The Jeep Cherokee is one of the most iconic SUVs sold today in the United States, along with its fellow stablemates the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee. Competing against other primarily 2-row crossovers like the Ford Edge, Chevrolet Equinox, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, and Dodge Journey, the Cherokee holds its own with a range of modern safety features including good moderate frontal overlap scores, good side impact scores, good roof strength scores, and ESC and side airbags, as well as great optional front crash prevention software packages.

The Jeep Cherokee also received honorable mention in my list of the 2015 safest SUVs for surviving side impacts due to its intrusion-resistant frame.The biggest blight in the Cherokee design from a safety standpoint is currently its marginal small overlap score. However, Jeep will undoubtedly address that in the coming years.

I made it my goal to spend the weekend testing car seats to figure out which ones would and would not fit 3 across in a new (KL) Jeep Cherokee I borrowed from a friend. I also borrowed an older (1996 XJ) Cherokee since there are still so many of them on the road to see how that would fare in 3 across land. Before getting into what I found, however, here are some basics in car seat safety.

For me, car seat safety starts with rear-facing. From the day your baby leaves the hospital until at least the preschool years, rear-facing is the safest position we know of for car seat usage in a vehicle. I suggest rear-facing ideally until 4, before forward-facing your kids in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, it’s best to keep them restrained in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). These suggestions may take a bit of extra work, but they provide a lot of extra safety.

My results of car seat puzzling in the Cherokee are below. It’s not a complete list, but as with all of my 3 across guides, it’s my goal to make it the most complete on the Internet over time, especially as I get access to more seats. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.

The current generation of the Jeep Cherokee is 182 inches long and 73 inches wide, unless you buy the Trailhawk trim level, which is 75 inches wide. The Sport, Latitude and Limited levels, then, are going to give you about as much width as the average mid-sized car or SUV when it comes to 3 across space.

Remember that you’ll get much more space for your 3 across installations if you use your seat belts than if you use your LATCH system.

The 1984-2001 generation of the Jeep Cherokee is between 165 and 169 inches long and 68-71 inches wide, which means that depending on the year of Cherokee you purchased, you might have a relatively straightforward or an exceedingly difficult time making 3 across work in terms of width. The 1987-1993 years were the widest at 71 inches, while the 1994-1999 years were the narrowest at 68 inches. The final two years of the model were in between at 70 inches.

Regardless of which year you’re working with, the above seats can be expected to work, as I based them on the narrowest years rather than the widest. Given the short length of the Cherokee throughout this generation, if you’d like to use a Radian to rear-face, you’ll definitely want to pick up the angle adjuster, as it will make driving or sitting in the front passenger seat a lot less difficult.

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If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.