I might be moving across the country, so I need all the room my car will provide. When I fold it down it looks like less room, but maybe it just looks that way. Have any of you guys had any experience with which way is best?

 

Whenever I've folded it down, it seems like there is an incredible amount of room - I've never tried to fit stuff in that way and then see if I can still get it in with the seat up mind you.....

 

Fold it down. Not only can you put stuff in the bucket of the seats underneath the folded down portion, but you can fit stuff on the floor and on top of the folded down portion too. There's a hell of a lot more room this way, IMO...

 

if it was me id put on one of those ugly trailer hitches just for the trip (and quickly remove it when you get there!) and rent one of the little uhaul type trailers. If youre moving across the country theres no way youre gonna fit all your stuff in an fbody unless you just plan on buying all new stuff when you get there.

 

I kept the seats up to make a "partition" for electornic and more delicate stuff that I didnt want to move around, or get damaged... So I put my midtower PC right behind the driver seat, and bunlded cords and stuff a few bags and stuffed them down there too. Then I took my 17" monitor and put that in the backseat right behind me, and did my best to strap it down with seatbelts.. I then took a pillow and blankets I was taking and put it aorund my monitor to protect it.


The on the other side, stacked my stereo stuff as best I could, taking another blanket and wrapping the speakers in that and making sure to point them away from any sharp objects that could puncture them. In between odd places I would throw some odd books I had to fill up space.. Put other stuff in boxes and threw them in the back.. So basically, my backseat held my two most expensive and delicate stuff I had.. computer and stereo. with boxes of everything else strageicly packed around and padded so nothing slid.


In the little cubbyhole we have out back, I put the really heavy stuff there and some other odd stuff. then layed out my nicer clothes on the "shelf", and then packed all the rest of my clothes, blankets and stuff all around..


so my Camaro was completely filled with stuff on the back, but leveld it out so I still had some rear visibility... not that I really had much to begin with.. (my parents took back my most of the futniture I used for college).. and ended up buying new furniture.. it wasn't wroth packing it all up to move across country..


witha ll that stuff, and AC, the best gas milage I got was 29 mpg.. and the worse was about 11 mpg (stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, crawling,for like 3 hours because of a bad accident on a highway in the middle of nowhere, essentially closing it down for a while)

The only time I put the back seat down was to move a 6 foot folding table... and when I picked up all the blinds for ALL my windows for my new house from Home Depot.. Actually that was incredible.. some of the pieces were over 90" long.. I arranged them so the longer pieces would sit diagonallly, and poke out of the passanger window, but not further than the passanger side mirror.. Careful to not have things point directly at the window. I had a few looks from other drivers at lights when they saw all the stuff I managed to hold in the back of the hatch..

 

I fit $300 worth of groceries in mine once.

 

Twenty seven cases of beer does not count as "groceries" dude......

 

Nah, it was groceries. I got 3 kids, a wife, and a dog to feed.

 

Yup, a lot more room with it folded down. My wife and I have made a few trips down to Texas around Christmas when I had my '95 Z28 and in my 01 SS (before our daughter was born). Also drove to California for work for a couple of months (and also to Texas) when I had my 92 Z28 (same concept & rough dimensions).

Probably made between 7-10 road trips in 3rd & 4th Gens when every bit of storage space was used. Every single time it made more sense and was more practical to fold the back seat down.

If you put thought into it to make the most of the available room (just like NOS2006 suggested) you'd be surprised how much stuff you can haul.

 

The best way to maximize the room in the back seat of an F-body is to ditch the seats. they come out really easy and then there is a ton of room. The seats back there are not really very usefull to people anyways and can always be replaced later on.

Are you seriously trying to fit everything you own in a car? Either you dont own much, or you are crazy. I've heard of traveling light, but that is insane!

Are you moving into a dorm room? Going away to college? That would explain it!

 

well apartment to apartment, not sure if I will move yet, cause its across the country and then I'll have to come back again for school. Anyway, I don't have a whole lot of stuff just big things-twin 12 inch guitar amp a few guitars, a table, three tool boxes, lots of books, cloths and a few other items. I'm pretty convinced I can somehow squeeze all of it in the car, but I've got to use the space to its maximum potential.

 

i moved to atlanta from savannah and back in my ta with the seat down and my band also play's gigs around savannah and jacksonville so i load up the ta with a couple of amps, guitars and pa equip and head out. id say load up your rear floorboards put you seat down and fill'er up