97-01 cherokee buckets opinions

[ratrapp]

i was at the local pnp saturday and found a near mint gray cloth 97-01 xj bucket seat set.since they were only $30 a piece i grabbed them.i have been looking for the past 2 years for a decent set of mj or up to 95 xj buckets and they're either already gone or somehow in worse shape than my buckets.i knew from people on this board that the 97-01 buckets would make you sit slightly higher but i thought i could live with it.after about 2 hours with a welder and some scrap metal sunday i got the drivers seat in.i'm slightly less than disappointed in how it feels.i'm 6"2 and it just doesn't feel right driving init now.the headrest sits at the same height as the factory mj bucket but the bases are just too tall for a mj floor.has anybody else done the 97-01 buckets and regretted it?if so what kind of seats did you use then?i may weekend after next try and cut and weld some differnt brackets and see if it will feel better.i wish i would have just left my worn out mj bucket in it now.the seats felt nice in the xj i pulled them out of but not so much in my mj.

[87Warrior]

Hmm. I am 6'3" and find the 97+ buckets (using the 97+ floor brace and seat brackets) to be stellar. Then again, I really like the 2000 era stock Jeep seats. I mounted them as far back as possible and actually had to slide the seat forward a tad to fully depress the clutch.

[ratrapp]

i didn't use the floor mount pieces because our pnp frowns upon cutting sheetmetal out(why i don't know),i used a combo of factory floor mj pieces and the xj pieces.

[Backdraft]

I also have the 97+ seats and floor braces in my MJ and have found them to be a good height and very comfortable compared to the stock seats. Where Brett is 6'3", I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum at 5'6". I mounted my seats an inch or so back from where the stock seats mount and still only slide them forward a notch or two (maybe 3). The height is perfect for me as well.

[terrawombat]

I'm 6'0" and I mounted a pair of '99 4-door XJ buckets near the stock location and I don't feel they're too tall. If you really want to sit in an MJ that's too tall then try a set of the "rocketship" reclining seats from a 2-door XJ from the mid-to-late 80's mounted to MJ bucket seat mounts. I did that in my MJ Pioneer and I'll almost hit the roof over some bumps.

 

It's also really easy to get the 4-door seats to flip forward:

 

[cody4359]

do you have a write up on making the 4 door seats flip forward? ive looked for older seats and never really found anything

[Backdraft]

do you have a write up on making the 4 door seats flip forward? ive looked for older seats and never really found anything

I used the tilt mechanisms from 2 door XJ seats.

[ratrapp]

the more that i've sat in them since sunday i'm getting used to them.i think when i have alittle more time i'm going to pull it back out a nd make a few tweaks to them and they'll be fine.

[terrawombat]

do you have a write up on making the 4 door seats flip forward? ive looked for older seats and never really found anything

 

I thought I did. I know I have some pictures somewhere of the small modifications I did to get this to work, but I think they may be on my computer back in my shop in NJ...over 150 miles away, but I'll see if I can dig something up. With the method I used, you will lose the automatic "spring back" of the seat i.e. when you have the seat fully reclined and then just pop the lever up and it somes shooting upward. You'll have to now manually pull the seat forward to the position that you want it in. In an MJ cab with such limited space, I have not found it to be a nuisance - basically set it in the position that you want and forget it. It has been a while since I did the mod, but I recall myself having a couple of ideas on how to retain the "spring back" function. Also, you'll need to modify the plastic trim a bit to allow that massive toothed gear to slide out the back (you can see it protruding in my picture. I don't have the trim on in that pic).