M37 seat alternative choices?

[still standing still cyco]

i know some of you may not like this, but i have a 67 M37 that is becoming our offroad truck. i am looking to mount good supportive seats and harnesses, but would like to still be able to use the under-seat storage. that means regular aftermarket seats are out of the question. id like something that would mount from the seat back(to a rollcage being installed). the only thing ive found is the jumpseats (i believe from Mastercraft) that were use in 4Wheel and Offroad's CJ-17 that was built for the Ultimate Adventure, but i cant find a civilian source for these. on these the seatbase folded upward. any ideas on what else to look into that would be set up similar to this? any help would be greatly appreciated !!

 

[Wolf.Dose]

To my knowledge there is no alternative available if you do not change the comlete undercarriage of the seats and delete the storage.
Even then it seems hopeless to me to find a seat on the market that will fit into a M37 and support the installation of seat belts. Remember, seat belts are not just bolted into vehicles, the mounting points need some strength to be worth called seat belts and not just decoration.
May be something from the European WRC might fit. Unfortunately, this stuff is normally not awailable on the market, only for factories custom made.
Sorry to say so!
Wolf

 

[still standing still cyco]

thats what i was afraid of... i contacted Mastercraft and they said that those seats are not yet available, but to keep checking with them in the future... just figd id throw the question out and see if anyone has found a solution. thanks again

 

[Dodge man]

Have you just gone to a junkyard and looked around at seats? I used to have a set of seats out of a Fiat that set very low and were very comfortable. Look for some out of one of the low slung sports cars. You're probably going to need to look at some old seats that don't have integral headrests. Unfortunately they started putting those in in the late 1960s so you may need a set of very old seats! Check around some of the classic car shows and parts circuits and see if anyone has any from an old sports car. I hate to suggest them but have you checked with Recaro? $$$$.

 

[ke6rwj]

I have mounted funny seats in a variety of vehicles, there is no reason you cant do it on the M37.. frankly if your planning on hard 4x4 stuff and want 5 point or even 4 point restrains, your gonna need better bucket type seats...

there is the hillbilly way, then the "right" way... ive seen both, and if you get in an accident, your gonna have more problems than the seat...

Hillbilly Way
Attach wood to the body and attach the new seat to the wood... yes i said hillbilly...

right way.
custom metal brackets, not hard to do, but getting a good attachment points is the trick.

Make sure you do the rollcage right, i lived in the high desert of california for many years and was a paramedic...and 4x4'er, i can tell you rollovers are more common that people think (slow and fast types) , and im amazed at how many roll bars were not installed properly and killed people... since the m37 is flat from cowl to bed, there isnt much room for failure (your body) in there.

sounds like its gonna be cool !!

chris

 

[still standing still cyco]

thanks KE6. it will definately be done right, but i too have seen alot of cages built wrong... and theres no point in bothering if its not safe. i may end up having to sacrifice the storage. just hoping to find an alternative.

 

[cosmic339]

i know this thread is old but wanted to post it in here and ask a question , even if you remove the the storage underneath the seats and fabricated a seat bracket would these work? MasterCraft Military: Suspension Seats

 

[rosco]

Not sure the junk yard it the place to look. My first thought is a replacement seat for a Bobcat skid steer loader. Those seats are always wearing out, and built to be replaced, don't take up much room, and mounton something lik your storage box. They are built for support too. Backhoes are another version, of the same thought. So check the equipment dealers. I have see replacement seats on display, there at their parts counters. Tractor junk yards, come to mind too.

 

[Mthirtyseven]

M37 Seats

For my first M37 restoration I used a lowback jeep CJ-5 or Cj-7 seat. Worked well and these are pretty common. I used the backseat from a cj-5 for the passenger seat.

 

[army70deuce]

I installed a pair of 5 point MRAP seats in my deuce. The seats have a lever to allow the back to tilt increasing or decreasing from the normal 90 degree. Obviously these seats mount like normal seats from the bottom of the seat to the floor, I'm wondering if there is a way to mount using the back of the seat and then the lever would allow the bottom cushion to raise and lower while the back is kept stationary. The 5 belts are attached to the seat itself so as long as the seat is mounted securely you don't have to mount the belts. The seat fabric is removable for cleaning/repair (I think) so it might be possible to add some tabs to the seat back frame and then it could mount in the vehicle. With some modification (sewing slots in the fabric) the seat cover should be able to be put back even with mounting tabs sticking through.

 

[just me]

Fabricating your own seats isn't any harder than adapting something else in. Hinge the seat back so it can be swung up out of the way to access a front hinged bottom or make a frame to lift a bucket to the front to access a cover over the battery area. Any bucket will work on the driver side.