I have a Jeep 2010 Wrangler. Now please don’t chide me but I am 5’0" and I removed the headrests because I try to maintain good posture when I drive, and when I do the head rests shove my head forward at a very uncomfortable angle. A lot of the headrest is above my head. I did some looking online but all I could find was a bunch of really tall people complaining about headrests. Can you please help me find a solution to my “bad or nothing” headrest problem? (Any idea of the insurance implications in a wreck if the headrests are missing?)
I’d sell the car and buy something that is comfortable for you to drive with headrests OR I’d replace the seat with one more comfortable for you WITH headrests. I like Recaro seats;
I see a couple of people above who are not aware that all new cars have these ridiculous headrests. I looked at the videos of the dummies being crashed and having their head whip around and figured out why – their heads come out of their chests rather than from between their shoulders, meaning the headrests meet their heads in an appropriate place – for crash test dummies, not for humans, that is. As a normal human being who has his head coming out from between his shoulders rather than from his chest, these headrests (which are in virtually all new cars) annoy the bleep out of me because they basically force my head down to point at my feet, which is not a comfortable way to drive.
The solution for the 2008-2018 Jeep Wrangler is simple. Place the headrests in front of your Jeep’s front tires with the rods pointed forward. A short piece of steel pipe over each rod is recommended. Place Jeep into 1st gear, 4-lo. SLOWLY drive up onto the headrests. The rods will slowly bend. Stop bending when the head rests are acceptable for human beings with heads coming out from between shoulders rather than for crash test dummies with their heads coming out from their chest. Done.
BTW, on the 2007-2018 Jeep Wrangler the seat is an integral part of both the airbag system and the seat belt system. You cannot replace it, it has position and weight sensors that are used to calibrate the airbag force, and the seat belt buckles are mounted directly to the seat. Even unplugging the wire harness from the bottom of the seat while there is power to the car will lead to the air bag light coming on and the air bag system no longer being functional, and only the dealer will be able to reset it by performing a recalibration on the sensors.
I suppose you can switch the rear seats headrests to the front.Did you try that? The angle is less pronounced after looking at a few pictures of the cabin.
Thank you all for your responses. I had no idea I’d caused such a fuss. I think I’ll go with the simplest - try to back headrests on the front if they will go in. If that doesn’t work the other ideas seem like a lot of work/$$ though I do like the idea of running over my head rests . If you guys have any other ideas please keep 'em coming and thank you so much! I’ll let you know what happens!
My wife has a cushion from the back of a rocking chair tied to head rest for her to sit her back against, it moves her just enough forward and away from the headrest so it doesn’t bother her.
To me it looks a little funny, but it works for her. If she were to put a seat cover on covering the seat and cushion you probably wouldn’t even notice it.
If those devices were head “rests”, I might be able to understand your actions.
However, they are actually head restraints, and are there to protect you from whiplash injuries in the event of being rear-ended.
If you think it was uncomfortable to have those head restraints in place, please allow me to assure you that the pain of whiplash injuries to your neck would be far more severe–and very long-lasting.
That was also one of the solutions suggested in the article I linked to above. Seems simplest and they mentioned a commercial product that accomplishes the task…
I feel certain that like every part on an automobile the seat and its headrest were designed as a compromise to fit some imaginary person sitting at some imaginary position and about to be impacted by another car from some imaginary direction and for those who fall into all those criteria when an accident occurs their likelihood of being seriously injured is reduced some imaginary amount. But then for those who are somewhat taller or shorter or suffered from various pains that resulted in sitting in an awkward position the ideal seat and headrest position to provide the greatest safety would be different and it would be smart to take advantage of every possible option to achieve the greatest comfort and safety. I often reverse headrests to eliminate back and neck pain. I would imagine that continuing to drive with the pain would greatly increase the probability of becoming involved in an accident. So I am much safer to reverse it.
The reality, dude, is that these head RESTRAINTS point my head at my feet, because they are set for crash test dummies that have heads growing out of their chests, not for people like me who have heads growing out from between my shoulders. I literally cannot see the road with the head restraints in most cars today, all I can see is my toes. You can whine all you want about safety blah blah blah, but if I’m looking at my toes rather than at the road when driving, that’s not safe at all!
BTW, I don’t recommend reversing the head restraints. The same problem that causes them to push my head down to point at my toes also puts them way too far back if reversed.
All of this would be solvable if the blasted things were actually adjustable for anything other than height, but they aren’t. They’re designed to get good crash test scores from crash test dummies, not for people. Like early seat belt designs that had no retractors, they are uncomfortable and people bypass them because of that. Seat belt comfort was fixed by the mid 80’s with the retractors that kept them loosely against your chest while allowing you to move around slowly, while locking up in an actual crash to protect you. Too bad head restraint comfort hasn’t been similarly engineered – they could do the same thing (have an adjuster that kept it lightly against your head but which locked up in a crash), but seem more interested in whining that people just are being mean to these poor engineers by asking “why are our head restraints so incompetently designed?!”.
Kudos to those few manufacturers who have designed head restraints that are both comfortable and effective, most of which use some mechanism to pop the restraint forward to restrain your head in a rear-end collision…
Yes, the pain of whiplash can be severe and long lasting. But the vast majority of people never get severe and long lasting whiplash. I got whiplash when I was driving my 66 Plymouth Fury III station wagon (no headrests then) By an Olds 88. My neck was very painful for 2 days and I had to use my hand to help raise or lower my head for a few weeks.
Would I rather go through that again or drive the rest of my life in pain caused by an uncomfortable headrest ?
Give me the whiplash every time.
It is like when people say, any sacrifice would be worth it if it would save just one life. No, it wouldn’t be or we would require all motor vehicles to be built to go no more that 10 mph. That would save tens of thousands of lives in our country alone, and no, it wouldn’t be worth it.
You keep saying this but it isn’t true. I posted just one example that explains how they came about to be this way. The fact is, the MAJORITY of people have bad posture and the seats, dummies and everything else are designed to fit the MAJORITY of people using it. Like it or not, you are in the minority so it’s you that will have to adapt or just keep whining about it. There are things you can do to address the issue, I’d suggest trying some of those suggestions. Either that or go on a crusade to improve posture in society…
You sound like the people who defended the uncomfortable seatbelts of the 1970’s because “safety!”, or the gas-thirsty and power sapping emissions controls of the 1970’s because “environment!” The reality is that it is possible to engineer these things properly for comfort, just as the uncomfortable seatbelts of the 1970’s became comfortable once engineers designed retractors that allowed you to move around while belted, while still locking up properly when in a crash, and just as the power-sapping and gas-thirsty emission controls of the 1970’s became the power-granting and fuel-sipping emissions controls of the 1990’s with good engineering. You are defending poor engineering.
And yes, the seats in the 2007-2018 Wrangler seem designed to force you into a hunchback position too, because “safety!”. Bull****. We know how to make head restraints and seats that are both safe AND comfortable. It’s just bad engineering, that’s all.
And yes, I can “fix” the head restraints and seat. But I paid nearly $40K for this bloody Jeep. I’m not going to defend bad engineering on something that I paid more than a BMW for.
. If you guys have any other ideas please keep 'em coming and thank you so much! I’ll let you know what happens!