the plate that will hold the spare tire, I cutout a piece of heavy metal, drilled three holes, inserted the studs, and welded them in place. Then, I welded the plate onto the until. Here, Karson is doing some spray painting.
Next, I added a strip of metal across the back loop so I could bolt on the back of the seat (made from wood). The bottom is also wood and bolts in place. Both still need to be padded. The final pics below show the entire unit in place (though I have since painted the wood black and the strip across the back the color of the tubing). This is nothing fancy and, though not as wide as I’d like, will meet my needs for now. And, we tested it out today and the kids love riding back there 🙂