BigDaddy13440
Full Access Member
I've seen it done on here. Gonna have to do a search. The person fabbed his own brackets.
That'd be me.
Pretty easy, actually. I just bought some 1/4" thick by 2" wide bar stock, and cut the pieces to 3 1/2" long. Then I drilled holes 2 1/2" apart, and ran a bolt, washer and nut through one hole. Flipping it so that the bolt faced up, I then bolted it onto the studs coming up from the floor. Essentially, all I did was relocate the studs back 2 1/2", and bolted the seats back down.
I did have to take a 5lb sledge hammer to the inside floorboard, behind where the seat release is on the passenger side. Didn't break any welds or bust any seams, just made a nice little dent, giving me enough room to slip my fingers behind and flip the lever. If you have different seats (like my older '01 Suburban), and don't have the lever, you might be able to get 3 1/2 - 4" more room than stock, but certainly no more, unless you plan on cutting up your floorboard and relocating everything backward.
FWIW, it might have taken me 2 hours to do, with no help. The hardest thing to do was to wrestle the seats in and out, just heavy and bulky. Well worth the effort though, as my 15 yr old son and 13 yr old daughter don'tt have to chew on their knees with the front seats all the way back - I'm 6'7 and 320 lbs, my daughter is 6' and she sits behind me. My wife is only 5'7 and has the seat up about 2 inches, but my son sits behind her, he's pushing 6'3 and 360 lbs. They both have plenty of room.
You can see where I added washers under the bracket where it bolts to the floor, the same thickness as the head of the bolt. If I didn't, tightening the bracket down would've bent the studs.