Vehicles that can carry 3 car seats and gear?

benjy

Rarely wrenches
Supporting Member
Location
Moab
You'll love twins. We twin at our house.
Everyone at the grocery store is going to tell you about their aunts cousins babysitter who also has twins.

Truth! Our girls are 18 months now and the attention is fading (fraternal, look nothing alike).

Our current weapon of choice is a tahoe, which doubles as a tow rig. For the first year of twins we had a JKUR, which was great to be able to wheel and be fully contained, but no way would it have fit a 3rd car seat.
 

Marsh99

Lover of all things Toyota
Location
Mantua UT
Truth! Our girls are 18 months now and the attention is fading (fraternal, look nothing alike).

Our current weapon of choice is a tahoe, which doubles as a tow rig. For the first year of twins we had a JKUR, which was great to be able to wheel and be fully contained, but no way would it have fit a 3rd car seat.

Mine are fraternal too.
 

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Congrats on the twins and good luck. I'm a fraternal twin. My daughter uses a GMC Denali and it has plenty of room. I have an 07 Suburban LTX that I like more than I thought I would.
 

Marsh99

Lover of all things Toyota
Location
Mantua UT
I have until January to figure this out, but so far i am liking the idea of 3 skinny car seats and keeping my 4runner.
 

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
"But honey, it's not a minivan. It's a Swagger Wagon."

toyota-ultimate-utility-vehicle.jpg

I'd drive that!

But to the point of the posts, depending on how hard core of wheeling, would consider the following:

1) Tahoe. Smallest of comfortable rigs for 5 people and gear and could be mildly modified to handle moderate trails and camping.

2) crew cab or extended cab full size truck. I have an 02 Chevy 1500 extended cab and 08 GMC crew cab duramax (recently replace an 04 Chevy). If will not be expected to do much off-road beyond dirt roads, the extra space of the truck is great, especially for hauling enough camping gear for 3 young 'uns.

3) Older Durango.
 

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Width of the vehicle is far more important with kids in car seats than the amount of legroom. Unless you have a third row I think you will want a full-size rig. A smaller vehicle with a 3rd row is ok unless you need storage, in which case you are out of luck.

We had a first generation Durango. Really liked it, but even it had only limited storage with the 3rd row in use. Also had a 2002 or so (can't remember exact year) Yukon XL (Suburban) which was great. Only sold it when we need to upgrade to diesel as our horse herd grew.

Last week in Alaska our rental as an '15 Suburban. Drove great, averaged about 20 mpg. But no low range.
 
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BoostedRNR

Active Member
Location
Logan, Ut
We just had our 3rd child and had to find something to replace my wife's 3rd gen 4Runner. Our requirements were that it needed to be full sized, v8, not a Ford, and most important was that it had to have captain chairs in the middle row. We wanted to stick our 5 year old in the back row where he could buckle himself and have the 3 year old and newborn in the middle two seats. We both really wanted a Sequoia because we had loved the 4Runner so much, but hated the bench middle seat the Sequoia had. They did offer captain chairs on very few Sequoia's, but they came with a stupid center console between the two seats.

Anyways, a guy at work ended up selling me his 04 Tahoe for a screaming deal and we have loved it for the most part. It has the captain chairs in the middle so my 5 year old can get in and out without having to fold a seat down or lifting the hatch. The Tahoe handles a lot better than I was expecting. It turns a lot sharper than I was expecting and it just feels really maneuverable. My only gripe with it is that there is really no cargo space behind the rear seats. We usually pull one of the back seats out which solves that problem, but a Suburban would sure be nice on trips where we need to pack a lot.
 

Marsh99

Lover of all things Toyota
Location
Mantua UT
We just had our 3rd child and had to find something to replace my wife's 3rd gen 4Runner. Our requirements were that it needed to be full sized, v8, not a Ford, and most important was that it had to have captain chairs in the middle row. We wanted to stick our 5 year old in the back row where he could buckle himself and have the 3 year old and newborn in the middle two seats. We both really wanted a Sequoia because we had loved the 4Runner so much, but hated the bench middle seat the Sequoia had. They did offer captain chairs on very few Sequoia's, but they came with a stupid center console between the two seats.

Anyways, a guy at work ended up selling me his 04 Tahoe for a screaming deal and we have loved it for the most part. It has the captain chairs in the middle so my 5 year old can get in and out without having to fold a seat down or lifting the hatch. The Tahoe handles a lot better than I was expecting. It turns a lot sharper than I was expecting and it just feels really maneuverable. My only gripe with it is that there is really no cargo space behind the rear seats. We usually pull one of the back seats out which solves that problem, but a Suburban would sure be nice on trips where we need to pack a lot.

It would be easier with a 3rd row with an older kid. My son will only be 2.5 when the twins come. I completely agree about the storage problem with most 3rd row vehicles, you can fit 7 people but you cant fit gear for 7 people.
 
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Corban_White

Well-Known Member
Location
Payson, AZ
That's one of the nice things with the 4runner third row, the seats fold up to the side. One can be up and the other down, or you can remove either or both all together. They remove very easily too.
 

idahoyj

Well-Known Member
Location
Twin Falls Idaho
I really like my 06 Armada, but I have the 2nd row captains chairs and they don't work for me. I have 3 kids too, so when all 5 of us are in the car, someone has to be in the 3rd row. Not a big deal, until you want to haul anything more than a couple grocery sacks. The 3rd row isn't split, so the whole seat is either up or down. If it was split, i'd be pretty OK with it. Right now I have a "want ad" for a 2nd row Armada bench seat, so I can haul my 3 kids in the 2nd row and leave the 3rd row down for cargo room. The captains chairs are REALLY nice for keeping the kids separated on long rides though.....
 
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