Jeep cherokee xj rear seat headrests

Hi All ... I recently bought a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport to tote my grandkids home from school and quickly discovered to my dismay that there are NO clip hooks anywhere in the crack of the rear seat to fasten childseat straps, along with no rear seat headrests. That could pose a whiplash problem for taller kid not in a childseat. Also discovered there is not a key switch to turn off front passenger seat airbag, so that also rules out taller kid sitting up front with headrest. Screwed myself all the way around picking this vehicle to haul kids. If anyone has any experience adding rear headrests in regular Cherokee, or if anyone has tackled problem of having child seat clip hooks welded to metal floorboard between crack of rear seat, I would be grateful for any shared photos or descriptions of how you carried out such items.

PS ... are there any other year regular or grand Cherokees that have built-in headrests on back seat, where that entire fold-down back section will fit directly into rear seat bolt pattern in a 2000 Cherokee Sport ? Thanks

Hey CJ7-Tim ... Thank you for responding. When I read your post I thought "GREAT" I must have just not noticed hooks on the top of the tailgate opening for the top back anchor straps of kiddie seats and I ran out to my Jeep. But unfortunately, no such thing on mine. However, it makes sense to have them there and I will head to my local welding shop to get two or three installed and welded on in that location. So your message did at least serve as inspiration to metal-fabricate a cure that problem. Now, just the other two problems ... hooks in the crack of seat for the base section straps of the kiddie seats, along with headrest issue. After my first post, I removed entire fold-down backrest and brought it inside and unzipped all the upholstery off it to see what kind of metal framework exists for bolting or welding backrest rods onto back of it. That entire back section is little more than a huge tin sheet of metal, like a giant cookie sheet, with foam glued on it. It would be awesome to simply find another vehicle with entire fold-down back-section with headrests, that can just be swapped in.

I would like to put rear headrests in too. I have lots of spare parts from front XJ seats so at some point I will try. There are a couple write ups out there. Threw in some shots from when I eyeballed some things a while back.

Hi All ... I recently bought a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport to tote my grandkids home from school and quickly discovered to my dismay that there are NO clip hooks anywhere in the crack of the rear seat to fasten childseat straps, along with no rear seat headrests. That could pose a whiplash problem for taller kid not in a childseat. Also discovered there is not a key switch to turn off front passenger seat airbag, so that also rules out taller kid sitting up front with headrest. Screwed myself all the way around picking this vehicle to haul kids. If anyone has any experience adding rear headrests in regular Cherokee, or if anyone has tackled problem of having child seat clip hooks welded to metal floorboard between crack of rear seat, I would be grateful for any shared photos or descriptions of how you carried out such items.

Try this link for the mounting points.
https://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/location-child-seat-tether-anchor-ring-xj-3822249/

Also, read my build thread in my signature to see my rear headrests. Long story short, I took the head rests from the front seats of a 1997-2001 Classic XJ. A Limited XJ will also work. There are different interior colors out there, so be aware of that.

I found a similar year GRAND CHEROKEE (2001) & pulled the rear seat apart. I went into the seat & took the metal skeleton out of the back part of the rear seat. I also took the plastic tubes that allow the rear headrests to lock into place. I took all this to an upholstery shop & they cut out the welds from the GRAND CHEROKEE & welded the parts into my XJ rear seats. From there they reinstalled the seat cover & the plastic tubes to lock the headrests into place.