Wow. Ok.

So, the design intent is to use the headrest foam to carry a portion of the weight of the bricks which may be loaded onto the folded down seat back, instead of the force which would be trying to bend the back of the seat through the action of the headrests remaining mounted within the back and twisted downward (as I am doing now).

Well now -- I had no idea!

I will be experimenting later this week ......

Enjoy !!

 

Same! Someone needs to get on it!

 

​​​​​​I've ordered from him but never talked directly. Somebody hit him up. I don't want royalties, just a discount

 

Is it possible to remove the bottom cushion to provide more room with the seat back folded flat?

 

I ran the test this weekend, converting my "leave headrests in place" approach to the "follow the manual" approach and confirm two things:

1) leaving the headrests in place allows the back of the 2nd row to form a slightly flatter floor (by less than 5 degrees or so) than the manual approach. But, it does so at the risk of a heavy weight bending the metal posts which are installed in the seat back.

2) using the "manual method" allows the seat back and headrest foams to directly carry the heavy load to the grey foam which is in the photo above. The risk of overstressing the head rest mountings are removed.

Conclusion: For a couple of light dogs, the headrests may be left in place safely. For 1000 lbs of bricks, I will always follow the manual's approach.

As I do not use the back seats regularly, I am making the brick hauling setting my standard one.

Enjoy !!

 

Yes, with the easy removal of four Torx screws, and it does give quit a bit more floor space room for storage and allows the seat backs to fold a little flatter. Just did this for my upcoming long car camping trip and it allows me to put folding camp chairs, a folding collapsable table and two folding cots in that space. I'll take some photos.

Side note - I'm such an idiot... as I was removing the Torx screws, I turned the bolts the wrong direction and broke the heads off both. I was look down at a weird angle and it threw me off from my well known "rightey tightey, lefty, loosey" rule. I now have to drill out the broken machine screws from within the captive nut and install my own machine screws and bolts to re-install the lower seat. Lesson learned... and I might re-order the bracket and replace to properly fix my mistake. Part #LR132721 (photo below) and if anyone can analyze the screws that I broke and tell me what to order (or I can cannibalize a couple from the foam thing that the seats sit on... they're the same).

 

 

For your #2, if you don't lock the headrests in the "down position" (basically let them flop around a bit) when you put them in their little holders, the seat back will sit completely flat.

 

So, let's talk about the 90 - Removing the foam is the only way to get them flat, and does it work?