We Used This System On Our Project Toyota Tundra And 4Runner
Goose Gear has made bespoke storage solutions for the back seats and trunks of SUVs and trucks since the 50’s. Of course, the family business didn’t start making seat deletes and
cabinets until more recently but their experience in laminate manufacturing shows in the quality
of their product. For our Tundra, we needed more room in the back seat of the crew cab.
This is where we put a fridge from IceCo and Pelican Cases with our most essential camera gear. Seatbelts don't work very well to stop a fridge from flying and the seats take up a pretty
significant volume so we were quick to install a 60/40 seat delete from Goose Gear. We
considered leaving one seat and only deleting the passenger and center seats but it was
decided that it should be either all or nothing for our use case.
Installing the seat delete would’ve taken about an hour if I hadn’t spent half my time searching for misplaced hardware. In essence, there are half a dozen bolts mounting the two seat sections to the back wall, unbolt them and suddenly the seats are free, yank them out, bolt on some mounting hardware and it's time to install the panels that create the base and sides of the seat delete. Since it retained the plastic shell that provided under seat storage previously, there was a decent amount of usable room underneath the seat delete that our friends at Wired by Greg quickly borrowed to house our 2 Dakota Lithium 100ah LiFePO4 batteries and their supporting electronics. Even with all that stuff I still had plenty of storage to squirrel away some of our longer term items. Things like jackets, dry bags, and spare paper towels. The type of things that aren't needed everyday but can be had in 2 or 3 minutes when the time comes. The flat top of the seat delete allowed us to bolt a fridge slide to secure our Iceco fridge/freezer. While we didn’t do it for our trip, the top has a bunch of exposed T nuts ripe for the easy bolting of other accessories and hardware. I would use them to mount D-rings to really strap down our gear in the future.
Our 4Runner did not get a seat delete. We considered it for the same reason as our Tundra, to get more room in the back. But Brian from Goose Gear advised against it, considering that the rear seats of the 4Runner fold flat, we wouldn’t be gaining enough space to merit the loss of the seats. Brian advised us that having those 3 seats in the back was more important in the case of getting a vehicle stuck or in the case of a breakdown. He was right so we still have the rear seats in the 4Runner. Now what the 4Runner did get was a full Goose Gear System in the rear.
Affectionately referred to on their website as Brain’s Favorite Package. Their Rear Plate to
mount everything, their CampKitchen 2.2, a fancy fridge slide enclosure with a sub slide for a
stove, and a 36 inch drawer. Goose Gear has managed to pack a lot of storage space into the
back of the 4Runner. The drawer even has a cutout and hatch to cover the cubby on the
passenger side that optionally contains a factory installed subwoofer. Since we didn’t have that sub, instead we got a handy little pocket of storage. Like the Tundra, the CampKitchen 2.2 was given an IceCo fridge/freezer. And in a similar fashion, the team at Wired by Greg worked their magic and were able to build an add-on plate to the back of the enclosed fridge slide to house all of our auxiliary electronics and even the same Dakota Lithium batteries tucked neatly behind the rear seats, hidden away but easily accessible, just in case.
The aluminum extrusion construction of the drawer and fridge slide meant the added weight was no match for the sturdy Goose Gear drawers. Installing all this was about an hour or two, I had to remove the carpetn and sound deadening foam from the back and bolt on the Rear Plate, it used existing holes so installation was quite simple. Then I just had to get some help to lift the fridge slide and drawer before bolting them to the rear plate’s T nuts. I did need a hand for both, they’re a little big for one person to lift. Once they’re in, it's just a matter of lining up all the hardware and holes before torquing it down. There are two ways of doing this, taking out the drawers to get access to the bottom or taking off side and top panels. I took the drawers out and crawled inside, it was a tight fit even for my medium build, I’m no tank at 5 foot 6. But I was able to get my head and hands where needed and get it all bolted down. I probably spent more time talking about how I was going to do it than actually doing it. Once they’re in, It’s not going anywhere.
Conclusion
Goose Gear seat deletes and drawers serve their purpose of keeping the back of our vehicle
organized very well. They’re robust and tough construction took everything we threw at it. Both are pretty big decisions, altering the interior of your vehicle like no other. But if your use case needs that added storage, their American made product will do the job day in and day out. It's not a light decision, removing seats but Goose Gear makes the process painless and the end
result well worth it.
For more information see www.goose-gear.com
