Removal of 3rd seat row

Got the car recently and found the ascending nature of the already high load floor annoying so I decided to remove the third row of seats.
While at it I lined the spare wheel area with additional sound deadening and installed a custom cargo floor made out of 3mm thick stainless steel.
This gained me an additional 8 cubic feet of cargo area while staying at the same weight.

Nice!! I've thought about doing this for a sub enclosure

Can you take a measurement from the bottom of the floor to the level of those cup holders(top of the plastic).. I think it's about 12" but you've got a way better platform to measure

When you look at my first picture you can see there is a height difference between the middle part and the stronger side structures with the holes for mounting the third seat row. The height difference between those two levels is slightly more than an inch. My floor rests at the higher section because it is secured using those holes and the factory bolts. From the top of the cupholder there is a distance of 9 inches to my floor. At the back of the trunk that distance decreases to 6 inches because the plastic parts come down in height. The floor is level. So the total height between the top of the plastic cup holder to the lower middle section with those black rubber plugs is between 10 and 10,5 inches. I hope this helps.

I wonder if all the cupholders and related plastics are removable. I sure they are to some extent.

*edit* I should have looked at the pictures again... Thanks!!

This makes me regret getting the pilot seats now. Great work

For the casual observer, note that the 3rd row seat assembly contributes to overall stiffness and some rear/side crash performance. Police Explorers have a brace installed to bring it back into spec after deleting the third row seats. I get that this is a custom build and the plate added in this case surely adds some of that back, just raising the flag in case anyone is worried about maintaining the engineered durability and safety of their own vehicle.

Previous model brace: https://www.getoemparts.com/oem-parts/ford-cross-member-db5z7810780a
Article: https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...0-explorer-interceptor-police-car/2782304002/

I have been thinking of removing my 3rd row seat, so this is good to know.

It looks like the part for our vehicles is L1MZ-7810780-A

Yes I have thought about this .. someone posted a news article and this is an excerpt “Police vehicle safety today is unprecedented, from crash resistance to fuel tank protection, said Becky Mueller, senior research engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “If you’re rear-ended at a really high rate of speed, you want to make sure the fuel tank doesn’t rupture. That’s what causes either fire or explosion. You want to strengthen the structure and absorb energy. Design could do both of those.”” … taking out the seat and using OEM cross bar rigidity seems pretty clear cut to me for safety purposes. I like what you’ve done here but is it enough? And how did you overcome the seatbelt light issue? I removed one second row Captain seat for car camping and my light was always on and I was told removing a seat will disengage all the air bags until the light is fixed and if that is true then I consider that an engineering design flaw because parts fail and some parts are simply not available to bypass this which I’ve done extensive research in and both parts to connect into to bypass one of these is just not available after 2 years of owning my vehicle (2021 ST) and going through my dealership to acquire the parts..its in the risk you take when you modify/remove which in my mind is a design safety electrical issue. there’s real idiots on the road (had my share) and not just toward police officers..they are just on the road more and longer than we are. Be Safe everyone.

Thank you for the part number…made doing this third row seating decision easier.

Excellent links and much appreciated .. one should read through these links prior to making any changes such as removing seats. Removing 2nd and 3rd row seats is something I’d like to do but there are some major design flaws which exist and one is the whole airbag system becomes inoperable if the airbag sign is illuminated So you need to be able to override this using the correct components to plug in after the seat(s)/seatbelt(s) is/are removed. I was unable to purchase one of the two modules needed due to zero inventory at Ford (!) which you’d think for safety purposes and module failure they’d have a lot of these in the supply chain but they actually don’t…I took the risk and removed one of the 2nd row seats anyway. ..its reinstalled now that camping season is over. The article you provided is brain food for thought - thank you.

I've heard you can remove the wiring from the seats and plug it back in and the system thinks the seats are still there. It might be easier to cannibalize the seats out of wreck than damage your own in case you want to put them back. I've also heard the wiring is different between the second row captains chairs and the second row bench so you may want to find a wreck with the same seats as yours.

With the Edge getting discontinued, they should just come out with a 2 row Explorer. Maybe change up the looks a little bit. Would be a winner.

I suggested to ford they should make the third row optional. Not everyone needs three rows, but someone like me who is over 6' tall and rather large fits more comfortably in a larger vehicle like the explorer but I don't need the third row, hell I don't need the second row either.

Yup. I see VW CrossSports all the time and it looks good. Mazda is coming out soon with the CX70, basically a 2 row version of the CX90. A 2 row Explorer would be a nice upgrade over the Edge too.

They don't need to shorten or redesign the EX, just make the PI cross brace and stand alone seat belt wiring available to the general public as a kit or an option from the factory.

Good info. I plan to remove the 3rd row for more room for all my sons baseball stuff.

I also removed my third row seats. Put amps in tire well and built a box with a lockable lifttop. I’ve got about 10 inches of height under the platform for tons of lockable storage. Easy to get into with portable tools but if you open the lift gate looks like a solid platform as you can’t see a lock and it’s all carpet and floor liner.


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Do you have any pictures ? I want to do the same type of floor. I have to carry a bunch of tools and tool boxes and would love to be able to hide them and lock them out of site !!! where is the part that opens ? Is it near the back gate or near the row of seats?

That looks awesome! Where is the spare ? is it still underneath? That floor doesnt look like its hinged so you can open ....