Back Seat Storage: 40mm Ammo Can

Back seat storage: 40mm Ammo can mod.

I have seen a few mentions here and there about fitting a 40mm Ammo can behind the rear seat, but I haven't seen a good write-up for it. I thought it would be a fairly simple straight forward solution, but reality had something else in store for me.

I drew my inspiration from this thread.

I had some 50 cal ammo cans and a 30mm ammo can to play with, and though they fit, there was quite a bit of wasted space. The 40mm Ammo can was something I had to pick up and tinker with. I went to my local army surplus store and test fitted the ammo cans. I quickly realized that they wouldn't fit exactly as I envisioned, but it was close. Close enough for me to pick up the cans now, and get it to work later.

The final result for my build looks like this:


In my 2008 DCSB, the 40mm Ammo can will not fit without some modifications. I can get 1 can in by removing the plastic stock organization crap, and tinkering with the ammo can itself. To get the 2nd ammo can installed, I ended up having to trim some of the plastic in the rear. I really wanted good storage, so I trimmed. If you don't want to trim, then you can easily get 1 can in there and you still have plenty of space for other stuff.

First step, remove the plastic organization stuff from behind the backseat. I did this previously with my Hi-Lift mod, but it should look something like this:


Pick up 1 or 2 40mm Ammo cans:


Pay attention to these little lips on the top of the ammo cans, they will be important later.


I had to take a file to these lips and grind them down. A grinder would be much faster than a file, but the grinder wasn't easily available at the time. At a minimum you will want to file down 2 of the lips on one side. You can file all 4 corner lips down (I did, but didn't take many pictures of all 4 filed down). After it is filed down, it should look something like this:


With the edge filed down, the 40mm Ammo can will now fit under the back seat cross member. There is a tiny bit of wiggle room, but not much.



With the seat up, everything fits and is quite secure.


With no trimming of plastic, I can fit 1 50 cal ammo can, 1 40mm ammo can, and some other stuff behind the seat.

I double checked the width of the 40mm ammo can, and where the braces were spaced for the smaller back seat. The 40mm ammo can was less than 18" wide, and the metal braces for the smaller back seat were pretty close to 18" wide. It should fit, but it wasn't working.

Here you can see how the ammo can lines up with the back seat brace.


But the plastic on the other side is getting in the way. I saw pictures in the thread that inspired me to do this mod with no trimming, but I couldn't get it to work. Perhaps this has changed in other models of the Tacoma, but for me...I had to trim. Here is what was blocking me.


I pulled out my trusty permanent marker, and marked where I wanted to cut.


I used a dremel with a cutting disk and started cutting away. I need to go back and clean up the edges some, but the cutting was pretty straight forward.


There was a bit of sound deadening fabric back there that I cut out with a knife.

After everything was completed, I can now fit 2 40mm ammo cans and 1 50 cal ammo can behind the seat, along with the Hi-Lift jack.

I went ahead and painted up the ammo cans because I can (and it will help identify what each is for). My plan is for one of the ammo cans to be tools, and the other for recovery. Since I am light on recovery gear right now, there isn't much to fill that can with. The 50 cal ammo can is currently emergency food, but could be switched to something else if need be.

I have a thin layer of minicell foam lining the floor under the ammo cans, but will eventually add some sound deadening material. I haven't noticed any change in acoustics with this mod. I was expecting it to be a tad bit louder, but the truck is already pretty loud.

Parts used in this mod:

• $70 PA120 40mm Ammo Can Holder Box (Matte Olive Drab) Grade 1 - Waterproof Metal Ammo Storage Box w/ Front Metal Latch, Swing-Out Handle
  40mm Ammo Can x2

I also wrote up the exact same thing on my build thread here. I figured breaking it out into it's own post was worthwhile. I know it isn't the most exciting mod, but I like good storage behind my seat. At least now it can be used for something.

 

Nice! I like what you've done here.

 

subd for possible theft of idea. Thank you for the write-up. I have an Access cab and have been wanting to do something very similar to your idea and another member @NightProwler. So appreciate your time in coming up with this.

 

This is going to be an idea I borrow from you.
The plastic organizer just takes up so much of the usable space.