Built out Honda Pilot?

Has anyone built out a Honda Pilot? What year? 

Essentially, I’m trying to stay away from pick ups, but I need something that I can haul tools around in, as well as sleep in. I’d like to remove the rear seats and build a dual-purpose platform for cargo and sleeping.

What experience/advice do you have for me?

I’m looking at model years ~2020 and newer.

How about a Pathfinder?

I have a 2015 CR-V with a platform build that has a grill slide out, pantry, and some under bed storage. Not exactly the same car model, but I think a similar end result. I used to have to haul around tools during the week, and the wooden platform was super nice and essentially gave me a mini flat bed to work out of. I used fusion 360 pretty heavily to visualize some ideas of how everything would fit together and occupy space in the car, made a lot of approximations for measurements and then double checked how things were fitting along the way. 

For the build, I think making a trunk box and a "floating" seat area platform works really well so the two halves can be removed and just attaching the two together inside the vehicle. The trunk box of mine is sized so I could put seats back in without removing the back half, although I am realistically never going to do that. Having a slide out for a Coleman grill is 100% recommended as it makes cooking super easy and can act like a table for other car life duties.

Not a Honda, but I built out my Subaru Outback using a metal twin bed frame with plywood and my sleeping pad and bag, lofted on lifters so that I could slide tubs like this under it. Next to where I sleep I put one of these closet hangers sitting on its back next to me for clothes, etc. 

Under the bed I had really strong magnets holding up a piece of wood with ball bearings so I could slide out a tabletop, and then screw on some legs. I don't have a picture, but the wood was shaped like this |__.___.__| where the top of the '|' has the magnet and the '.' is ball bearings, and the tabletop could slide in and out on the ball bearings. 

I took this setup on a few trips and liked it well enough. Seems like the best I could do with a small car for really cheap. 

This info is fantastic folx. I’ve never built anything out, so I’m a complete newb with this stuff.

Patti, my partner Sarah and I chatted with you and your partner when you were climbing SOLER on DT in May. Good to connect and thanks for the beta!

Wow that's neat, small world I guess! Good luck with your buildout. 

I don't know if this is true of newer Pilots, but in the older ones the rear seats do not fold flat. However, they unbolt and comes out easily. That gives you more space and a place to bolt the buildout to without having to drill into the body. Its a good space for a cooler and a lot of duffel bags. If I was ambitious, I would have built a cabinet to fit into the space.

The third seat comes out, too, but you don't gain much with a conventional buildout where you put in sliding drawers topped by a bed because the space is hard to access. If you work out a hatch in the bed base you could bolt or weld a strongbox into the well of the third seat that would give you a place to secure valuables--hidden and difficult to remove.

I know I'm comparing apples and pears here, but I recently bought a Toyota Sequoia and removed all of the rear seats to make more space. Leading up to it I had a tough time finding people that had done the same thing but I eventually just went for it and it was super easy. I'd like to do a better build-out at some point but for right now I just have a piece of plywood over the uneven floor, and some anti-fatigue eva foam pads over that. Matress topper gets rolled up when not in use. I got the seats out and the new floor in place in one leisurely afternoon and we were off to the races. I would imagine that you could achieve the same thing in a Pilot in a similar timeframe. I love the simplicity of it all and the price was right. 

We have a 2011 Honda Pilot, and the seats fold flat. We did not remove the seats for a build out, because we still need them. We just throw a futon mattress on the folded seats and store gear on top or in the front when sleeping. Kind of inconvenient moving gear around.

The issue of relevance for the OP, since they asked about newer model years, is ventilation without letting the bugs in. My wife designed and made noseeum screens that were held in place with magnets to use with the rear passenger doors.  Without that, sleeping was unbearable due to either heat/condensation or bugs, just pick your poison.

PRRose wrote:

I don't know if this is true of newer Pilots, but in the older ones the rear seats do not fold flat. However, they unbolt and comes out easily. That gives you more space and a place to bolt the buildout to without having to drill into the body. Its a good space for a cooler and a lot of duffel bags. If I was ambitious, I would have built a cabinet to fit into the space.

The third seat comes out, too, but you don't gain much with a conventional buildout where you put in sliding drawers topped by a bed because the space is hard to access. If you work out a hatch in the bed base you could bolt or weld a strongbox into the well of the third seat that would give you a place to secure valuables--hidden and difficult to remove.

Hi Peter,

Do you know what model year(s) you got the third row out of? I went to look at a 2019 yesterday and it didn’t look like the third row would come out.

Marc H wrote:

Hi Peter,

Do you know what model year(s) you got the third row out of? I went to look at a 2019 yesterday and it didn’t look like the third row would come out.

I have a 2005. 

Micro version of what you're looking for, but maybe this will inspire some ideas: