To some of you this might seem ridiculous but does anyone know how difficult it would be to take say a bench seat from a 1500 and replace the front bucket seats with it in my 99 durango? Ive always just loved the look and feel of bench seats and thought it def would make my ride unique plus I find the center console in this thing pretty useless anyways and wouldnt mind having and extra seat.

 

there was a thread awhile back about it....extremely rare but, they did come factory with a bench seat as a option.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...the-front.html

 

a front "bench" seat was a factory option. the reason I put bench in quotes is because the third front seat was just between the two front buckets in place of the console. If you want a true bench seat look for one from a dakota, it should fit better than one from a ram since dakotas and durangos were pretty much identical from the front doors forward.

check your local scrapyard for the middle seat. I've seen a couple recently that had bench seats at the pull-a-part here

heres a pic of a durango with the front "bench" seat:

 

yes you can easily pull one from dakota of the same year grouping and it should fit just fine,

btw that guy, my 98 dakota w/ a front bench seat had both driver and passenger seat adjustable too, so that is just how they do bench seats now, no more are they all one seat going all the way across (at least not that i have seen in a very long time, not since my dads 96 dakota actually)

 

One solid bench? Cause my 95 and brothers 96 we're both 60/40 split bench seats. Was a full one an option back then too or what?

 

it was a single cab sb truck, and the whole back of the seat hinged forward as one unit, we traded it in on my dads 03 late in 2003 so i dont have any pictures of it.

 

I'd also recommend a test sit on the new seat if you don't just add the center seat. Some of the Dodge bench seats were rather stiff and unforgiving to the behind. I just got to drive a friend's 08 Ram 3500 with the cloth bench seats (front and back), and they were much stiffer than the Durango's, I actually found it uncomfortable. The Durango seats are actually very comfortable. Just don't go to all the work to discover that you now have a seat that makes your butt sore if you ride in it too long.

 

I stand corrected, it's been a long time since I've been in a dakota and I thought they had an actual bench seat, guess not

 

Not to dig up a old thread but, i finally got around to doing this mod and thought i would share some pics. This is def NOT fully a plug and play mod as it was thought to be. I had to fab up some brackets to raise up the seat about 3" and the bolt holes in the back are about a inch off as the bucket seats are 21" long and the bench ones are 20"

 

Good work, personally I prefer the buckets though.