Seat Brackets compatible?

There are 3 seat brackets.

Fold and tumble 97-02
fold only 03-04
fold and slide05-06

Under the fold/tumble and fold only seat appears to be the same except for the fold and tumble has an extra catch lever and spring that is in the way for the larger fold only 03-04 storage bin to fit.



A few months ago their website was all screwed up. When I purchased the fold only (larger) drawer, Tuffy said it would fit under the 05-06 yet it would only fit with a 3" seat lift. :/



03-04 Fold only


97-02 fold/tumble

I had some fun yesterday fabbing a bracket to get the seat attached to the bracket. I ended up getting a piece of 3/8 x 2 x 36 bar stock from ace hardware for $4.99 cut it down to 5 1/2 inches long then drilled 2 holes and extended the front bracket. For the rear I just had to drill out seat belt hole threads and enlarge the hole in the bottom of the seats. That went pretty smooth although the seat now sits slightly closer to the door so it rubs on the rollbar now. It's actually an improvement as previously the seat belt would jam up on the center console now it slides past the console easily.

The pita was getting the bolts back into the floor. Not sure if I got the wrong bracket as I was expecting one that did not tumble. This one tumbled if you reached under and flipped a lever. However you couldn't operate the lever with the drawer in place. But in order to access the rear bolts it had to be flipped forward. I ended up flipping it forward and holding in place as far forward as the drawer would allow to tighten bolts. The problem then became finding the right combination of push/pull/twist on the seat to get holes to line up. (took about 4 hours and a lot of cursing).

Tuffy directions said to bolt drawer and bracket to floor then bolt seat to the bracket. I am not sure if this would have been easier, but at the time I didn't think it was possible to get the nuts up under the seat while in the jeep. Also I don't think this drawer would have worked without the Buchanon seat risers. I assembled so that drawer bracket was against floor then seat risers between drawer and seat bracket and this left about an 1/8 of an inch between drawer and rear cross member of seat bracket. I think it might be possible to mount this drawer on the 04-06 tumble bracket with larger seat risers.

Suggestions for those who do this:
1. Have a helper. One person to turn bolts and one to move position seat
2. Cut off those plastic covers in the back of the seat bracket they are in the way the whole time.
3. Look at bracket before installing drawer and cut/grind off any extra metal that doesn't strengthen the bracket. I did this midway through and it helped with the positioning of the seat.

Good info Dirk, much appreciated. Need to find a place for an inverter now and really no "good" idea where to put it due to size. Sounds like under the seat might be the best spot for it BUT as my little girl still rides in the back from time to time, the passenger seat is constantly being tipped forward to gain access. I'd hate for my new inverter to get damaged there so that makes the driver seat the best solution I THINK anyway as it never moves. That means when I get around to the seat drawer, it will have to go to the passenger side. I do have the bucchanon seat risers-1.5" if I remember right. Too many other things going on that I haven't had time to look at this mess yet to figure anything out. Like mentioned above, I'm curious on cutting out that bar too, or fabbing something else. Do you have pics of how you went about it? Sounds like it came out OK in the end after a bit of hassle getting there. Good to know.

Best of Luck,

Mike

I could take a pic of the 06 seat bracket and show the difference. I think that crass bar provides stability for when the seat is tumbled. So if you don't plan to tumble it then it shouldn't be a problem. If I were you instead of cutting the one you have I would hop on ebay like I did and try and get one for $25 that way if you cut it up and it isn't any good your not screwed. Also this allows you to modify the bracket and not have to get the jeep back together. Those seat bolts are no fun so you won't want to have do this more than once for this project.

Mike not sure how big your inverter is but have you thought of that space under steering wheel behind plastic? I think you could mount it there and then extend the outlet to a handy position. I pulled those 2 screws out and looked behind that plastic for the first time last week trying to check the wiring on my truspeed and found lots of space in there.