Media | Articles
The History of Rumble Seats
The early days of motoring took a much more casual approach to safety. With automobile speeds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries being relatively low, and road traffic largely consisting of even slower horse-drawn carriages, the idea of positioning passengers at the very rear of the vehicle (where they could serve as some sort of human bumper in an accident) didn’t raise many eyebrows.
So begins the story of the humble rumble seat, the most precarious accommodation ever invented for the automobile. Although this setup might seem like a piece of ancient history (the original “way, way back”), its presence lingered much longer into the modern era than many enthusiasts realize, inspiring seating arrangements that have held fast for more than 100 years.
But Where Will the Butler Sit?
Such flexible, or situational seating solutions predate internal combustions by several decades. In the era of horsepower that you had to feed and water, the gentry added fold-out seats to the exterior of their carriages to accommodate any hired help that might be tagging along. (After all, it wouldn’t do to have the nanny or the butler sharing the passenger compartment with the aristocracy.) These add-ons were typically called “jump seats,” on account of the servants who occupied them needing to “jump” to attend to their employer at a moment’s notice. Those located at the very back, however, were sometimes termed “rumble seats” due to the chatter and vibration associated with hanging off the tail of a moving carriage.
Jump seats naturally made their way to cars when the latter first arrived on the scene. But it wasn’t long before the nascent auto industry began to focus on the mass market, rather than simply sell cars as accoutrements for the moneyed class. As everyday people began buying greater and greater quantities of automobiles, the need to haul around servants dropped dramatically in favor of larger passenger compartments suitable in size for middle-class families.
Of course, not every car out there was intended as daily transportation for the entire clan. Roadsters and coupes continued to be popular, budget-friendly choices for single drivers or businesses. It’s here that the rumble seat first got a widespread foothold in the automotive consciousness. Even though roadsters and coupes typically only seated three across the front row, it wasn’t all that difficult for builders to reach back into the past and pluck ideas for occasional accommodations that could be stuffed, say, into the rear cargo compartment. Whenever an extra rider needed a lift from A to B, the rumble seat went a-rumblin’.
Marketplace
Buy and sell classics with confidence
Danger and Discomfort, Together at Last
Most often taking the form of a simple padded bench that folded out from an automobile’s trunk, or in some cases a fixed throne, both forms of rumble seat were designed to handle occupant overflow. By the 1920s, rumble seats—whose name now took on the connotation of noise and bustle from sitting so near the automobile’s exhaust—had colonized many two-door offerings in showrooms, displacing older-style jump seats almost entirely.
If you were British, there’s a chance you called these seats “dickies.” Regardless of the nomenclature, rumble seat riders enjoyed a forward-facing position among their primary “comforts,” with some upscale offerings including a high-back shell at the rear, plus a fold-out fabric top to keep the elements at bay. If you were extra lucky, you got a set of side curtains, too, providing the same effective protection as a portable beach hut. Bonus points for those models that added built-in steps to the bumper or fenders to help with ease of entry when climbing over the car’s bodywork.
Not every owner was enamored with the rumble seat concept, so it wasn’t unusual for them to be removed in favor of additional luggage room at the rear. And who could blame them? It’s not like riders back there had much in the way of legroom to stretch out. On top of that, wind-in-the-face isn’t all that fun for most riders outside of the canine set, and only a handful of models thought to install a pop-up windscreen to mitigate the position’s more unpleasant bug-eating effects. Everyone else had to choose between grit in the eye or goggles.
Thus, rumble seats were mostly phased out by the end of the 1930s. The last American automobiles built with rumble seats hailed from the 1939 model year, although some British brands held on to the feature until nearly the 1950s.
Echoing Through the Jet Age
Despite having faded entirely from the product mix in showrooms, the rumble seat’s anachronistic grip on American automotive culture endured for a surprisingly long period. Whether it was nostalgia or simply a way for car companies to add a splash of something different in the rapid-onset jet age that followed World War II, the rumble seat occasionally reared its head in a host of unusual places.
Much of this vestigial interest was supported at the dealer level. In 1957, it was possible to order a “Birdnest” for the Ford Thunderbird, in the form of an aftermarket setup manufactured by a California company called Bird’s Nest. The outfit built fewer than 150 of these rumble seats for dealers willing to install them. There were also dealer one-offs, like this Studebaker Hawk which featured a rumble seat designed by Len and Corky Cooley (also installed on a trio of other Studebaker models from the same seller in 1960). Even Yenko got in on the act—sort of—by designing a “jump seat” for the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, albeit one that was only outfitted to the interior of the coupe rather than the trunk of the convertible model.
By the 1960s, however, rumble seats had lost their second wind. There was one last gasp from American Motors in 1966, when a concept version of the brand’s two-seat coupe, called the Vignale AMX, debuted what was called the “Rambleseat,” a play on the famous Rambler name. The Rambleseat was predicated on the assumption that a pair of adults might want to let it all hang out the back of a V-8-powered machine in the middle of a burnout. (In case this sounds dangerous, consider that they were, uh, partially protected by a pop-up rear window.)
This feature was immediately put to rest later that year, once the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act went into effect. The law made the reasonable request that riders be spared the fate of becoming human crumple zones. Although it never appeared in the production version of the AMX, that didn’t stop Jim Jeffords, team principal of AMC’s Javelin Trans-Am effort, from reviving the Rambleseat as part of the unofficial AMX-R high-performance special he designed in concert with Brooks Stevens. Planned to sell alongside the factory AMX in 1968, the R model was ultimately nixed when American Motors cut off Jeffords’ supply of cars that same year.
The Way, Way Back Is Still in Play
Although the rumble seat is well behind us, its descendants haunted showrooms for decades. The most direct link to the rumble is the “way, way back” folding third row that was common full-size station wagons. Typically emerging from the cargo deck, this shallow bench was best suited to children and defined generations of road trip memories. At least before American minivans largely consigned wagons to the history books in the mid-1990s. A few European devotee brands kept the rear-facing third row alive throughout the next quarter-century, including the Volvo V70 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The Tesla Model S offered a rear-facing third row before discontinuing the option around 2017 when the Model X was on sale.
Jump seats, too, made a comeback, although on a much smaller scale. There are, of course, the terror-inducing lawn chairs bolted to the bed of the Subaru BRAT; these were installed in a bid to hoodwink federal regulators into ignoring the Chicken Tax, but far more common were the fold-down units offered by SUVs like the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Lexus LX, which technically added a third row but were more effective at interfering when trying to load larger items into the rear of these body-on-frame machines.
It seems unlikely that the rumble seat will ever return. In our world of airbags and electronic stability control, it’s hard to imagine that any owner would ask a passenger to cosplay Fury Road on the interstate—and even less likely that the legions of lawyers employed by any automaker would allow for the feature to ever flow from the digital pens of its designers. This makes the rumble seat, perhaps, one aspect of our automotive past that we won’t see mined for nostalgia on an upcoming electrified concept.
Find more values
Search for prices of other cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles
I never had an opportunity to ride in a rumble seat car, but did have a few rides in the back of pick up trucks – no seats like the Subaru BRAT. Good times when you are young and stupid. Fortunately, everyone survived unharmed.
The keywords were young and stupid and we all had luck on our side. We’re still alive. I purchased a old Ford with a rumble seat and I did let the kids ride back there but only in our neighorhood.
I rode in a rumble seat as a child but considered it a fun excursion not to be repeated.
Speaking of riding in the back of a pickup truck, I remember when I asked to ride along with my dad and my uncle (and two of my cousins) to go to get a load of 5/8 minus gravel for my uncle’s driveway, in his two year old 1968 Ford F250. Myself and one of my cousins rode in the back of the truck, which was fine on the way there, but on the way back we had to keep our eyes and mouth shut to keep out as much as possible of the swirling grit that the wind picked up from the gravel we were sitting on. If it had been say a 15 minute trip, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but this was about 45 minutes on a country highway traveling between 60 and 75 miles per hour. When we finally arrived, we tumbled out of the back of that truck coughing and spitting out gray mud from our mouths (not to mention what was caked in our noses). My mother and aunt had to hose us off before they let us in the house. Everyone except my cousin and I had a good laugh, I had to wait until a while later before I could laugh about it.
I never knew if it was a rumple seat or rumble seat. One of life’s mysteries off the list. Now onto do animals have souls?
You mean like on the bottoms of their feet?
Are they hands or are they feet (particularly the front ones)?
We address the Mysteries of the Universe, right here folks!
They are called paws, why I don’t know and that’s the cat’s meow.
With my 2 cats they are “front hands”, and extremely mischievous ones at that.
I do not know about animals, but it has been stated that Martians have souls.
You mean, like a KIA Soul? I suppose if they could make the payments…
As the owner of a 63 corvette convertible, I can say with authority that they do not have a trunk.
Since you’re including jump seats the pair in the old Checker taxis seem worthy of mention. I would imagine more butts were parked on them than any other make.
Checkers are definitely a great suggestion.
I like Dominos.
Heck, now I’m hungry…
I suppose I’m a traditionalist (aka, old stuck-in-the-mud fuddy-duddy). In ’20s, ’30s, and some ’40s cars, I think they are neat. In more “modern” cars such as the T-Bird or AMX, not-so-much. Although highly impractical (IMO) for highway use, they can be loads of fun for a spin around neighborhood streets or through the park on a nice day. On my Model A hot rod, I can quickly remove the seat portions to make some room (not much, but some) to put a box of tools, jump pack, tow strap, and even a small cooler. That’s the configuration it’s in for 98% of the time. I did put lap belts back there for the brave folks who want to eat some bugs.
Small coffin? At one time the gang had a cooler that held 90 cans of MGD plus ice. This was always difficult to store and drain in our various cars. I had a brilliant idea, small pick-up. I’ve always had luck buying off lease vehicles and I got a ’98 GMC Sonoma extended cab, V6, auto, A/C and cruise, perfect track transport. This was with the intention of putting a hard cap on the back. Did that, then put drop spindles and Eibach springs on the front and blocks in the back, got the cigarette pack clearance all round. This is perfect for a grand stand event with a parking lot, like NASCAR events. That done I put the coffin in the bed for a test fit. Always measure twice, hell I assumed once and never measured once or twice. This was Thursday night and the next idea was to pull the rear seating out. This time I did measure.
The cooler fit perfectly in the ’98 Z28, had numerous times, took that.
I now read the cooler in the rumble and my mind immediately asked, “would the coffin fit?” I then went on to question why I hadn’t cut a hole in the floor of the bed. Would have given new mining to the expression Tubbed. Why don’t trucks like that exist anymore?
Sometimes my mind wanders every time something comes up on this verbal insanity that triggers old memories.
My first Rumble seat was a Model A.
I recall in the Ford coupes of the late 1930’s as well as 1940, there were optional jump seats in the area behind the front bench. Dad had a 39 standard coupe with a package tray just under the back window, that’s where I got to ride.
Also, the way back seats of a Country Squire, and then Colony Park wagon is where my brother and I spent a good portion of childhood being conveyed from place to place.
Call me ignorant, but I had never heard of a Willys Falcon-Knight before reading this article. I own a 1931 Model A Roadster and when I saw that picture, even knowing A’s pretty well, was initially confused by the caption and thought they got it wrong. Once you look at the details it is obviously not a Model A, but the resemblance is unmistakable.
I know vehicles of various eras inherently end up looking quite similar due to design trends. The late 20’s and early 30’s is no different between Ford, Dodge, Chevy, etc. all having generally the same shape, but the similarity between a Model A and this Falcon-Knight is intriguing. Does anyone know the back story to this and if there were any ‘copycat’ accusations between Ford and Willys (or an intentional design collab?)?
Hey, Steve, have you noticed the similar profiles of the final models of the Ford Fusion, Chevy Malibu, and Chrysler 200?
That’s a joke, right?
The Falcon-Knight was a product of Willys-Overland and was a two-year middle model between the Whippet and the Willys-Knight and built in Toledo. The ’27 looked a bit like a Model T and the ’28 a lot like the A as you can see. As you mentioned, a lot of cars looked alike in them days and it was no coincidence. I suppose one could blame a lot of the similarities on the lack of body stamping advancements yet to come. I would guess that the intention of the Falcon-Knight was to compete with the Model A but as pictured they splashed more colour and paint schemes on them to lure some buyers away from Ford. Probably at a slightly higher price. Ford was the builder to beat in the Model A era as the A was such a success so the trend was often to look like the competition but offer a little more like Chevy having a 6 instead of a 4. Even when Edsel took his ideas to Henry, he was trying to modernize the Ford away from the Ts outdated looks and function to what was becoming more popular in more expensive cars by the late 20s. Even his own Lincoln designs.
I owned a Taurus station wagon. Very fun car to drive and had a rumble seat in the rear for my kids. Unfortunately my Ford stop working with only 70,000 miles. Transmission and other major issues had to. junk it.
Seats in rear were fun for the kids but a little scary if we ever got rear ended!!
I had a Taurus wagon as well with the rear facing rumble seats. Transmission blew as well and I got rid of it fast. Thankfully my 1968 AMX does not have a rumble seat.
There is no such thing as a rumble seat that is inside a car. The rumble seat must be OUSIDE of the passenger compartment for it to be a rumble seat. Rumble seat and “3rd row seat” are not synonyms.
I recall the back seats, such as illustrated in the 1909 Rambler Rumble Seat Runabout, were referred to as “Mother-in-Law seats”
To be a true “Mother-in-Law” seat, it had to be the solo version, seating only one.
Certainly made its own quiet statement.
Very true regarding the single seat versions but back when I sold parts for Model As and Ts, some of the old-timers at the restoration end of the counter still used the term mother-in-law to describe the As rear seat. I think the terminology carried over for quite some time to the later double seats. One customer actually told me while buying Model A truck hardware that he was finally going to convert his rumble into a trunk as the car was originally optioned as his mother-in-law had “finally” passed on and he had never liked the back seat but his wife wanted it so her mother could ride along. I think he had just decided the actual steamer trunk he carried wasn’t large enough but it was a funny tale.
My friends had a Taurus which gets it speed information from the speedometer,
so when the speedo cable broke on the freeway it shifted into first gear.
I thought Mother in Law was a back seat air bag.
Many, many trips up to the Catskills in NY in the back of my father’s Ford Country Squires – ’69 and ’72, so there is a considerable run of memories.
Back in high school – very late 1950’s – a friend had a 30’ish Ford – maybe a ’32 – that had a rumble seat – also had no regular seats (over turned bucked did the job) and no brakes – approaching a stop light the driver would coast and downshift as best he could, and lastly the 2 guys in the rumble seat would bail out and stop the car by hand (or feet). If the driver managed to kill the motor – then the 2 “stoppers” became “pushers” to get the car re-started by the driver “popping the clutch” once we got enough speed built up to roll the engine.
Those really were the days! Never forget them.
I’m old enough to remember that rumble seats seemed cool as a kid when I saw classic cars with them, but too young to ever ride in one or realize how insane they actually are in practice on ever-more-crowded roads and highways. Still, for parade duty, it might be fun…once. 🙂
The Rambleseat was a pretty neat version with the lift up glass.
My brother had a CJ2A – the Back Seats were basically sitting on the rear wheel wells.
Same for a Toyota Landcruiser I had in the 1980’s in the Philippines. Rumble seats? Hell, we managed to cram like 9 people into (or onto) it with the rear doors open and some folks hanging on for dear life (no one on the roof, though).