Finally got my seat finished and couldn't be happier.

I ended up buying a bump set for a RZR 1000 after talking on the phone to the guy at UTVMA. Here is what I ordered.

Front/Rear Bump Seat by UTV Mountain UTVMA1000BS 1 $249.00

I then tore apart the inside of Wolfy to see what there was to attach to. Nothing really jumped out. The factory seat brackets are too low, and you have the driver's seat that moves. The center console is all plastic and there isn't much clearance under it. I wanted to keep the seat as low as I could, secure enough to trust it with my son's life in a rollover, and didn't really want to cut or modify anything so I can put it back to stock if I want. I started with a piece of thin sheet metal to make a pattern. Did a bit of test fitting, seeing what there was to connect to, and re-shaping and settled on a design. I drew up a flat plan for the bracket and sent it to my brother in law who works at a metal fab shop. We decided on quarter inch steel for strength. Probably overkill, but again, it's my son riding in it. He powder coated it black and the texture matches the factory roll cage perfectly. I mounted the bracket to the existing bolt locations on the rear of the roll cage (had to buy longer bolts) , then used two fender washers and bolts through the center console (the only holes I made in the machine). These aren't really structural, but just help prevent movement and make it more secure. The seat bolts to the bracket we made using the existing mounting locations on the seat. The seat belt harness also mounts to those bolts. the top of the harness goes through the seat and straps to the roll cage.

The end result is a seat that is more secure than the factory Yamaha seats. I couldn't move the bracket, it shook the whole machine.
My son loves it. He almost fell asleep on the test ride around my property. We spent a couple hours trail riding with family today. The "weeeee's" made everything worth it.
No longer have to let him sit on my lap or the center console lid to take him for a ride.

His head is about level with mine when I'm driving. I wish I could have got it a little lower. It definitely would have taken some trimming of the back of the center console. Maybe I'll work on a version 2 when he starts to outgrow it. The storage space under the seat is still pretty usable. With another one on the way, I probably should have just bought the 4 seater to begin with... 😢

 

Yup, that's pretty much how it fit in my rhino, a bit snug in the seats, but the trade off was that it was safe for my son, we didn't do anything crazy either with him in it, but we did do mud runs with him, I just took it easier. He spent a ton of time in that seat and never complained once. Usually slept for a big part of the day.

 

I made my own using a Graco high back booster. I trimmed the base to fit snugly between the seats with the center console lid off. I put a piece of foam between the seat and console so it isn't plastic on plastic, and secure it with straps to the cage and to a tie down I added between the seats. Only takes a minute or two to remove or install. Not shown, but after I was happy with the fit I hacked an old hiking backpack and mounted the shoulder straps and hip harness to the booster to effectively make a nicely padded 4 point harness.

Both my two year old and four year old love it and can ride securely in it. They love the visibility (see last pic, my 4 year old is on a booster on the passenger sear for comparison). I don't do any crazy riding with them, but I'm plenty confident in it for some of the trails we cruise around on our acreage. The only real down side is it does bump the ribs a bit which gets annoying on longer rides. I'm not a big guy but I could see it being a dealbreaker for some. I'd imagine slimmer boosters can be found, but i got these for free.

 

I just talked to Chris at UTV Mountain accessories. Says he really doesn't have enough interest in making a bump seat for the wolverine right now. But he is working on one for the YXZ. The seat is a generic seat, the brackets are what makes it fit each machine, and increases the price over the one for the RZR. How similar are the seat mounts in the YXZ to the Wolverine? I thought I saw someone here swap the seats out. Maybe a good starting point. Otherwise I think I will end up buying the one for the RZR and trying to fab a bracket on my own. Won't be an easy task.

 

I didn't this type of thing in my rhino, used a car seat in the middle and hose clamped it to the roll bar, you couldn't move the seat at all, it was in there good, my son rode like that for a few years and loved it, there was 3 of us in our group that did this and got lots of compliments on how secure it was.

 

Would you happen to have any pics?

 

that center console is about $150 and not too much in my opinion for your boy to be with you for a couple years. You could mold it to shape of seat more than once ha. Maybe a bigger seat as he grows. But I encourage you to look at the inside seatbelt mounting bolts of driver and passenger for where you get the bump seat restraint as well as from the cage behind. You need to keep the seat immovable when subjected to G forces in ANY direction as experienced in a tumbling rollover. You may need to get longer bolts but that is the manufacturer design point of adequate strength. I would target keeping his head no higher than yours as I theorize the 'cage' is not really a cage, but a ROPS for a crumple zone type approach in a rollover. If you get a child's car seat and fix it in place, then easy to get him in and out with the made in seat harness.

 

The seatbelt brackets were what I was eyeing. That's what the ones on the rzr mount to and like you said are designed for the load. I also want to keep his head below mine which is why I was thinking about trimming/ molding the center console. I saw a thread for the last gen wolverine where a guy used a booster seat, but he didn't post any pics. I'm thinking one of the rzr bump seats, a booster/ car seat, or I found a small offroad suspension seat. That would be nice, but would take more fabrication and may be too big to fit between the seats.

 

The center console doesn't come off like the 708 Wolverine. The whole thing is removed because its all one piece.
you may need to get some tube clamps and custom make something secure for it to mount to off of the center cross brace behind the seats.

 

The center console doesn't come off like the 708 Wolverine. The whole thing is removed because its all one piece.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Looks like I'll have to actually cut material away. Or heat gun/ mold as much as possible. But if there's not anything solid under the to mount to, it doesn't matter.