i have an '80 cj that i am in the process of building into a well rounded offroad vehicle. I am planning on using suspension seats, probably beard (to cheap for mastercrafts), i am also planning on making my own rollcage with the seat mount built in, but i have a couple ideas and im not sure what would work best.
My two options are as follows
1.Make the main hoop basically identical to the post 79 rollbar (it attaches to the floor
Advantages- easier to attach seat mounts to
would be easy to tie into rocker guards im going to make out of 1.5"tube
in my opinion looks a little better
2.Make the main hoop like the pre 79 rollbar (it attaches on the fenderwell)
Advantages-easier to make


The problem im having is that i heard when using suspension seats and option 1 is that you can't place the seat very far back and gives very little leg room. I was wondering if this problem could be lessened by moving the seats inward so the bar is just on the side.

I quess i am asking for your opinions/experiences in this matter. If you can show some pics and a brief explanation of how you did it and if you would recomend doing it the same way, i would greatly appreciate it.

On my 80 cj5 i cut into the rear jus behind the seat and box it in. That gave around 3 to 4 more inches to slide my seat back. I will post some pics here in a bit. Im tearin mine down right now and my roll cage is out or i would show you picks of that also.

i have considered doing some body modifications like you said, but i have a fiberglass body and really dont want to mess w/ it, because i dont think its as easy to work with.

I agree. Im 6'3" and needed all the leg room i could get. My seats are bolted to my rollcage. I have i guess the pre 79 rollbar that is bolted to my rear fenderwells. I went ahead and kept that and built the rest of my cage off that. I did tho tie in where my cage bolts into the rear to my frame to reinforce it.

In fact if you look at my avatar(the pic under my name) you can see in my rear fender area where i ran my tubing down to my frame to reinforce it.

yota44 could you show some pics on how you bolted your seat to your cage