I am needing to replace the driver's seat in my 2001 Jeep Cherokee with a seat that will fully recline. I work as a postal carrier and have modified my Jeep for both left hand and right hand drive. I don't want to take the driver's seat out, since I still want to be able to use my Jeep around town, but need it to recline more fully so I can fit a decent sized tray over it while delivering mail. Anyone know of a decent seat that will fit without customizing and recline all the way back?

 

I'm not sure if the ZJ or WJ seats recline but really you can find any seat within the same size you'll just have to make brackets for it. I'd like to see some pictures of this ambidextrous Jeep.

 

I will try to post some pictures tomorrow if I have time to take some as I will be running the mail tomorrow. I really like the way it is set up- instead of removing the left hand steering wheel I left it so it can be driven either way. It's kind of cool to see the other steering wheel turning as you drive.
I was also wondering if there is a way to install a seat that is easy to remove, maybe with some kind of quick release system. That way I could just switch out seat and mail tray as needed. I've watched several videos of people taking the seats out of one of these and it looks like more work than I would want to do on a regular basis.

 

ZJ

 

Picture of the right hand drive installed. Looks a lot better than this now, but I didn't get home from the mail run until almost dark so I couldn't get a picture.

 

That's pretty cool. How'd you set up the pedals on the right side?

 

WJ seats recline as much as the regular XJ seats.

 

I bought a universal right hand drive pedal conversion kit from someone who used to be a rural carrier. It works using cables that pass along the firewall. They run between $500 and $1K. There's a place in eastern TN that sells pedal kits, and also does partial and full right hand drive conversions. I started out with just the pedals but didn't feel confident driving reaching across with my left hand (I'm 4'11") so I ended up doing the steering as well. Glad I did! Much easier, though the turn signals and lights are still a bit of a pain.
I see a lot of these Jeeps being used by rural carriers. I guess they're tough enough to take it. The route I'm driving has over 400 mail boxes and is over 100 miles long. That's a lot of wear and tear, but I'm only doing it one day a week. I really would love to be able to easily swap between the seat and mail tray so I can still use it as my regular vehicle when I'm not driving my route. This forum has lots of good information on it so I figured I would ask for suggestions on that. I have found solutions on here to many of my Jeep problems. So grateful for the collective knowledge and experience.

 

Did you have to get the steering wheel addition and pulley system setup inspected and approved by the DOT? No offense to your skills, but that looks like some backwoods southern engineering....

 

That looks like a common commercially available kit for postal drivers. I don't think the federal government would be ok with someone out operating under their purview with some hodgepodged homebuilt steering system. But who knows.

http://www.pedal-pros.com/

 

It's a kit-actually it was two different kits, one for the pedals and the other for the steering. The rural carrier I am subbing for had the steering conversion in one of her older Jeeps she used to drive. Her husband put it in for me- he's done several RHD conversions. It's really solidly bolted in, so no worries about it coming loose while I'm driving. It makes the mail route so much easier (and safer) than trying to drive with my left arm stretched across to the driver's side. At the academy they trained us on driving their little postal delivery vehicles (LLV) and I really loved driving that thing. Super easy to maneuver, park, back, etc. Wish they didn't have issues with suddenly catching on fire for no apparent reason, or I would try to buy one as a back-up vehicle.