Will 3 Car Seats fit

Well, such as life. Got a 3rd on the way and I'm going to have to figure out how to fit 3 car seats in my wife's 5th gen. We don't have the 3rd row so they will all need to fit in the 2nd. My oldest will probably need to move to a booster before then anyhow so I guess that might save me some space. Who's made it work? I'm not spending $70k on a Sequoia.

 

We have two in ours. It would be tight with a booster but it might work. I really don't think three normal sized car seats would fit.

 

Not 3 regular car seats.

Booster can in the middle. Will be tight but they are kids and will live.

 

I can fit 3 nuna rava car seats in my wife’s 4runner. However it would be tight and very difficult to access the middle seat. Maybe it’s time for a sienna?

 

look on the Jeep forums. I've seen them fit 3 across but with a certain car seat that is the most narrow

 

Before we had kids I made my wife promise me she’d never make me drive a minivan haha. Besides we live in the country 2 miles up a dirt road. We need the ground clearance in the winter of a truck or SUV. Some years we’ll get 3-4ft deep snow drifts. 4Runner is her dream car and it’s paid off so really want to avoid another car payment if we can help it.

 

Yea for sure another of either of the seats we have now wouldn’t work. But 3 new car seats is a hell of a lot less than a new car.

 

Time to trade in for a minivan.

 

See below. Not an option where I live

 

True, but those fellas have built in side curtain airbags.

 

Me too for my wife. Bought her the Limited so she won't be concerned/confused with the 4x4 gears. She said what's that dial for, I said never mind, it'll get you through anything.

Same here.

 

All kidding aside, I have a cousin who was a park ranger with kids at Yellowstone for 10 years with an AWD Sienna. It got the job done. They have serious snow up there.

 

Any of the various ~half dozen car seats we’ve had… no way 3 would fit (and even if I COULD squeeze them in, I’d be thinking about pinched arms and fingers). But you could prob squeeze a booster in the middle if it’s the right combo of car seats + booster.

 

I thought about that. But, you can’t access the 3rd row with two car seats installed in the 2nd row. I’m not sure if you could get two car seats in 3rd row. They are awfully small.

 

But fat dudes are like play dough.

 

I don’t have 3rd row… and I’m shooting from the hip here, but I‘m not sure car seats in the 3rd row is an ideal situation from a safety standpoint. Might wanna look into that. I wouldn’t put my kids in a car seat in the third row even if the experts gave me the go-ahead. And I certainly wouldn’t want to do it on a daily basis.

 

We have a third on the way so I’ve been looking into this as well. Hip room in the second row is 55.7” or about 18.5” per car seat. Most car seats are 19”+ wide. The Diono Radian 3R is 17” wide. I think they are able to be slightly skinnier because of the metal frame, but 3 of those would be the best shot at 3 across that I have found

 

Love this brand ... haven't needed to do 3 across but looks like they have a line for it specifically ...
https://store.diono.com/car-seats/all-in-one-convertibles/

 

Not all car seats are fat and bloated. There are a few brands that make good quality seats that are narrower than others. The 4runner second row hip dimensions is around 55 inches. There are plenty of car seats that are only 17 inches wide. Booster seats will be even narrower. Good luck with your search. It'll cost you, but you'll definitely be able to squeeze three back there. We have a clek foonf, but the fllo is even narrower. Anyway, I did a quick search. Not too familiar with these brands and the prices are all over the place but it should be a good place to start.
narrow-car-seats

 

I raised my two youngest (now 18 +21) in the back of my Porsche 911. Not only small and with extremely limited leg room, but hard to fit car seats in properly (especially the base width). My solution was to go to a Kids 'R Us (at the time, not sure what retailers are even still around now with large inventories of car seats), and just bring the seats out to the car to test before buying. If you can find seats with narrower bases (like I needed), that may be the solution for you.

Oh, and take a tip from an old guy with 6 kids - find some birth control, dammit!

 

*cue dreamy flashback music* Back when I was a boy car seats hadn’t even been invented. Heck, most cars didn’t have seatbelts. We just bobbed around in the back seat like we were having a ride on the vomit comet. And now the gubmint wants you to be in a car seat until puberty. Stolen youth! That’s what it is! Child seats are the Adderall of the highway — no, wait — straight jackets!

 

I had the same question when searching after our 3rd.
I did get the 3rd row seats in case, but 100% you can get 3 car seats in 2nd row. My kids were 6,4 and 1.5 at the time. All 3 car seats fit and could mount into the LATCH system. Have since converted to booster with back for the oldest in the middle seat. Wouldn’t call it spacious per se, but no complaints
Plus all the cool points you get from being a 4Runner dad and not a creepy van guy

 

Nah. The sienna doesn't come as 4wd. Also it would look silly lifted with 285's.

I'm kidding

 

HOLY CRAP! that stupid Van is 60k after tax and license! Hopefully Toyota reigns in the dealers that are scalping with High markups.

 

It's also impossible to get, especially if you want an awd version. My parents just bought one but had to settle for fwd as that was all they could find. They are spoken for before they hit the dealership.

 

So I figured this one out. We’re able to fit 3 across in the middle row of our 4Runner. Two Evenflo revolve slims and one Uppababy Mesa. The Revolve Slims are the key. Only 16.7 wide. The other thing that really helped was using the car set belt to attach. That allows you to shift the seats a little out of center to gain extra clearance.

 

Diono is the go to for space saving car seats.

 

Have done with 3 diono radians. The 2 outside seats were rear facing, and the middle seat was forward facing. Not sure if i'm going to be able to do 3 across when all 3 have to forward face with the same diono seats. Also a tip, buy the $20 diono angle adjusters for the rear facing. The front driver/passenger gain about 3inches to have their seats back further. The outside seats used the latch system, the middle seat used seatbelt (and had a top tether on the back of the seat). Hope this helps! Will mention, its a pain for day to day, so that's my vehicle, and we have my wife a Sienna on order. I know you mentioned the need for ground clearance. I'm in Canada, so for the Sienna we don't get the trim option, but if you're in the states, there is a woodland edition that has additional ground clearance and AWD.