Making Rear Cargo Area Level With Seats When Folded Down

[Volke]

That is my exact unicorn of a 4Runner. I got everything on your list except the sliding cargo deck when new, but found one for sale on this forum for $200 within driving distance and then added it myself. There are threads that talk about how to do it - despite having to drill two holes, it is not a difficult job to add one in. The hardest part is finding someone selling one.

It makes everything totally flat in the back when the rear seats are folded plus you get the bonus of some added storage areas underneath it and between the back seats and the deck.

Very nice! White is actually mys second or third choice. If I could get one in Cement or Quicksand, it would be absolutely perfect. Sadly that's not an option for some reason. Don't know why Tacoma and Tundra get special treatment.

I'll probably end up installing the sliding tray myself too once I track one down. Figured I'd explore all my options, so I just sent my dealer a parts list to see how much it comes out to. They said they would give me discount on them since they are not able to order one with the tray, but I'm still betting it will come out to lots of money.

 

[90Duck]

That’s a great idea. Something like that seems like the easiest solution. Throw something like that down and then a thick mattress pad or thick foam topper. Sleeping bag over that and you’d prob be pretty comfortable.


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My wife slept in the back on a trip using a rectangular Costco memory foam dog bed on 1/2 the cargo area, with a Paco pad on top of that. They are pretty cheap and comfortable for sleeping.

 

[silverslug]

Lot's of great ideas here! I'm considering this folding table option:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008S8ZOHA/

17.6" L x 33.9" W x 3.1" H - Should fit well for 1 person with the rear seat bottom removed, plus you have a handy camp table. Anybody tried this kind of solution?

 

[90Duck]

Very nice! White is actually mys second or third choice. If I could get one in Cement or Quicksand, it would be absolutely perfect. Sadly that's not an option for some reason. Don't know why Tacoma and Tundra get special treatment.

I'll probably end up installing the sliding tray myself too once I track one down. Figured I'd explore all my options, so I just sent my dealer a parts list to see how much it comes out to. They said they would give me discount on them since they are not able to order one with the tray, but I'm still betting it will come out to lots of money.

The dealer I bought from set up the deal with the $350 price that they charge from the factory, then realized they couldn’t add it as an option if it wasn’t on the vehicle already. They had to just drop it off the price. I’ve seen the parts listed out on other threads at somewhere north of $1500 if you buy it part by part from Toyota.

It seems like it would be pretty easy for Toyota and their dealers to sell a kit for the $350 price, or charge $500 installed as an option on any of them. It only took me about an hour to install, and that was having to customize my existing flat floor carpet and liner to fit since the seller kept his tray-specific carpet under some ARB drawers he had installed. You don’t need the special carpet and it’s “U” shaped styrofoam piece to make it work.

 

[tls3601]

Great thread. Need to figure this out for my new Pro.

 

[DesertCanyons]

Ordering a new 4Runner

The sliding cargo tray option will give you a flat surface, ...

I'm trying to buy a new 4Runner with the tray right now, but it's not an option in the MN-WI-IL-IN region, so I have to talk to dealers in Iowa and Missouri or Michigan. Toyota is a real pain sometimes. Really ruining my shopping experience right now.

Try ordering the vehicle you want with the accessories you want. It takes 6 weeks for Toyota to build it in Japan and ship it to you. This may be worth the wait if you really want one feature. Or like me, I didn't want any of the Toyota accessories, like the floor carpets and roof rack cross bars, because I knew I was going to replace them with better aftermarket products.

 

[DesertCanyons]

Camping and sleeping in the 4Runner

When I go off road or camping I want lots of space for heavy gear, like water and recovery gear. I want that weight low and centered in the vehicle. That's why I take the back seats out and put the heavy gear in the low footwell of the second row.

When I get there, if I want to sleep inside, I take the big water jugs out and stuff the space with soft gear, like bags of clothes, etc. Suddenly the floor is nearly flat. I add a couple of camping pads, a thick blanket and my sleeping bag. This is really easy to clear half of the floor when you're camping alone. With two people I usually take a tent.

 

[ayeyothisiskyle]

My wife slept in the back on a trip using a rectangular Costco memory foam dog bed on 1/2 the cargo area, with a Paco pad on top of that. They are pretty cheap and comfortable for sleeping.

This is exactly what I use. I think it would work better with two. My dog always looks at me weird when I steal his bed and replace it with some towels for him.

 

[mscot]

I built my own with storage. You can check my build thread in my signature to see it. Works great and adds all the storage that the T4R is missing.

 

[Volke]

Try ordering the vehicle you want with the accessories you want. It takes 6 weeks for Toyota to build it in Japan and ship it to you. This may be worth the wait if you really want one feature. Or like me, I didn't want any of the Toyota accessories, like the floor carpets and roof rack cross bars, because I knew I was going to replace them with better aftermarket products.

Yeah, the dealer had to special order mine too for similar reasons. I want a white ORP with no KDSS, no moonroof, sliding tray and no other options(or at least none of the higher price options). Apparently Toyota doesn't build many barely optioned ones, so they had to special order. I'm not upset about this because I'm not in a rush to purchase and this just gives me another couple months of no car payments. However, I ended up going with my local dealer because they had by far the best price, but Toyota doesn't even let them add the tray to special orders, so I'm going to need to try to source one used. So annoying!

I might try calling up Toyota USA and complaining/asking for them to add it to my order.

 

[DesertCanyons]

Cargo storage and the Sliding Tray

Yea Volke, you reminded me of the other options I didn't want: The moonroof or a sliding tray. I thought I wanted the KDSS, which I still like, until I tried to add my ICON lift. The KDSS made for more work, but I got 'er done.

I think the tray is a waste of space. It takes up about 4" of space at the bottom of the cargo area, where you need all the storage capacity you can get for camping and hauling gear. If I want a platform I'll take one of the roll-up aluminum camping tables I got from REI. That's what we use when camping. It's about a 3 foot by 5 foot table. We make all of our meals on the table. I have a little table for tailgate parties.

 

[GuitarPlayer]

Hello,

Just saw this post. I have played with this quite a bit in my 2018 TRD OFF Road. First I simply cut a piece of plywood to size, covered it with some carpet pad and then some cheap black carpet from Home Depot. Had to put a few boards underneath to bring it up to height. Pretty simple and cheap. Then I bought a Exped Mega Mat duo mattress. I used this setup last summer and was super comfortable. I made similar pads for the seat backs because I wanted some padding there. Finally because I am over 6 feet tall I wanted a hair more room so I made some platforms that go in the footwells. That way I can the rear seat bottoms out (takes 2 minutes, only 4 bolts) and now the entire back is flat up to the front seats. For this summer's adventures I made two more mods. Probably the most important was the addition of a tailgate switch in the back. Was a pain in the butt always crawling out the doors when sleeping back there. Then I got the idea, as some others have done to add some drawers to the back. My though was I already have to raise it up a few inches, why not raise it up another inch or so and put in the drawers? It looks and and works great. Can't wait to sleep in It this summer. Here are some pictures:

 

[sfall]

how deep did the drawers end up being?

 

[GreenwaveRunner]

The third row are not level by any means, they're not only 3-4 inches taller than the non-third row cargo area, but the mid row seats don't fold flat and are angled upwards, not the best picture but all I had handy

Where did you get that Canvasback seat cover system?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Where did you get that Canvasback seat cover system?

From CanvasBack

Toyota 4Runner Cargo Liners | Canvasback.com

 

[Roncu]

I was thinking of buying a pack of those foam, jigsaw type edge squares they use in kids play areas. Double layer should just about make up the difference. I believe they are about a foot and a half to two feet square and can easily be trimmed to fit.

 

[mscot]

Where did you get that Canvasback seat cover system?

I can't tell from your photo but, do you have the rear seat bottoms folded forward? the seats definitely fold flat when you pull the bottoms up and forward.

As for height, when you pull out the carpet and foam the seats are about 5" taller than the trunk.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

I can't tell from your photo but, do you have the rear seat bottoms folded forward? the seats definitely fold flat when you pull the bottoms up and forward.

As for height, when you pull out the carpet and foam the seats are about 5" taller than the trunk.

Yes my seats are folded as flat as they go. With the third row option the bottoms don't fold up like they do in the 2 row version, the middle row folds down on top of the seat bottoms

 

[HanginInUtah]

Honestly the easiest and cheapest way is to just make something yourself. I'm no carpenter but it only took me a weekend to build this rear platform and it has held up perfectly.

Measurements are roughly 43.25" Wide x 39" Deep x 3" Tall

That looks very clean! Nice job!

 

[GuitarPlayer]

I've received some questions on my build via PM so I thought I'd answer what I could here. I built mine myself, and I don't have any plans. I just kind of designed it as I built it. But it was pretty simple. The frame portion is made of 1" by 4"s. I just measured the length from the where the flat part of the back transitions to that slope to the back seats all the way to about 1 or 2" from the edge of the carpet. You can see in these two pics.

For the width you can see its pretty much right up against the wheel wheels on either side. Maybe 1/2" on either side or so.

Now, I was anxious to get going and got my drawer sliders from Home Depot. Consequently, the longest I could get there were 22". So that is why I have that dead space at the back. If I did it again I'd probably get longer drawer sliders and make deeper drawers. I can still use that dead space but it will be inaccessible with the back loaded. Anywho, that's why my drawers only go that deep. I then just found the middle and put another 1 by 4" lengthwise to make the divider between the two drawers. Then I made sure the middle piece was square and put a narrow strip maybe 1/2" thick or so across the top in the back. THis is really just to provide some stability to the shape (to make the drawers slide easily) and to provide a place to mount the latch catches. The drawer boxes were made with 1"x3"s. Again, I just measured off the frame I just built and cut to the proper width and depth. No fancy calculations. Installed the drawer bottoms and sliders and was on my way. For the platform that goes on top, I didn't end up affixing it to the top of the drawer box in any way. It is just sitting on top. Its heavy enough that its not going anywhere and I can just lift it up and access that dead space area I talked about when the back is empty.

Finally, you can see from this pic how much additional height there is between the top of the platform and the seat back when folded flat:

Now, this is a bit higher than it needs to be because I opted to use a pretty thick carpet pad on my platform to make it extra comfortable. But you can see I had about 2 1/2" to raise up the seat back. Its a bit less than that towards the front as you probably know the seats aren't perfectly flat. So I made these smaller platforms to go over each seat back. I used the same carpet pad and carpet so it is pretty seamless. As I said the seat back is not totally flat (a bit higher towards the front of the truck) so I put some risers on the bottom of the seat back pad that are a little taller under the back section. Hopefully you see what I am talking about in this pic of the bottom side of the seat back platform:

The final result looks like this:

So it's pretty modular in that I can keep the drawers and platform in there all the time (with the seats in their functional position) and only lose a few inches of head room in the back. Then I can fold either or both seats down and have a flat platform if I through in one or both of my seat back panels. FInally, as I mentioned in the earlier thread I built little platforms with legs so I can take the seat bottoms completely out and have over 6 feet of sleeping room back there if I want. Hope this is informative!
Doug