Going offroad into deep woods or on extended weekend trips sometimes requires a stay of overnight, or several nights.  Many times we have a cabin to sleep in.  Sometimes not.  Tents are ok but offer little protection from the 700 lb black bears that roam the mountains where we 4 wheel.  If it's possible, sleeping in an enclosed vehicle is ideal.  The FJ Cruiser has a fair amount of interior room and when you fold down the rear seats and slide the front seats forward, the area becomes even greater.  The only problem is this area is not flat. The rear seats do not fold down completely flat and the seat part of the rear seats is about 12 inch up above the rearmost floor.  The back of the rear seat becomes a ramp going up on an angle.  The only way to get a flat area is to create an elevated platform.  By elevating a platform, you can get about 72" from the back of the front seats to rear door at about 42" to 52" wide depending on where you measure.  So I set out to make a platform.

The main goals of this project were:

• To make a sleeping area long enough to stretch out my 5"10" body.

• Not require the removal of anything structural like the rear seats, which I want to be able to use easily.

• Allow the platform to be quickly and easily broken down and the rear seats be brought back up.

• The platform had to double as storage area since it will be occupying my cargo area.

• Everything necessary to make this platform work had to be stashable back into the main section of the platform.

I sketched up several designs and look at several platforms other FJ owners had designed.  I finally came up with a simple yet very effective design that fit nicely in the rear cargo area and sat no higher than 11 inches tall, yet yielded a 72" x 42" platform and provided two lockable 28" x 20" slide out cargo drawers.  The structure also allows access to my 110V AC outlet in it's original location, is secured down tightly to the floor of the FJ, allows the rear seats to fold up unrestricted and is easily removable if desired.  On top of that, when it is completely stashed in it's compact position, it appears to be part of the FJ's structure.  Here's the details on how I made this Platform / Cargo Box:

The rear side of the cargo box will be secured to the stock tie-down bolt holes, which I'll remove and relocated on top of the cargo box.

Below to the right shows the carved out inset in the wood for the hinge.

Further below are pictures of the simple method for stopping the door from swinging down too far.  I screwed a large washer to the corners to act as a stop for the door.  The sharp tip of the screw will get cut off.  Works like a charm.

A trip to Home Depot and I bought a 5x7 roll of high traffic gray / black low matte carpet.  This matched the FJ's interior pretty well and was very similar to the center section of the seats.  I used 1/2" staples to secure the carpet to the plywood. 

The cut sides of the carpet got a light coating of rubber cement to keep them from fraying.  That worked out quite well. 

For the Power inverter hatch, carpeted over that, then used a sharp utility knife to cut into the gap and free up the hatch.  I then glued the carpet down to the hatch.  I also added a short strip of nylon strap and glued to the underside of the hatch so I had something to grab when I need to open the hatch.  The glue called "Goop" works really well for this as well as a large variety of other purposes.  Goop secures anything to anything else.  I always have a supply.

The entire storage platform has to be secured to the bed of the FJ.  This was quite easy.  I took advantage of the four tie-down spots in the FJ.  The forward two on the floor, I use two turn-buckles.  For the rear two tie-down locations, I removed the tie-downs and used longer metric bolts and a washer to secure the platform.

My CB is installed in the passenger's lag area on the right side of the center console.  This is a very handy area for the CB to be when I use the CB, however my original method of attaching the CB did not allow it to be easily removed and re-attached.  Removal was going to be necessary when the front seats are slid completely forward to gain as much room as possible for the sleeping platform.  So I had to re-think the CB hanger.  At first I didn't want to drill a hole in the console to mount the CB but now that I've had it there for a few months, it going to remain in place.  So here goes the drilling.  I discovered that I could easily pop the transfer case shift lever's boot out to gain access to the interior of the center console.  That made it easy to drill out a hole in the right place since I can see nothing is in the way.  Now I can get a bolt in there.  With the right size bolt, one washer and nut followed by the CB bracket, a pair of wing nuts can easily be used.  Now the CB is easily removed by hand when the seat has to go fully forward.

Wing-nuts easily removed leaving just the bolts, the seat easily clears the bolts.

Below: I had to open up the bolt holes again so I used a blow torch and heated up a 12 penny nail.  Pressing it through the hole, it melted the carpet nicely, opening up the hole.

The two drawers measure 28" deep x 20" wide x 9" tall, a considerable amount of storage area for the vehicle.

Great Mod!  The storage is great.  All of my recover gear, tools and a portion of my supplies are stashed in these drawers with room to spare.

Sleeping in the back of the FJ was comfortable!  I had an air mattress that was the right length and not too wide as to allow me to stash my gear next to me while I slept. 

Thinking ahead, I'll probably make a few adjustments to create a multipurpose configuration to the platform that might allow me to have it setup yet be able to drive the FJ.  Maybe by adding another hinge to the forward most section of the platform.  But for now, this was great.  I could stretch out, relax and get a good night sleep while stashing my gear below.  This was the purpose of the project and it accomplished that with flying colors.