[Oldwolf]

I am not going to worry about the trolleys for now. My bed will be over one of them, and the other I am going to build a mini-side table over it that I can reposition along the trollys as needed.

 

[COBlue]

I know this is a very old thread, but I personally think this is the most useful thread here, because it is the best source on the internet to accomplish this procedure. So I wanted to post an update for others that stumble upon this.

We sold our 2007 Sienna that we loved, used, and abused for 13 years and just got a 2019. In 13 years, we used the middle seats on the 2007 less than 10 times total. So, removing the middle seats and trolleys was the first thing I wanted to do with the 2019.

I am not an experienced mechanic, but am a relatively handy guy. Removing the trolleys from the rails, and putting everything back together took me 1.5 hours, including cleanup of the tools afterwards. I followed the basic procedure noted upthread. 3 out of 4 rails could be loosened/moved enough to slide the trolleys off without having to get under the van. The inside passenger side rail had four bolts that needed access from under the van. I am an average sized guy and was able to slide under the van while it was on the garage floor (no lift required). The padding and carpet slid back into place very well.

So, if you have no real use for the middle seats, don't mind voiding the warranty, and are relatively handy, this is something you can probably do

 

[liliantong]

I failed. I got as far as the T-50 and could not budge it. I was working on the passenger side, and got #4 trolley slide half way out but could not loosen the track enough to lift it up to clear the AC vent, of which I removed the vent cover and the carpet. I put everything back now and am stuck with the trolley. I did remove the round bar between #3 and #4. If I could get #3 out without going under the car, I would be somewhat happy. I have a 7 seater AWD, 2020. I still need to use the captains chairs so doing this on a regular basis is no bueno.

 

[COBlue]

I failed. I got as far as the T-50 and could not budge it. I was working on the passenger side, and got #4 trolley slide half way out but could not loosen the track enough to lift it up to clear the AC vent, of which I removed the vent cover and the carpet. I put everything back now and am stuck with the trolley. I did remove the round bar between #3 and #4. If I could get #3 out without going under the car, I would be somewhat happy. I have a 7 seater AWD, 2020. I still need to use the captains chairs so doing this on a regular basis is no bueno.

If the 2020 is the same as the 2019, the only way #3 can be removed is to get under the van. Those nuts are in places that are actually accessible under the van, as opposed to the other rails. So Toyota saved a couple of dollars a van by making these standard nuts/bolts, instead of bolts into welded base nuts.

If you need to do this more than once a year or so, I think you'd be better off making a box/cover out of 1/4" plywood (or similar) to cover up the trolleys when the seats are out. It's not a great solution, but you made the same choice as I did when faced with the question of minivan with terrible floor, or minivan with AWD.

 

[liliantong]

If the 2020 is the same as the 2019, the only way #3 can be removed is to get under the van. Those nuts are in places that are actually accessible under the van, as opposed to the other rails. So Toyota saved a couple of dollars a van by making these standard nuts/bolts, instead of bolts into welded base nuts.

Thanks! I went under and couldn't tell where the bolts were! Can you describe approximately where? I saw some other posts that mentioned the spare tire so I was thinking somewhere between the second and front row, middle of van?

 

[COBlue]

Thanks! I went under and couldn't tell where the bolts were! Can you describe approximately where? I saw some other posts that mentioned the spare tire so I was thinking somewhere between the second and front row, middle of van?

If you keep your body perpendicular to the van direction with you head toward the van, slide under the van about the middle of the sliding door opening to the point where your eyes are about as far in as rail #3, you'll see the silver nuts (about 15mm, if memory serves me well) up against the sheet metal floor. You may need to shuffle one direction or the other to look around various supports to see them all. They are just nuts on the bottom of the floor, not attached to anything else under the van. I was able to do this on my garage floor with no lift/ramps.

 

[liliantong]

If you keep your body perpendicular to the van direction with you head toward the van, slide under the van about the middle of the sliding door opening to the point where your eyes are about as far in as rail #3, you'll see the silver nuts (about 15mm, if memory serves me well) up against the sheet metal floor. You may need to shuffle one direction or the other to look around various supports to see them all. They are just nuts on the bottom of the floor, not attached to anything else under the van. I was able to do this on my garage floor with no lift/ramps.

Thanks so much!

 

[rjb]

Thanks so much!

Were you successful in getting some or all of the trolleys out of your 2020? I just purchased the same van. I don't need to ever put the middle seats in, but would certainly like to get the trolleys out!

 

[liliantong]

Were you successful in getting some or all of the trolleys out of your 2020? I just purchased the same van. I don't need to ever put the middle seats in, but would certainly like to get the trolleys out!

Not in the slightest. I could not budge the bolts on the outer tracks at all. If the removal were permanent for me, like in your case, I think it would have been worth more effort but I still need my middle seats maybe once a month. Good luck!

 

[Chudder]

Sunny,
I had a need to only remove the tracks from the driver side as I was keeping the rider side seat in place. Your instructions were perfect. Thanks for posting the step by step guide.

JB

 

[yungricha]

Hello! I'm going to attempt trolley removal soon, as I want a flat floor. I see some of the instructions say to peel back the carpet. Will the carpet be loose after this procedure? Or is it easy to reattach it in place?

If I'm able to get under the van, is it easier / less-finicky than doing it all from within the van?

Thanks!

 

[rjb]

Hello! I'm going to attempt trolley removal soon, as I want a flat floor. I see some of the instructions say to peel back the carpet. Will the carpet be loose after this procedure? Or is it easy to reattach it in place?

If I'm able to get under the van, is it easier / less-finicky than doing it all from within the van?

Thanks!

No, the carpet need not be loose. But you will need to peel both the carpet and the padding back in order for the trolleys to clear the tracks. I used these handy little tools to tuck the padding and carpet back under the side walls (no idea what the proper term is!) and rails, and get everything taut again: KAIFNT K271 Door Panel and Trim Tool (from Amazon). My Sienna is a 2020 AWD XLE. The dealer said it would take 3 hours to take off the trolleys behind the drivers seat because it required dropping the gas tank. I did not find this to be the case, and did it myself from the inside of the van. In fact, I did not even loosen the tracks. The dealer also said that the bolts for the passenger side were under the car and relatively easy to get to, although they might require moving the exhaust a little. Their estimate was an hour. I had the dealer do the passenger side. I suspect it took as much time to get it on the lift as to remove the trolleys; I say that because they took off the tracks entirely! Which clearly wasn't what I wanted. It took them about 10 minutes to put the tracks back on, without the trolleys. It did take me a couple hours to take the trolleys off the tracks behind the drivers side. I slid both off the back. I did have to tap gently with a deadblow on the trolley closest to the exterior. I used thin, flexible, cutting boards (which I had around) to protect the floor and the wall. If I'd had the slightest idea what I was doing, or had ever done anything like this before, I suspect it would have taken more like 30 minutes.

I used the instructions in post #33. I could find the torx bolt in the middle of what that poster calls the #1 track; I could not find the bolts at either end. I could not break loose the one I could find, and didn't want to strip it, so I stopped the attempt. However, I was able to remove the trolley without loosening the track. I did have to take off the bolt holding the bottom of the seatbelt to allow clearance to get to the bolt for the stop at the end of the track and to allow me to peel back the carpet and padding.

The U-notch trim tool was good for popping off the white fasteners that hold down the long, black, plastic thing (under the carpet) that I guess is the air conditioning ducting?

 

[yungricha]

No, the carpet need not be loose. But you will need to peel both the carpet and the padding back in order for the trolleys to clear the tracks. I used these handy little tools to tuck the padding and carpet back under the side walls (no idea what the proper term is!) and rails, and get everything taut again: KAIFNT K271 Door Panel and Trim Tool (from Amazon). My Sienna is a 2020 AWD XLE. The dealer said it would take 3 hours to take off the trolleys behind the drivers seat because it required dropping the gas tank. I did not find this to be the case, and did it myself from the inside of the van. In fact, I did not even loosen the tracks. The dealer also said that the bolts for the passenger side were under the car and relatively easy to get to, although they might require moving the exhaust a little. Their estimate was an hour. I had the dealer do the passenger side. I suspect it took as much time to get it on the lift as to take the trolleys; I say that because they took off the tracks entirely! Which clearly wasn't what I wanted. It took them about 10 minutes to put the tracks back on, without the trolleys. It did take me a couple hours to take the trolleys off the tracks behind the drivers side. I slid both off the back. I did have to tap gently with a deadblow on the trolley closest to the exterior. I used thin, flexible, cutting boards (which I had around) to protect the floor and the wall. If I'd had the slightest idea what I was doing, or had ever done anything like this before, I suspect it would have taken more like 30 minutes.

Thanks for the details! So the carpet is pulled taut under the side wall? No need to glue?

Which set of instructions did you use to remove the trolleys? If possible, I'd like to remove all of them myself

Remove the trolleys, but leaving the tracks in will create a flat enough surface?

 

[rjb]

Thanks for the details! So the carpet is pulled taut under the side wall? No need to glue?

Which set of instructions did you use to remove the trolleys? If possible, I'd like to remove all of them myself

Remove the trolleys, but leaving the tracks in will create a flat enough surface?

Yes, the carpet is pulled taut under the side walls and under the tracks themselves. I did not see any evidence of glue, and did not use glue or tape when I put everything back together.

I used the instructions in post #33 (I think I added that after you read what I first wrote )

As to "flat enough", it won't get flatter - but you won't have the trolleys in the way, which is a vast improvement. So I guess it depends on how flat you need it? I have an elaborate plan which involves building a platform that will allow me to a) slide a spare tire underneath it (the AWD only has run-flats, which I despise, and no spare) b) put my dog's crates on top and c) because I'm not exactly tall, still give me room to sleep.

I'd guess that it's not hard to loosen the tracks behind the passenger seat, which require getting under the car. But it's winter, and there's no room to work in my garage, and I'd just rather not climb under cars at this point in my life. Judging from the fact that I didn't have to loosen the tracks behind the driver's seat, it may not even be necessary. But I really don't know.

 

[NanMitch]

Thank you to everyone who has posted how to remove the awful trolleys! I bought a used 2012 to convert to a camping van, took out the middle seats and stored them away, and then realized I was stuck with the horrible trolleys. I kept reading/hearing that they were not removable. While I didn't believe that, until coming across this chat I felt stuck. I removed three of the trolleys, and as a 65 year old with some arthritis, it took me a lot longer than some of you folks. For the fourth trolley, inside passenger side, after removing the bolts for the front seat, I took it to my local auto mechanic today, and he charged me $26 to go under the van and loosen the track enough to get the trolley off. He even bolted the front seat back for me. Well worth it. I am so excited to finally be able to set it up as a camping van. Thank you to all of you for the instructions (while my van had some different hardware, it was close enough that I could figure it out), and the encouragment to do the removal myself.

 

[floridanative]

Has anyone tried (or determined that it’s possible or impossible) to modify the tracks so that the trolleys can easily be removed and replaced (without having to pull the tracks all the time).

-Mike

 

[PokyMan]

I removed the trolleys on my 2017 XLE AWD today...took a little over an hour. Not difficult, but would be if I didn't have the right tools and/or the bolts were really tight (the T50's were a bit of a challenge for sure). I removed all trolleys from the back end of the rails, which involved taking out 3 of the nuts on the underside of the van holding down track #3. That was a bit of a pain, but totally possible (17m socket with enough depth to fit all the way on the pretty easy to spot silver nuts (they are not a typical nut as they are one solid piece that covers the end of the bolt)). That seemed more attractive than undoing the front passenger seat and taking #3 off the front of the rails (to me...at the time). Probably a toss up and would depend on whether you fit under the van (I'm skinny and it was very tight!).

Anyway...now I have that done, the rails are still in, and they seem like a nice base for putting down a plywood floor (which will be covered by some vinyl G-Floor, and I think that will get screwed/bolted down). That will take care of the front 1/2...not sure about how best to work around the rear vents and other irregularities to get the back 1/2 covered, solid and level with the front 1/2. I want the back 1/2 to be easily removed, so I can use the 3rd row seats, which we are leaving in.

Thoughts? Examples???

Thanks for all the great guidance...super helpful...

 

[Ofquiet]

I removed the trolleys on my 2017 XLE AWD today...took a little over an hour. Not difficult, but would be if I didn't have the right tools and/or the bolts were really tight (the T50's were a bit of a challenge for sure). I removed all trolleys from the back end of the rails, which involved taking out 3 of the nuts on the underside of the van holding down track #3. That was a bit of a pain, but totally possible (17m socket with enough depth to fit all the way on the pretty easy to spot silver nuts (they are not a typical nut as they are one solid piece that covers the end of the bolt)). That seemed more attractive than undoing the front passenger seat and taking #3 off the front of the rails (to me...at the time). Probably a toss up and would depend on whether you fit under the van (I'm skinny and it was very tight!).

Anyway...now I have that done, the rails are still in, and they seem like a nice base for putting down a plywood floor (which will be covered by some vinyl G-Floor, and I think that will get screwed/bolted down). That will take care of the front 1/2...not sure about how best to work around the rear vents and other irregularities to get the back 1/2 covered, solid and level with the front 1/2. I want the back 1/2 to be easily removed, so I can use the 3rd row seats, which we are leaving in.

Thoughts? Examples???

Thanks for all the great guidance...super helpful...

Hi, I'm attempting to do this on my 2017 XLE AWD and have run into an issue getting access to the front 3 bolts that are sandwiched in between the fuel tank and the body. How were you able to get to them? I'm using a standard 17mm wrench to be able to fit into tight spaces, but can't figure this one out. I've finished all the other rails thanks to the tips provided here and this diagram from Geezer1: https://www.siennachat.com/attachments/2018-sienna-8-pass-2nd-row-seat-tracks-jpg.41915/.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

 

[PokyMan]

Hi, I'm attempting to do this on my 2017 XLE AWD and have run into an issue getting access to the front 3 bolts that are sandwiched in between the fuel tank and the body. How were you able to get to them? I'm using a standard 17mm wrench to be able to fit into tight spaces, but can't figure this one out. I've finished all the other rails thanks to the tips provided here and this diagram from Geezer1: https://www.siennachat.com/attachments/2018-sienna-8-pass-2nd-row-seat-tracks-jpg.41915/.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

Not exactly sure if we're talking about the same silver nuts accessed below the van holding down the 3rd rail...but for me working with a socket wrench, I did have to maneuver around quite a bit to get the right angle with room for my arm(s) to have room and enough leverage...it was actually pretty interesting when I was convinced I couldn't get one, then came back at it again later from a different position, and it was pretty easy. I did have to deflect/bend the shielding around the muffler to get to one, but it came off just fine.

 

[Ofquiet]

Not exactly sure if we're talking about the same silver nuts accessed below the van holding down the 3rd rail...but for me working with a socket wrench, I did have to maneuver around quite a bit to get the right angle with room for my arm(s) to have room and enough leverage...it was actually pretty interesting when I was convinced I couldn't get one, then came back at it again later from a different position, and it was pretty easy. I did have to deflect/bend the shielding around the muffler to get to one, but it came off just fine.

Yes it's the silver bolts underneath the vehicle for the 2nd rail. The 3rd rail was tricky but very doable to work around the exhaust, but I just couldn't figure out how to get my hand and a tool in between the fuel tank and find the bolts. I eventually had to give up and take it to a mechanic. After filling in the rail gaps with some carpet insulation the floor is nicely consistent now.