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Center console to bench seat swap Complete

SNBI07

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Wanted to get this recorded for anyone else that wants to take the plunge. I got all my parts from another forum member rlc2020 who gave me his center jump seat and all supporting parts in exchange for my center console (his write up is in this thread : https://5thgenrams.com/community/threads/center-console-conversion.4140/). I'm not going to go into a lot of the mechanics of bolting and unbolting pieces because honestly its super simple and pretty intuitive, especially once you pull all your original parts that you will be discarding, it will be easy for you to see where your new parts will go. From my perspective, these were the parts I needed to remove and swap:

1. Entire front carpet (requires disconnecting the connectors under the front seats and pulling out the seats, unless you decide to cut the carpet)
2. Center console (comes out as one unit with a few bolts in the front and the back, no skill required). If you are doing a swap with someone you will most likely give them the wiring harness that is connected to the console, but you will need this for your install so if you get rid of your original one, you will have to order a replacement from a mopar parts store. The jump seat that I was getting did not have a CD player install, so I was going to lose that capability, but no biggie, I just ordered a wiring harness for the center console without the CD player
3. Silver Bracket at the back of the center console that connects it to the floor (see next picture for reference)

IMG_6287.JPG

This next picture shows why you need to swap the carpeting, trucks with the center console have some of the carpeting cut out under the console.

IMG_6281.JPG

At this point, it was a matter of making sure I had everything I needed to install. That includes:

1: New front center dash storage area/trim were your new USBs and power outlet come from
2. Jump seat
3. AC ducting that goes from the center console along the floor to the jump seat
4. Replacement front carpet

Once you're ready to go, first thing is to place your new bracket that will help anchor your jump seat to the floor. It looks similar to the one you removed but its a bit beefier, obviously because it will be holding more weight. Its a simple "swap one in the place of the other" deal. Once that bracket is in, go ahead and install the AC ducting on the floor and then install your carpet over it (sorry I dont have pictures of this, but you can see where it would connect in the picture above, right below the silver bracket at the bottom of your center dash area).

Once your carpet is all back in, you need to prep your jump seat for install. This requires that you wire in your new (or existing) wiring harness so that you can still play with apple car play and charge all your fancy gadgets. I ordered part # 68362132AC since I did not need a CD player wired in, if you do, it would be part # 68362133AD. You will need to access the under side of your jump seat and unplug the entire wiring harness. This is easy to do with the exception of the one set of wires that run into the lid of the jump seat for the single USB in there. IMO its not worth pulling apart the whole seat (it will take you a LONG time if you can even do it) so when it came to that cluster of wires at the end, I just cut it with the plan to connect my new wires from the new wiring harness directly to the old wires. Here is a picture for reference on what it looks like under the jump seat as it comes from the factory:

Picture3.png

You will need to do some work to get the OEM jump seat harness disconnected from the back facing USB hub. First, you will need to remove both side plastic panels on the seat (see following picture)

IMG_6355.JPG

Then you will need to loosen/disconnect (but not remove) the black plastic piece that sits below the seat cushion but above the main plastic of the back vent area. I'm pointing at it in the picture below, just stick a pry tool in the there and pry it towards the cushion.

IMG_6377.JPG

Once that is loose, you can pry off the whole back piece

IMG_6357.JPG

Will continue on next post...
 
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SNBI07

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The next picture shows how the wiring of the back USB hub, you will need to disconnect each of these. The one with green wires if for your traditional outlet, while the other two are for the USBs.

IMG_6376.JPG

Once everything is unplugged you will want to cut the original wiring harness at the location I showed in the previous picture, where the bundle of wires go to the lid USB. You will then discard the main part of the harness and the part that you see above. Then lay your new wiring harness in place of the old one:

IMG_6371.JPG

Now we start the fun in the back portion of the new harness to get it connected properly. I have made two pictures which detail how/where you will need to cut and re-wire. I think they are pretty straight forward so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I know it doesnt seem right to cut into the brand new replacement wiring harness that you just bought but this is what it took to make everything work and power up properly.

Picture2.png
Picture1.png

Once I made all the connections I re-wrapped the wires using all the wrap that I could pull from the discarded wires, making it look like factory again:

IMG_6374.JPG

Again the 3 plugs you see go to the back USB hub and power port, the next strand of wires above that are what go to the lid UBS and the main harness snakes back under the HVAC vents and back towards the front of the seat. Next, you need to make sure the USB plugs go back through the proper access point to reach to back USB area, so you need to pull that back through the access hole that they originally came through, as shown below:

IMG_6375.JPG

Now the rest if easy and pretty much do everything in reverse order, reconnect the 3 plugs above to the USB/power connections, re-attach that back panel. I did not attach the wiring harness to any anchor points under the seat because I actually needed the entire length of the harness to reach the plugs that it connects to in the center console, so I could not afford any slack in the line. Once you plug your main harness to the dash wiring harness, you will have left over ports to connect to your new front USB ports and new power switch that you got as part of the kit to close out the big gaping hole that was left in your console after removing your dash.

IMG_6383.JPG

Then make sure you new jump seat is bolted down properly. You will need two bolts in the front and 3 in the back, one on the driver side and two on the passenger side.

IMG_6378.JPG

Once your seat is bolted down you can pat yourself on the back and enjoy the finished product (after you turned your car back on and made sure all our new power ports/USBs power up properly:

IMG_6382.JPG

I have to say that I would not have tacked this project if there was not another forum member to swap parts with, it looked to be prohibitively expensive if trying to buy all the parts new/online. So be confident and swap out those parts in confidence because it can be done and everything can work 100% like its supposed to.
 
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Neurobit

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Got a 4th kid on the way so need to be able to haul 6 including me and I really only cared for the rebel trim which got me stuck at 5 seats till I did the swap.
Or... just have them draw straws. Shortest one stays home... :p
Kidding aside. Nice work. Way more than I would ever attempt doing on a brand new vehicle.
 

Skidowntown

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Thank you! Maybe I’ll look into possibility of replacing console with bench via aftermarket
 

RHCan

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I want to go to a console. I needed a quad cab for work but i could only find the Laramie with a bench seat . Looking for a console now
 

Wilsonwanderings

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I have a Laramie (black leather) on order with the center console. Couldn't order the bench with the options I wanted. You want to trade when it comes in?
 

19TXLimited

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This seems like a lot of work, but I have always wished they would allow for a jumpseat rather than center console in the higher trim models. I have a Limited and it would be even more work due to the heated and ventilated rear seats.

Great work here and glad it worked out for you.
 

RHCan

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why did you need a quad cab for work?
Crew cab with 6.4 bed is too long.
needed the longer bed thus quad cab.
5.7 bed is too short with tailgate close.
I may as well kept my Dakota and rebuild the engine.
 

bcs82000

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What do think a shop would charge to do that work (assuming I found someone to swap with) and would you trust a random shop?
 

farmes

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I'm looking at a truck with a console. Does anyone want to trade and send me a bench seat and the dash parts if I go through with it? I need the 6th seat. A private message works if you do.
 

Sfuentes2159

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I'm looking at a truck with a console. Does anyone want to trade and send me a bench seat and the dash parts if I go through with it? I need the 6th seat. A private message works if you do.
I would! I have a Laramie with black leather.
 

crazymjb

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Are swaps relatively common? We want a bench but most likely will wind up with a center console given what's available.
 

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