Rear Facing Child Seat & Stroller in a 2-Door Bronco -- My Experience

[jehines3]

I don’t think most parents with newborns are lazy. They are cautious and value time. Most importantly, jostling a sleeping baby into or out of the back seat of a two door is psychotic. You wake them and it could be hours of lost quiet time or an hour drive of screaming and tears. I think the four door argument is mostly made by people on their second child that stopped obsessively washing and fussing and just want to live life. The little drool monsters can take away part
Of your soul for a time. For some of us, that cut is deep. I love my girls, but I’m
Not doing the parking spot rodeo every time the four of us go for a top down ride. I’ve had two Isuzu Amigos, and both were two doors (one soft top w/ stick, one hard top w/auto), I fully understand the level of two door commitment being expressed by the OP. I commend them, they have not lost their soul to live their own version of life fully (yet)

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[Hkak45]

LoL some of y'all are like the people who told me I needed to get a minivan after having one kid!

OP I agree with everything you said. My kid fits perfectly in the back seat and the only annoying thing is when parked on a hill and the seat tries to slide back on it's own. I think both the 2 door and 4 door broncos are not practical mom vehicles so that's why I went 2 door manual because F-it life is short and in my opinion the 2 door looks best. But it's not my main family vehicle either so I'm fine throwing the kids in the back when we go for a fun ride.

 

[Ksjrb03]

Poor kid.

 

[etmccaus86]

Nice to see it *can* work, but man - am I ever glad we have an extra pair of doors, especially when I'm exhausted after a LONG day of chasing after an increasingly energetic toddler. Sasquatch package places the child seat essentially at the same height as where I carry our little one, so there's no bending/ contorting/ accidental cussing involved in buckling them up (it's actually easier than our Honda Pilot).

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Just because you're lazy...


People removing one or both rear seats is a popular mod on here; first time on the forum?

1) I think he's talking about removing a FRONT seat.
2) I should take a photo of my 2YO son's rear facing seat in the back of my 4DR. I can barely get him into it because of the C pillar's positioning relative to the rear seats. My driver's seat is also in direct contact with the carseat
3) In a 2DR I would have to make my daughter stand outside, go in through the opposite door, crawl completely inside, buckle him in, get back out, follow my daughter in to help buckler her seat, then crawl back out a second time.

Personally if I ever have a 2DR I'm deleting the rear seats. Why they didn't engineer them for quick removal or complete fold up I have no idea.

 

[KyTruckPlant]

Dudes talking about removing the front pass seat to make room for the car seat in the back! WT-actual-F?
Can't wait until drooler #2 comes along ... "yeah, we had to pull the front seats, so now the kids just sit in it and we play v8 motor sounds through the stereo. Add a few fans and it's just as good as the real thing. This spring we're adding more fans to simulate going topless!"
It's not like the 4dr is a freaking Chrysler mini-van.

 

[SurfsUp85]

There are a few other posts out there, but I couldn’t find a concise overview with photos like I wanted. After 1 month of daily driving, a road trip with the baby, and about 50 times in and out with the car seat - here is my take on a 2 door manual with a rear facing child seat and stroller in the Bronco.

Some have said that it doesn’t work, but it CAN if you are motivated to make it work. Especially if you have another vehicle with 4 doors. But probably only if you have one kid, since I can’t get the car seat in on the driver’s side - due to the difference in seat travel.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/rear-child-car-seat-installed-in-4-door-2021-bronco.14130/
https://www.bronco6g.com/child-seat-installed-in-a-2021-bronco-2-door-photos/
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/child-car-seat-room.52759/
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/2-door-vs-4-door-putting-child-car-seats-in-the-back.8573/

The biggest shortcoming is that it is a tight squeeze to get my Graco 35 lite in and out. I am always rubbing on something to get it in/out, usually the back of the passenger seat (see photo with the passenger seat moved about as far forward as possible). And if you are short or have a bad back, I could see this not working for you. Obviously the 2 door is not the best family vehicle, but it works better than I expected.

Some shortcomings many are already aware of:

The passenger seat doesn’t stay slid forward to get into the back when parked uphill, the releases to slide the seats can be temperamental, the rear gate has to be 90 degrees to open the upper glass (so it doesn’t open in my garage), the 2 door doesn’t have rear seat recline adjustment for more cargo, when I take new passengers - the slow to lower window makes me really nervous that the glass will break one of these times, and the wind noise over 70mph is pretty rough.

The strengths:

Despite being more work to get the baby in and out - I almost always take the Bronco instead of my wife’s SUV. Enough space in front of a rear facing car seat for a tall person in the front. Enough space in the trunk for 4 22” roller bags, or 1 roller bag, a stroller, a diaper bag, and some soft luggage. The wind noise under 60mph acts like a white noise machine and puts the baby to sleep really quickly.

It is a fun daily driver for a tall person, really good manual transmission, compared to most coupes - the Bronco can handle four 6ft+ people without issue, and I have averaged 24.1mpg on 87 octane (highway or city really doesn’t seem to make much difference). But cargo, ground clearance for unplowed roads, and towing compared to other manual coupes is a big group of reasons for me. Surprising handling for what it is. So much better than a manual JK Wrangler 2dr (haven’t driven the JL).

And a quick cargo area dimension check: 43 inches wide, about 20 inches deep with the seats up, and about 48 inches deep with the rear seats down. This is posted elsewhere, but I thought it would help to post here again. Four of those carry on sized, 22” roller bags can fit.

Going through the tailgate doesn’t seem much easier with the car seat, and then I have to take the stroller out so I just never do that. I couldn’t find a plug and play solution to remove the passenger seat without an airbag error code, but that would make this a lot easier and make it so my cargo in front of the passenger seat doesn’t get smashed.


With a 1 inch gap for safety from the car seat to the back of the passenger seat.

Tight squeeze

Stroller in trunk

Stroller, diaper bag, and 22” roller bag

Showing how even with this much space - the glass won’t open

A 2 door with kids is never a good idea. You have many years of this. I'd recommend the 4 door. Way way way better for family life.

 

[prospectfour]

I mean yeah, a detachable infant carrier is pretty easy to work with if you're reasonably strong. I don't think you'll have the same experience at toddler age though unless you get one of those seats that can rotate 180 degrees in place for easier loading. Good luck! I did the kids and two doors thing once already, never again. When I'm retired or use the bronco just for adventures I'll get a two door.

I agree with OP you can make anything work if you’re motivated to do so. I will say the kiddos start to get heavy pretty quick and there’s a big difference between loading an 8lb newborn and 25lb toddler! My next door neighbor swam against this tide in his 2dr Wrangler and absolutely loves his 4dr OBX now.

I have 3 kids so in the interest of my whole family enjoying the Bronco we went 4dr/5passenger.

I’ll get a 2 door when the wife and I are empty nesters or if I ever had enough $$ for a dedicated weekend truck. Both 2dr and 4dr have their purpose. Good luck OP!

 

[0ne]

God bless you people rearing children these days, sounds like a lot of pandemic hanky panky was going on

 

[Lilhoss105]

Only issue I have with your write up is the "4 6ft+ people can fit"

I strongly disagree, we have a 4 door and there is no way. My 5'8" wife can hardly fit in the backseat. I feel its literally for children or very small people.

However, glad I got to read this because we have our first baby due in April. Looking forward to Broncos and baby bumps!

 

[Lilhoss105]

Bought a car seat that swivels 270°. Once it goes in mine, it's not coming back out

The swivels are clutch!

 

[patientB]

Poor kid.

Drama.

 

[dsgordo0]

More question than suggestion. Have you tried to put one back seat down and put the carrier in through the tailgate. I would imagine that you'd literally have to crawl into the back to get it done, but might require less severe contortions than squeezing behind the passenger seat. Just an idea.

 

[broncobase1]

Oh No! The old 2Dr vs 4Dr argument again. I will say the few times I've had people in the back seat, I was sure glad for four doors. I get the appeal of the 2-door -- but man that is a big pill to swallow for a family with kids.

 

[hoss]

I raised a kid in a Mustang. Kid seats are needed a relatively short amount of time, then they get into/out of vehicles all by themselves. Kids adapt to the family culture, not the other way round.

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