Our daughter is 14 months old now, and towards the end of the fall I started thinking I'd like to be able to take her along in the Jeep at some point. Last winter however, when I was redoing my exo to a hybrid cage, the thought of trying to accommodate a car seat in the rear just never really crossed my mind.
Initially, I ran the interior B pillar cross bar straight which worked great but the car seat wouldn't fit in the rear then. I did not want to cut the cross bar out completely, as I want to keep the B pillars tied together. So, a couple weeks ago I bent up some tube to make a "dip" in it and cut the center out. To finish it off, I got some 4" gussets and rounded tube ends and welded them in. The dip area is made from two bent pieces that were joined in the center. This was the easiest way I could get the to be perfectly symmetrical. (The seam has a 5" piece of 1.5" diameter tube sleeved inside that I plug welded to either side, plus I welded the butt joint.)
I feel like this is pretty strong, but thought I would just throw it up and see if anyone had any thoughts. I have considered doing a couple of short sections of angled tube running from the lower part of the "dip" to the B pillar foot plates. My worry though is that would eliminate any leg room for rear passengers (it's tight already back there).
View of the original cross bar:
Pics of the refined cross bar. (sorry for the crappy cell pics)
All finished up with gussets and ends in.
Gussets:
Initially, I ran the interior B pillar cross bar straight which worked great but the car seat wouldn't fit in the rear then. I did not want to cut the cross bar out completely, as I want to keep the B pillars tied together. So, a couple weeks ago I bent up some tube to make a "dip" in it and cut the center out. To finish it off, I got some 4" gussets and rounded tube ends and welded them in. The dip area is made from two bent pieces that were joined in the center. This was the easiest way I could get the to be perfectly symmetrical. (The seam has a 5" piece of 1.5" diameter tube sleeved inside that I plug welded to either side, plus I welded the butt joint.)
I feel like this is pretty strong, but thought I would just throw it up and see if anyone had any thoughts. I have considered doing a couple of short sections of angled tube running from the lower part of the "dip" to the B pillar foot plates. My worry though is that would eliminate any leg room for rear passengers (it's tight already back there).
View of the original cross bar:
Pics of the refined cross bar. (sorry for the crappy cell pics)
All finished up with gussets and ends in.
Gussets:
you looks pretty good at it
