DIY Storage under rear seat

Just got this truck, and it has to have more storage under the rear seat. My trucks EDC is

12V compressor
Jump starter
2 quarts oil
Hitch receiver 4500# winch
20' Jumper cables
20k Soft shackle and hard shackles
20K snatch block
1 7/8, 2, 2 5/8 interchangable towing balls
4-way lug wrench
20' tow strap
6x ratchet straps/bungie cords
Standard and metric combo wrenches, 1/-4 to 1" 6mm to 24mm, in rollup pouch
1/4 master socket set (blue toolcase)
3/8 and 1/2 socket set (black toolcase)
30pc handtool rollup carrier (white canvas)
70pc drilling/driving bitset (blue rollup)
All purpose screw assortment in plastic carrier
20" x 6 x 6 tool bag
3x flashlights
3x pairs of gloves
Ryobi oneplus hammer drill


In my old F150 I could fit all of this somewhere in the cab with the exception of the socket set. So that's the goal that I need to match.

From the factory, I can't even get close. There's a BUNCH of space behind the rear seat, but you can't get to it. There's a decent amount of space under the rear seat, but it's only 2.5" high. And no border to keep things contained.

So, having watched the youtube video that shows how to install a tuffy gun locker under that seat, my plan is to open up as much space as possible under there, seal the space to prevent small things from disappearing down through the cracks, and install a perimeter "wall" to keep things in place.

To do that we'll:
1. Cut the carpet down the sides so that it can be peeled back (toward the front of the cab) and cut out the styrofoam insulation between the seat rails. A serrated steak knife works fine to slice the styrofoam at the front edge.



Next I painted the seat rails with with ruggedized black paint. I want to leave them in place, but I can at least improve their appearance and prevent rust.




Next it's important to prevent small objects from sliding out underneath the edges of the space, because if anything does, then you'll have to remove the whole rear carpet to get to it. So I bought a roll of black automotive carpet from autozone and laid a piece of it across the space, leaving it long enough to go up the left, right and forward sides. I screwed it in place to the outer seat rails, and at the front wall the original carpet will fold down over the upturned edge, sealing up the front part.






Next I used 1/2" birch plywood to create a 5.5" high front "wall" with cutouts for the seat rails.



I then cut out some 2.5" high side walls and attached them in place with sheet metal angle brackets




Then I covered the plywood "walls" with the same automotive carpet, stapling it underneath where the staples can't be seen. Then painted the metal brackets black and screwed them back on.
Finally I put the wall in place, pulled it firmly to the front side, and used self drilling screws to screw the brackets down into the seat rails.




The center rails are really tough steel, I had to manually drill them. The tip of the screws just wouldn't cut through them. The rest were easy enough.


It looks just fine with the seats down








And now we have these nice voids, about 5.5" deep, and something like 24" from the front wall to the cab's rear wall. They're deceptively large, not least of which, because we can now easy access the space behind the seat, by reaching down and under the seat and placing relatively large things back in that space.

Here's (most) of what needs to be stored back there:






And here it is all tucked into place:





Like I say, by far the most important mod I'll make to my truck.

Bob



They

 

Looks good!

 

A damn fine work! Makes my storage look janky AF.

 

Second this, need to re-engineer mine now

 

Absolutely awesome!

 

An update to this post: Now that the insulation thickness is removed underneath the lowest bar of the seat structure, it's now very easy to reach all the way underneath, into the cavity behind the seat. So now in that cavity I have an air inflator, a gallon of antifreeze, two quarts of oil... and a few other things I can't recall right now.

But the point is, this not only gives space under the seat, but it opens the door to get to the space behind the seat.

Most important mod ever, imho.

Bob

 

Nice work!

Some people on this forum would say that your non-flat floor can’t do the exact same job of holding tools and other items that a flat rear floor does.

I went the lockable storage route, but you definitely have more space, especially behind the seat.

 

Nicely done!

 

OP, that is the best under back seat storage mod I have seen. Congratulations on a great design and implementation!

Right now I am shopping for a Gen 2.5 Tundra, and once I acquire one, I am going to borrow your idea when building my under back seat storage. The one mod to your design I plan to make is that I will fabricate plywood lids for the storage are, either two or three hinged lids. This because sometimes in the truck we have now, we flip the back seats up and fill the back seat area with stacked boxes and what have you. Adding hinged covers to your great design will allow us to continue to stack things in the back seat area that way.

 

Make sure that you compensate for the height of the lids so that the seats will still come down and lock in place.

 

Yep, thank you for the reminder.