I am not a heavyset person. I only weight 228 pounds and 90% of the time, nobody is in the back seat. I believe that the sheet metal that Ford Motor is using to build the floor is not strong enough. I don't know if this is a safety issue but this vehicle has only 76,000 miles. I have contacted the consumer complaints of Ford Motor Company and they said that they have never heard of this problem, they said that I have to fix it and if they heard of another complain, they will be contacting me.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews

I have a 1998 Ford Expedition with 76,000 miles. A couple of weeks ago, everytime that I was applying the brakes, I heard a cranking noise under my seat. I had my mechanic remove my seat and we found out that the floor around the nut where the seat is bolted on is cracked and also the rear seat is having the same problems.