I have a 2007 2-door Wrangler X and a pregnant wife. She is asking me how I'm supposed to get the baby in/out of the backseat of the Jeep into it's baby seat. I have no idea! We don't have the baby seat yet but I'm worried about this. The way the passenger seat slides up is HORRIBLE. Passengers can barely get in the backseat and there's no way I can cram a baby seat through there.

I'm wondering if there's any mods to help move the passenger seat in a better way. I did find this video showing how the passenger seat moves on the new 2016 models and it's a better method than the 2007 way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=789dnL7US9M Does anyone know if that new seat assembly will fit in a 2007 Jeep?

If there's no mods and if the 2016 seat doesn't fit, is there any other tips or pointers that can help me out?

The wife says I should trade it in for a 4-door Jeep. The extra room would be nice but I LOVE my 2-door.

Any help would be appreciated!!!

 

Well. I have a 2010 with the same passenger seat you have. Not the one that moves out of the way nicely. I have two kids now. This may be too long to type out on my phone but here is my experience.

We have the Chicco Keyfit 30 for our newborn. Seat rocks by the way. The base goes in and stays in via the latch system. Easy to take that in and out if you want. Then you put the baby into the seat outside of the Jeep. Now the fun part. With the seat all the way forward it is possible to lift the seat up as high as possible, as close up to the top of the Jeep as you can lift it and it will slide on in. After that you simply click it into the base. Badda Bing. I installed the base on the passenger side because my wife doesn't need the leg room I do to work three pedals.

It doesn't leave a ton of legroom by the way! Now when they go forward facing you will gain some legroom back and by then they will be able to crawl back there and sit themselves down. That will be easy.

Now that I have two, I moved the Keyfit over behind me and installed my two year old behind the passenger seat. She is still rear facing so it sucks up the legroom too. But what I do now is lift her in. She crawls into her seat. I climb in and buckle her up sitting on the base of the newborns seat, climb out and the hoist the Keyfit high up in the drivers side and in. It does work!

When my daughter transitioned to a seat that you don't take in and out like the Keyfit and it was just her it was easier. Because you can just sit them in the seat next to the car seat, climb in, and load them. I always tried to do this process so my wife wouldn't yell at me for having the two door. As you know it's a bit of a process to get in and out and my wife hated doing it.

It is possible. Take your Jeep when shopping for seats. Most places will let you test fit before purchase. You will find that you run out of room very quickly with the two door. In my case it was the fancy stroller my wife bought. It didn't fit in the back!!!!! I was pretty upset I couldn't fit a dang stroller in the Jeep. My solution was a full roof rack!! Worked like a charm. Now we can go anywhere.

But you will find that even a grocery store run can be difficult fitting back in the Jeep with a kiddo. So plan accordingly or you will get all kinds of comments from the wife! Haha.


In the end I want to keep mine long term and I wanted it to be the two door. We are making it work but it is just that. Work

This is what it looks like back there now.

 

Put the base in the middle of the back seat. Recline the passenger seat ask the way back. Crawl in with car seat/baby and click it into the base. I'm currently doing this with my 08 2 door. Car seat brand I have is Greco or something like that.

 

Start listening to your wife, she's obviously smarter than you as most women are than us men. Remember Happy Wife, Happy Life. If you don't trade that 2-door in now, your wife will make you start to despise it every time you drive it.

My son is now 4 years old, even in the 4 door I have there were space concerns of getting the kid and all the "Stuff" in and out. You don't want to put yourself through that. Trade it in for a 4 door and be happy.

 

Just to add to my post some.

Remember that with our instincts that Men are hunters and Women are gathers. Which means us men are really good at focusing on one object while cutting out all the other surrounding noise. Women are good at looking around and getting a better overall view of the entire surroundings.

So right now, you're focused on figuring out how you're going to get that baby in and out of that backseat with the tight squeeze and already justifying to your wife of how you're going to make that work. And you will likely come up with a really good solution and great justifications.

The problem is you're so focused on figuring out how you're going to solve that problem you haven't thought of all other additional scenarios you will run into along the way.

Since I've been through this recently and can now speak from experience let me help you out with some of the other things you're not currently taking into consideration but your wife likely is but is not telling you.

When you put the kid in the back child seat, that is only the 1st task of your typical trip. After that, your wife is thinking where are we going to put the full-size baby stroller? She'll want that on every trip because you aren't going to be carrying around the baby when it's trying to sleep and you'll also want a portable bed the kid can sleep in for wherever you're going to go. Then you'll need room for the folding child play-pen because while you're visiting whoever you're visiting you will want to let the kid wander around and play within a confined area so the kid isn't able to wander too far into someone's non child proof house areas and get hurt. Depending on the age of the child, your wife might want to bring along something cutesie like a walker trainer, or a bouncer so you'll have to make room for that next to the play-pen and stroller. Then don't forget the other essentials. You're going to have to have a baby diaper bag loaded up with all the goodies like food, formula, diapers, baby wipes, powder, lotions, etc...etc. The wife might even have 2 of these baby diaper bags depending on the amount of toys and other things they want to bring along on every trip out the door. Then don't forget you'll also want to pack the camera gear because you would hate to miss any of those precious moments and not catch them on video, etc and your cell phone does not have a high enough quality to not capture those moments in the best quality you can.

Now that you got half the house of baby stuff packed in your 2-door JK AND have the kid safely secured in the back child seat, it's time to go to Grandma's house for the holidays.......Oh sh*t!!!! Where we gonna put all those wrapped x-mas gifts with all the "essential" baby stuff we usually take? Are we going to take 2 cars? We can't leave grandma's gifts at home and we'll want to bring some of the baby's gifts along as well, so granny can watch our little pumpkin opening their gifts. If we pile the presents in the remaining back seat space, what happens if we have to stop really quick? Are those presents and all the other junk piled in the back going to go flying into our baby and hurt our baby?

Now that you're at granny's, it's time to load up and go back home. Oh sh*t!!! Granny bought our kid an enormous 5 foot tall teddy bear and quilted an entire bedding set? Were we going to put that? We don't have any room for that stuff...we're going to have to leave those gifts here and make another trip.

Then don't forget those picnics and other BBQ gathering events where you might want to bring along some of your own stuff like a cooler packed full of food and refreshments and maybe even a radio.

Get the 4-door, I'm not even exaggerating on this stuff. You'll thank me later. I have a 4 door and went through all these things and space was still a concern.

 

The JKU. Because now I don't have to drive a Town and Country anymore.

 

Instead of starting another 2 vs 4 door debate does anyone actually know if the more modern fold and tumble can be retrofitted into our older 2 doors that just slide? I'm certainly interested

 

Rednroll and I have had similar but vastly different experiences. It hasn't been as bad as he has described for me. I'm 2.5 years into the kid thing and my two door is the vehicle we drive most on weekends and the only one we take on road trips. Keep in mind we also have a Jeep Commander. It's got a ton more room and we still take the wrangler.

It will depend on your wife and her level of support. If you really want to keep your two door you can. I am very lucky. My wife supports me in this endeavor. She ribs me all the time though about getting a four door! Initially I solved some of the space issue by getting a hitch rack. Rednroll is right about the full size stroller. It won't fit. 90% of my missions only involved the baby, stroller, and diaper bag. With my wife in the passenger seat we had no problem going out. We rarely travelled with the amount of stuff that rednroll did. That would have drove me insane to take all that gear. I don't care if I had a short bus at my disposal to travel with all of that would have given me gray hairs. Just so you know it is possible to travel lightly with a child.

It all comes down to where you are at. Don't know if your 2007 is paid off but if so it might be best with a new kiddo to avoid a new car payment. I will tell you that the roof rack has saved my bacon. This is my second wrangler both two doors. As you know it is immediately self evident that there is a significant lack of storage. I joke that with two passengers and a bag of food from the drive thru that someone has to hang their legs out the window. Likely you already know about the space limitations. If you have ever put your seat down in a whim to fit something remember you won't be able to do that anymore. So you have to have some kind of plan for that. Rack, hitch mount, something.

I'm also not telling you that you shouldn't get the four door. It is much more practical with a family. Especially when you start thinking about road trips, camping, etc. but we've done all that in mine.

I'll say that for a two door convertible the Jeep does pretty damn good with kids.

 

Just to clarify. No hate on the four doors out there. They are a far superior overland vehicle. But I do not like they way they look tops and doors off. I think the two door has a more balanced look. Although I haven't seen a tricked out two door that looks as good as a tricked out four door! Haha. I'm full of contradictions on this subject huh?? Anyway, just wanted to clarify I'm not some two door crazy loon that hates on the four door. Even though my two door manual is better than a four door auto. Haha. Just kidding. Or am I?

Hey I think in all this conjecture I was remiss and forgot to tell you congrats! Fatherhood is an amazing journey. Get ready to experience love like you never thought possible

 

I'm interested as well but it's cost-prohibitive to 'try' without having a friend who has one that I can borrow.