Fold up or drop down rear seat incorporating a seatback supported rear facing latch for slidably engaging an elongated striker

A combination fold-up or drop-down rear row vehicle seat, comprising:

• a pair of spaced apart and fixed supports mounted upon a floor of a vehicle;
• a seat bottom exhibiting a pair of side plates pivotally secured between said fixed supports;
• a seat back having spaced apart and downwardly extending sides which are pivotally mounted to axially aligning locations of said side plates offset from a pivot axis established between said seat bottom and said fixed supports and such that upward pivoting of said seat bottom causes a combined pivotal and vertically induced displacement of the seatback;
• a latch mounted to a rear facing location of the seatback and including a hook and cam lever for triggering selective engagement or disengagement of said hook relative to an elongated striker bar mounted to a structurally supported and elevated location of the vehicle, said striker bar exhibiting an elongated and inwardly bowed profile for engaging said latch while accommodating vertical sliding of the seatback;
• said latch further having:
• a modified “L” shaped mounting plate with a first angled side mounted to an intermediate bracket support in turn secured to the seatback, a second angled side exhibiting an inward profiled recess defined by a plurality of interconnecting sides for receiving said striker bar in an engaged position;
• said hook pivotally mounted to a first location of said second angled side and exhibiting configured edge surfaces which selectively overlap said recess profile of said mounting plate in a capture position of said striker, said hook further exhibiting an extending ledge;
• a cam lever pivotally mounting to a second location of said second angled side and exhibiting a pair of edge surfaces which abut said ledge in a first location;
• and
• a spring interconnecting projecting locations of said hook and cam lever such that, upon pivotal displacement of said cam lever in a direction away from said hook, said hook is caused to rotate out of contact with said recess profile and said seat back to disengage from said striker.

A rear row vehicle seat, comprising:

• a pair of spaced apart and fixed supports mounted upon a floor of a vehicle;
• a seat bottom exhibiting a pair of side plates pivotally secured between said fixed supports;
• a seat back having spaced apart and downwardly extending sides which are pivotally mounted to axially aligning locations of said side plates offset from a pivot axis established between said seat bottom and said fixed supports and such that upward pivoting of said seat bottom causes a combined pivotal and vertically induced displacement of the seatback;
• a latch mounted to a rear facing location of the seatback;
• an elongated striker bar mounted to a structurally supported and elevated location of the vehicle, said striker bar exhibiting a combined arcuate and vertically extending profile for engaging said latch while accommodating vertical sliding of the seatback;
• and
• said striker bar further having a support plate for mounting to the structurally supported and elevated location of the vehicle, a configured and inwardly angled portion of said support plate seating through a window aperture in the supporting location in alignment with a pair of likewise aligning apertures defined in each of said striker plate and the structurally supporting location, a bolt fastener extends through said aligning apertures and receiving a retainer nut from an opposite side of the support location.

A combination fold-up or drop-down rear row vehicle seat, comprising:

• a pair of spaced apart and fixed supports mounted upon a floor of a vehicle;
• a seat bottom exhibiting a pair of side plates pivotally secured between said fixed supports;
• a seat back having spaced apart and downwardly extending sides which are pivotally mounted to axially aligning locations of said side plates offset from a pivot axis established between said seat bottom and said fixed supports and such that upward pivoting of said seat bottom causes a combined pivotal and vertically induced displacement of the seatback;
• a latch mounted to a rear facing location of the seatback and including a hook and cam lever for triggering selective engagement or disengagement of said hook relative to an elongated striker bar mounted to a structurally supported and elevated location of the vehicle, said striker bar exhibiting an elongated and inwardly bowed profile for engaging said latch while accommodating vertical sliding of the seatback;
• and
• said striker bar further having a support plate for mounting to the structurally supported and elevated location of the vehicle, a configured and inwardly angled portion of said support plate seating through a window aperture in the supporting location in alignment with a pair of likewise aligning apertures defined in each of said striker plate and the structurally supporting location, a bolt fastener extends through said aligning apertures and receiving a retainer nut from an opposite side of the support location.