- First Name
- Joe
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2023
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 86
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- '21 Bronco Sport, '23 2dr Bronco Badlands+Sasquatc
- Your Bronco Model
- Badlands
- Thread starter
- #1
I know there have been a lot of folks doing various rear seat delete storage systems, but I thought folks might be interested in a bit of a different approach that I wound up taking.
The 2 door's rear seats are not great for a dog, and I don't love having a dog bed on top of them, so I just removed them. This is a 2 people + dog car. It is currently our only car (we also have a bronco sport, but it's back in TX right now, sadly - I miss it and they're underrated). However, I don't need to carry other folks, only us. I also need cargo room, and the back seats take up a fair bit of space. I removed them really early on and have just been throwing a dog bed back there for a long time, often on top of some crates of gear. However, I wanted to be able to put more gear under the dog and also have him a bit higher up so he gets better views. Now that we're fully in spring, I really wanted to be able to have a better camping setup, and the "dog bed on top of stuff" just wasn't cutting it.
For background, I'm in a bit of an odd spot. My wife's job was temporarily relocated (I work remotely anyway), so all of our stuff is back in TX, and we're in UT for a year or so. Hopefully this will become permanent, but we can't actually move until it does and we're in corporate housing until then. Therefore I don't have a ton of tools with me. I needed a rear seat delete dog-seat solution + space for gear underneath the dog, but I also needed to build it with minimal tools. I don't mind buying a duplicate hand saw, and I have a drill with me at least, but I'm not doubling up on other things. That kinda eliminates plywood from the equation.
I also wanted a shelf instead of drawers, as I prefer having camping gear in crates/tubs that I can easily pull out from either side of the car and set on the ground as needed. Drawers are great and all, but they're heavy and more limited than crates in a lot of ways (especially if you want to only have camping gear in the car when you're going camping). I also needed something I could remove easily to put the seats back in case I have to for inspections or if someone visits.
It turns out that 42"x30" is a semi-common NSF wire shelf size because it fits 6 legal document boxes. That happens to also exactly fit the area where the rear seats go in the 2 door. It's also easy to either find short (e.g. 7") wire shelf legs or modify existing ones to the size you want. I used the "off the shelf" shelf (can't help my self) as the basis of this. 42x30 also happens to be a somewhat common size for dog beds, so I was able to find one that exactly fits on top.
I used some 2x4's and 2x1's and bought some clamps (can never have too many of those) and a hand saw. I some 3/8" diameter hangar bolts (i.e. double-sided screws - one end is a machine screw, one end is a wood screw) to screw into the wood and then have the other thread into the legs for the wire shelf. This would work a lot better with a drill press, obviously, but I was able to use the clamps to at least keep the holes I was drilling somewhat-kinda square. Thankfully the wire shelving system is very tolerant of the legs not being precisely vertical. I used vertical 2x4's as runners down the side to mount the hangar bolts and shelf legs in. It's perhaps a bit high, but I can always shorten the metal shelf legs if needed or move the shelf down on them. I also cut out some notches in the boards to fit them over the seatbelt attachment points on the side (there's another stud poking up there, so even if you detatch them, you'd still need the notch).
I was able to find some sleeve nuts in the right size to bolt onto the threaded studs that come up from the floor as part of the seat mounts. If you can't find them locally, they're these: https://belmetric.com/ultra-low-profile-allen-sleeve-nut-stainless-steel/?sku=NSLEEVE12LOWSS The nuts were key because they allow mounting the base via a 1x2 going across and still have things essentially flush with the top of the board. The board makes a nice "lip" to keep boxes from being able to too easily slide back while still being low enough to be able to fit a 10" high crate beneath the shelf. I coarsely located the hole locations by assembling the shelf with the 2x4 runners, cutting a 1x2 to the right length to fit inside, inking the top of the studs with a sharpie, and pressing the board down. I knew I couldn't get things too precise with a paddle bit, so I drilled it, then used a dremel tool (hand rasp would have been fine, but I had the dremel with me for other reasons) to smooth things out and expand the holes in the wood as needed to make the nuts thread on. E.g. here's one that's not yet screwed down just to give a sense of it:
In the end, the base mounted nicely. I added a "dropped down" 1x2 on the back to give some support right before the higher portion of the back ends (there's a bit of a ledge it fits on quite well). I then added some foam tape along the sides and on the bottom where needed. That hopefully will help avoid scuffs when removing the platform and also if it wiggles side to side a bit under load. I also put on some stick-on traction strips for steps to keep the dog bed from sliding around, as well as some eye bolts in the runners to strap down crates if I need to.
The dog bed fits nicely and it appears Copper approves! He likes being higher up for sure. I have been clipping him to a rigged up leash around the roll bar, which keeps him from climbing into the front seats and avoids him jumping out if we don't want him to. He seems to like the setup, anyway! I'm quite happy with it. We'll see how the plastic shelf mount sleeves around the metal legs hold up to rattling around. They're cheap and easy to get, though, so if I have to replace them now and again, it's no big deal. Things seem very solid and way more than strong enough to support an 80lb dog (the shelf is rated for 800lbs, though I would not want a ton on it in a car - static vs dynamic loads and all that).
Bonus pup pic:
The 2 door's rear seats are not great for a dog, and I don't love having a dog bed on top of them, so I just removed them. This is a 2 people + dog car. It is currently our only car (we also have a bronco sport, but it's back in TX right now, sadly - I miss it and they're underrated). However, I don't need to carry other folks, only us. I also need cargo room, and the back seats take up a fair bit of space. I removed them really early on and have just been throwing a dog bed back there for a long time, often on top of some crates of gear. However, I wanted to be able to put more gear under the dog and also have him a bit higher up so he gets better views. Now that we're fully in spring, I really wanted to be able to have a better camping setup, and the "dog bed on top of stuff" just wasn't cutting it.
For background, I'm in a bit of an odd spot. My wife's job was temporarily relocated (I work remotely anyway), so all of our stuff is back in TX, and we're in UT for a year or so. Hopefully this will become permanent, but we can't actually move until it does and we're in corporate housing until then. Therefore I don't have a ton of tools with me. I needed a rear seat delete dog-seat solution + space for gear underneath the dog, but I also needed to build it with minimal tools. I don't mind buying a duplicate hand saw, and I have a drill with me at least, but I'm not doubling up on other things. That kinda eliminates plywood from the equation.
I also wanted a shelf instead of drawers, as I prefer having camping gear in crates/tubs that I can easily pull out from either side of the car and set on the ground as needed. Drawers are great and all, but they're heavy and more limited than crates in a lot of ways (especially if you want to only have camping gear in the car when you're going camping). I also needed something I could remove easily to put the seats back in case I have to for inspections or if someone visits.
It turns out that 42"x30" is a semi-common NSF wire shelf size because it fits 6 legal document boxes. That happens to also exactly fit the area where the rear seats go in the 2 door. It's also easy to either find short (e.g. 7") wire shelf legs or modify existing ones to the size you want. I used the "off the shelf" shelf (can't help my self) as the basis of this. 42x30 also happens to be a somewhat common size for dog beds, so I was able to find one that exactly fits on top.
I used some 2x4's and 2x1's and bought some clamps (can never have too many of those) and a hand saw. I some 3/8" diameter hangar bolts (i.e. double-sided screws - one end is a machine screw, one end is a wood screw) to screw into the wood and then have the other thread into the legs for the wire shelf. This would work a lot better with a drill press, obviously, but I was able to use the clamps to at least keep the holes I was drilling somewhat-kinda square. Thankfully the wire shelving system is very tolerant of the legs not being precisely vertical. I used vertical 2x4's as runners down the side to mount the hangar bolts and shelf legs in. It's perhaps a bit high, but I can always shorten the metal shelf legs if needed or move the shelf down on them. I also cut out some notches in the boards to fit them over the seatbelt attachment points on the side (there's another stud poking up there, so even if you detatch them, you'd still need the notch).
I was able to find some sleeve nuts in the right size to bolt onto the threaded studs that come up from the floor as part of the seat mounts. If you can't find them locally, they're these: https://belmetric.com/ultra-low-profile-allen-sleeve-nut-stainless-steel/?sku=NSLEEVE12LOWSS The nuts were key because they allow mounting the base via a 1x2 going across and still have things essentially flush with the top of the board. The board makes a nice "lip" to keep boxes from being able to too easily slide back while still being low enough to be able to fit a 10" high crate beneath the shelf. I coarsely located the hole locations by assembling the shelf with the 2x4 runners, cutting a 1x2 to the right length to fit inside, inking the top of the studs with a sharpie, and pressing the board down. I knew I couldn't get things too precise with a paddle bit, so I drilled it, then used a dremel tool (hand rasp would have been fine, but I had the dremel with me for other reasons) to smooth things out and expand the holes in the wood as needed to make the nuts thread on. E.g. here's one that's not yet screwed down just to give a sense of it:
In the end, the base mounted nicely. I added a "dropped down" 1x2 on the back to give some support right before the higher portion of the back ends (there's a bit of a ledge it fits on quite well). I then added some foam tape along the sides and on the bottom where needed. That hopefully will help avoid scuffs when removing the platform and also if it wiggles side to side a bit under load. I also put on some stick-on traction strips for steps to keep the dog bed from sliding around, as well as some eye bolts in the runners to strap down crates if I need to.
The dog bed fits nicely and it appears Copper approves! He likes being higher up for sure. I have been clipping him to a rigged up leash around the roll bar, which keeps him from climbing into the front seats and avoids him jumping out if we don't want him to. He seems to like the setup, anyway! I'm quite happy with it. We'll see how the plastic shelf mount sleeves around the metal legs hold up to rattling around. They're cheap and easy to get, though, so if I have to replace them now and again, it's no big deal. Things seem very solid and way more than strong enough to support an 80lb dog (the shelf is rated for 800lbs, though I would not want a ton on it in a car - static vs dynamic loads and all that).
Bonus pup pic:
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