Do any of you guys drive your eb's with a tyke riding in a car seat, on the back seat? did you do anything special as far as fastening the seat in? I have a stock rear seat with factory belts, and that seems good enough to me. but the wife is convinced it'd be too much of a PIA, and she doesn't like the fact that the seat is only anchored by 4 hairpin cotters.

any advice or insight? I want to attend events with y'all, but don't want to leave the family behind either

Strapping kiddos in the backseat can be a PIA. I'm still not running a backseat, so I have no insight for you on that side. However, I have seen other owners at events who have made this happen. Entourage ran Corbeau rear seats in his, for the toddlers. Rtreads was running a car seat strapped to the front passenger seat during our NASCAR BWB. Realistically, running a car seat in the front is not that big of a deal as we don't have airbags in our Broncos. And I believe rtreads' wife was riding in the back seat of the Bronco with another tyke.

My 5 year old son rides in the front seat in the car seat. He'll probably shift to the back once I get a rear seat installed and the cage extended. I just strap his car seat in with the seat belt and it works great. With the rear seat I'll probably fab up a bracket or strap that runs under the bed of the truck to tie the mounting points of the seat together. I figure that should prevent the bolts from tearing through the sheet metal in the event of a wreck.

Make your own LATCH system. I did and it was easy & probably just as strong as the ones in new cars. I took some 3/8 rod, bent it and welded it to a piece of flat stock. To test the strength, I put a 5 ton bottle jack in it to see how much it could take and it never broke, so I made a new one, and bolted it under the rear seat belts. I have used it for going on 7 years now. I have a 7 year old and a 3 year old that I tote around every day in it and the car seat that requires the LATCH system has never moved. The booster seat for my 7 year old, well it uses a 4 point harness that I built a bracket to raise the mounting point up off the ground for. I think both took me less than an hour to make. The fitting took just about as long as the build did.

Im not too worried about the integrity of the seat. In the event of an accident, the seat belts themselves would take the brunt of it, and they are solid, so...
My main problem is access. My seats dont tumble, and the cage has a horizontal piece behind the seats that makes it tough to get in back.
Thank you for the responses, gentlemen! I'm just gonna hafta deal with it, and convince the wife its safe...or she can drive a 2nd car to the events! We'll see....?

That took a long time with my wife. Good luck!

Ahhh yes, access. For the first 6 months of both of my boy's lives, they got loaded in through the rear hatch...lol. But that hoop behind your seats does make it a pain in the rear. As it is right now, my boys now are old enough to climb into their seats themselves and strap/buckle in. The younger one, I still have to reach around and pull the car seat strap tight, but I don't see how you can get away with anything other than what you have with out looking at it.

i have a 3 and 4 year old that rides in the back of my bronco.I get them in and out through the back.they like jumping out and climbing in.

Heck, my son rides in the front and still climbs up the rear bumper every time he gets in.

spent some time today tinkering around with getting the car seat in and out. going in through the rear window actually doesn't work too bad!
but, my lovely wife decided that if and when we hit the road, she'll be a sport and ride in back so the boy can sit up front. her first choice was to be the driver ...but she loves to tailgate, and it has 4 wheel drums so...that aint gonna work

We put our son in the backseat and strapped him in with factory belts. But this was only in and around Leadville/twin lakes. No too far. For his 2nd birthday, I strapped him into the front seat facing forward and we went for a nice ride. He barely tolerated the wind, but I think he still had a good time! I think he'd enjoy it a bit more now.

Probably the best option is to get a quality aftermarket rear seat as mentioned by akafrank... and load him in thru the back.

Or address the access issue and consider removing the horizontal bar and adding in other bars to maintain strength. Post a picture from the tailgate if you want suggestions.

J.D.