Extra row of seats in 98 Ex?

[Brit Explorer]

Folks,

As the proud father of two year old twin girls I often find myself needing to go out with the two kids, wife and parents/in-laws for the odd day out. Trouble is we can't all fit in the Ex. Has anyone fitted an extra row of seats into the boot (trunk) space on an Explorer? Anyone know of a commercial outfit in the UK that could carry out such a mod, and at what sort of cost?

Cheers all,

- Andy.

 

[Hokie]

I'm sure you could someway buy the rear bench seat out of say, a station wagon or something like that, and have a shop bolt it in the back cargo area. It would probably work best if you had the seat rear facing like older Ford Taurus or Volvo station wagons. You would eat up all of your cargo space since you won't be able to have it fold flush like they did in Fords/Volvos.

Or you could dollar up and buy the 02 XLT and get the factory option of the 3rd row seating.

Then again, if you did it on your 98, only kids would be able to sit in the backseat because the load floor on the 2nd Gen sits about 8" higher than on the 3rd Gen X's. (They had to do it that way to clear the live axle differential).

Once again the old saying stands true... "anything with enough time/money."

 

[section525]

http://www.performanceproducts.com/...llo+Jump+Seat&productid=101452&producttype=30

 

[Hokie]

Wow, thats kinda cool... attaboy JW, good find!

 

[X~FACTOR]

Hey Section525, for some reason that link showed a Rav4 link but the picture isn't a Rav4 vehicle. Weird but a good find none-the-less.

Anyway, I know JCWhitney used to have it for our eXplorer for around $500 with sit belt and everything. It was designed to fit only kids though.

 

[Brit Explorer]

Thanks folks - need something in the UK though, with 3 point seat belts that adhere to our regs.

I've found one place in Colchester but could do with somewhere nearer and to make contact with someone who has such a conversion....

The Colchester ones are removable by the way - takes five minutes to take out if you need the load space back for a trip to CostCo......

 

[rikguy]

I was given a seat from an Aerostar van and tried to mount it as 3rd row seating. I found that headroom was the problem. I was trying to make a mount to bolt to the floor then, I could easily remove the seat if I needed to haul something. No luck yet. If anyone figures this out, please let me know how it's done.

 

[Brit Explorer]

Just a quick update - Got a quote from the people in Colchester (Motorhoods), they do make a third row of seats specifically for the Ex, cost is £495 inc VAT + £30 delivery - sounds good to me!!

- A.

 

[Black Magic]

Post some pics when you get it done! We would like to see that.

 

[ibuytoys]

Does Colchester have a website? We're planning to try and have another baby next year and I think we might be getting a minivan aaarrrggghhh!!

 

[Howard]

Here is a link to Motorhoods . Good luck with the mod.

 

[5.0Dad]

It doesn't do much good on this thread but for those stateside the link below is what we got to solve the problem. Looks like they've come up w/ a bifold seat since we bought ours.

http://www.littlepassengerseats.com/ford_explorer.htm

Btw, once you get the 3rd seat a roof box will be your next purchase.

 

[Black Magic]

Sounds like you could use a bus instead of an Explorer. LOL

 

[dman726749]

my parents bought a seat designed to fit in the back of my 96x a couple years ago when it was there truck. there are blocks that bolt to the frame. and the bench seat locks into the blocks. it holds two and is designed to hold smaller chidren. we still have the seat, if anyone is intrested let me know and i will see if my parents want to sell it. i am sure they would we have not used it in 5 or so years.