Child seat anchors

[WDE]

I have a 2000 TJ and put the child seat in the center position of the back seat, using both seat belts to secure it. I replaced the bolt holding the rear seat belt buckles to the floor with a racing harness style eyebolt to secure the top strap. The thread size was common to most seatbelt/harness applications (7/16-20), but I purchased a longer bolt and cut it down to match the hole depth with the seatbelt buckle anchors also in place. Note this is not a generic eyebolt from the hardware store and was specifically designed for seatbelt applications: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gfr-109l?rrec=true

The child safety LATCH system was federally mandated on vehicles manufactured after Sept 2002. The top strap is typically only used for forward facing installations, not rear facing,

 

[GeneralIssueTJ]

Thanks for the info man. Quick question about the seat belt lock. Are you using the clip so the seat doesn't rock side to side during normal travel? What's the purpose?

Also to help anyone looking at this thread in the future, I went looking for 03-06 seats that have the clips in the seat for the child seat anchors and i'm afraid it's not possible to swap on 03-06 seat into an earlier TJ. The mounting locations are different between the two and the 03 rear brackets are mounted to floor right over the rear shock upper mount. Making it very difficult to access and install. FYI.

The locking clip serves the same purpose that seatbelts should all do after 1996, is when you pull them all the way out, and let retract they lock for use with a car seat.

The TJ seatbelts use the inertia lock for crashes but they don’t have a permanent locking mechanism to secure the child car seat to the seat. The clip locks the hip and shoulder belt together not allowing it to retract and allows you to lock the car seat in place to the seat. I’ve seen others use both belts for one seat as well, not sure if that’s adequate in a crash or not but I have two car seats next to each other so I couldn’t do that.

 

[GeneralIssueTJ]

I have a 2000 TJ and put the child seat in the center position of the back seat, using both seat belts to secure it. I replaced the bolt holding the rear seat belt buckles to the floor with a racing harness style eyebolt to secure the top strap. The thread size was common to most seatbelt/harness applications (7/16-20), but I purchased a longer bolt and cut it down to match the hole depth with the seatbelt buckle anchors also in place. Note this is not a generic eyebolt from the hardware store and was specifically designed for seatbelt applications: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gfr-109l?rrec=true

The child safety LATCH system was federally mandated on vehicles manufactured after Sept 2002. The top strap is typically only used for forward facing installations, not rear facing,

View attachment 128941

I thought about doing something like that as well but lacked the technical application! I didn’t think about a threaded eyebolt there.

Once I figured out what the rear bolts were for it was easy enough to find some brackets. Also liked the thought of an additional mounting point vs running it back to the same spot as the seatbelt.

 

[SBarber1]

Low and behold I went and checked just got the 04 after selling the 00 so ha there is a set!

View attachment 84339

View attachment 84340

Thats not them...

 

[SBarber1]

Thought this would help. I have an 2003. This is from owners manual and pics from my wrangler. It refers to outboard seating only in rear. This means no center position for rear car seat.

 

[SBarber1]

Dope. So they ARE built directly into the seat!

Excellent work man! Now I gotta see if it's possible to swap an 06 seat into an 02.

2003 and after have them

 

[Assforkr]

Yup. And sadly the 2003 and up bench can’t be installed into the 97-2002 TJs so I’ve had to use the regular seat belt to secure the seat.

 

[SkylinesSuck]

It can be installed but you need to use the newer style mounting brackets along with the new seat, and that requires a little modification to work.

And as others have said, those cargo net tie downs are absolutely not for strapping a car seat to. They would rip right out in an accident. They are not strong at all. The only thing they are useful for as far as a car seat goes is to use for the over the back strap just to hold a booster seat in place when a kid isn't sitting in it. In that scenario, the kid would be held in with the factory seat belt.

I moved my early style seat back a few inches and made a new mount for the center belt latches. It required dropping the tank and using a larger and thicker reinforcement than came from the factory for the normal mounting point. Just popping a new hole in the floor and bolting it in would not be sufficient. It would pull right through the floor in an accident. That floor metal is not structuraly beefy enough.

 

[SBarber1]

The upper anchors are on the cargo floor.

 

[littlebluetj]

Not to revive an old thread but I've ran into the car seat issue on a 2000 TJ. This is my 2nd TJ, first was an 01 that I sold, and just bought a '00. My 01 had the tethers behind the rear seat meant for the front facing car seats. Never installed a car seat in that Jeep nor realized that's what they were for.

I only registered here because a lot of these pictures above have tethers attached to cargo hooks (footman loops) on the floor which are not meant for car seats. They lack the structural integrity for that. I didn't want someone in the future finding this thread and hooking them to those.

Mine are front facing now and I had to use the locking clips on the rear belts meant for vehicles without locking seatbelt (TJ's) and I added a heavy duty "L" bracket from Home Depot bolted to the floor that is a lot more sturdy that the factory hook that came on my '01. From what I can tell they only had the bolt there in 2000, and they added a tether attachment in '01. After that they kept progressing with the latch attachments. Hopefully this helps someone.

View attachment 128728

Reviving an old thread hoping you can offer some clarification. You found this L hook and bolted it directly to the body of the jeep?

 

[GeneralIssueTJ]

Reviving an old thread hoping you can offer some clarification. You found this L hook and bolted it directly to the body of the jeep?

Well yes and no. It was a bolt on but in 2000 they apparently had the bolt there already just not the clip. It is not just through the body, there is a crossmember underneath for strength. In 2001 and up they provided small, skinny clips already bolted there for this. Of course the clips were no longer available. I had an '01 before and they were not anything substantial. I bolted a thicker bracket there. As far as my research led me this was a 2000 year only deal, but maybe someone could chime in if not. This is just for the top over the back center support.

 

[jsmusic]

I have an ‘03 and have the anchor points built into the seat.