It's been a week of oil change, transmission flush, coolant flush, fuel system cleaned and searching for the right seats in order to make the ride comfortable for the kids. We are planning a spring break trip so I need to move fast but I promised myself I would not change the layout unless it was absolutely necessary. I went through 6 different seats configuration before I found a perfect low cost match. If you are looking to convert you bench to a use friendly seat, try the Ford Escape second row seats. The bracket for the mount are a perfect match and it will easily give you the access to the lower compartment. (Second Choice)
Another great option is the 2004 and newer Ford Expedition (First Choice). The third row seats are powered and they have a nice set of legs to mount against the bench box. I opted for (2) sets of the Ford Expedition third row because I liked the power option that will give me a bed with a touch of a button. The single seat on the end might be removed in the final configuration and modified for the jump seat. It was a pain to get the sear out because there was no power to the seat and they were folded flat. Took me 4 hours to secure the seats and along with the wire harness and relays all in tack from Pull-a-part at the cost of $112.00 bucks. The end results are so promising!
As far as the lower compart, I have not figured out how to gain full access to it yet but I was thinking I will add my speakers
and subwooffer for the theater layout along the bottom. If I sleep on it for a day I also might be able to figure out how to get the rear air conditioning unit from the Expediation into this compartment. If this works out I would not have any reason to go under here unless something breaks. So tomorrow I will mount the seats and run the wires to give me a full on demand twin bed layout. (Thoughts of the full size bed is still in the works.)
