Getting into a lifted Jeep has never easier!
Well,
having made the move to a heavily modified Jeep TJ I was now faced with two
major problems
how to get in
how
to covert it to automatic
Ok, the
first problem is quite unique, how to get my bum on a seat that's as high as my
arm pit when standing? I spent my time surfing the Internet in the hope of
finding a product that was designed for wheelchair users and would lift from the
seated position up to seat height. Surprisingly, 
I did find a couple of US designs by a company called, Bruno, that manufactured
a seatlift that seamed ideal at first inspection. It was a small fold down
platform driven by an electric motor mounted under the vehicles floor.
However, there were three main problems with this design.
The
first was the size and location of the motor. It was huge! It was so big
that anything gained from a lift kit would have been lost by the motor hanging
down under the floor. 
Secondly, all it's workings were exposed to the elements under the vehicle.
This may be Ok if you live in a dry place but off-road abuse in the UK, I don't
think so. Oh, and finally the price, $2800.00 per side without shipping
and installation!
Ok, if nothing exists we'll have to make something. So it was off to see my old friend Paul from Autodesign. If you read my CJ write up you'll know that Paul's a master at restoring old classics and manufacturing parts that can no longer be sourced. Paul jumped at the chance to have a go and in a couple of hours we had come up with a number of options. These ranged from a reworking of the US design, mounting the motor in the cab, a system using an air ram powered by the onboard ARB air system to what I can only describe as magic running boards!
The
Jeep came with Olympic side bars that protruded out from the body to inline with
the wheel arches. By carefully measuring all the dimensions Paul was able to
fabricate a heavy gauge box section wide and deep enough to house a scissor lift
platform and by raising the height increasing the depth available to us without
reducing ground clearance. As well as mounting the box section to the
frame, as were the original side bars, extra brackets tie in to the body mounts
making the entire section indestructible. Two hi-lift jacking points were
incorporated into the design. The scissor lift was then fabricated into a
box section of it own whilst the motor was housed in it's own sealed section.
Paul
spent a great deal of time experimenting with different motors and gearing to
cope with my weight and still lift at a reasonable speed. 
At
first we felt electric seat or window winder motors would work but they lacked
the torque needed to start the lift. Believe it or not, in the end motors
from 12volt cordless screw drivers were used. They produced more than enough
torque, were well geared and worked at variable speeds. [INSERT PICTURES]
We even used the chucks to connect to the main drive shaft. They're both
controlled by a plug in wonder lead that can't be plugged in with the door
closed preventing accidental activation. Oh, and at £19.99 each they're cheap
to replace. In fact I've already brought one as a spare.
I'm
not a great fan of powder coating as once it's chipped there's little you can do
to touch it up, so the entire structure is painted in black heavy duty chassis
paint that should take the knocks and scraps but can also be touched up if
needed. The top, or step surface is covered in aluminum checker
plate.
Oh, there was one drawback - a wet bum! So a stainless steel seat plate cover is kept in the cab and only used on entry and exit. Not only does this keep my cloths relatively dry it also makes it a lot easier to slid in and out compared to the checker plate.
Ok, the
big question, what did they cost? 
£1600.00 all in for both sides, labour, materials, parts the lot. Plus I
have a pair of Olympic side bars for sale if anyone's interested. Oh, and
if I do happen to get another Jeep they can easily be removed and re-installed.
Once again thanks go to Paul xxxxx at Autodesign.