Tip: It is a leap of faith but you will be fine. Push the seat back from the opposite site rather than pulling. Angle the seat ever so slightly and it will clear the middle bar. The middle bar is about 1.5". I just removed one seat seat back to make room for a Britax Marathon. Hopefully that will give my daughter a few more inches of clearance for her legs. While I'm at it, perhaps I'll remove the BOSE subwoofer box. That thing really is worthless.