17 hour drive w/ 8 people in a Toyota Sienna? Roof top luggage recommendations?

[pepe of ohio]

Been there, done that... It started out sounding like a good idea...not to your extremes...it was for us, 3 adults and 2 children ( in car seats ) ...person in rear had to sit between 2 car seats...

Though there was room, it's cramped room... Sitting that was for 16 hours... Gas stops were only 2 so really no respite there... car top carrier had the bulk of luggage...

It wasn't real bad but it's not something I would want to experience again, for what? A saving of gas money..... 2 cars are the better choice in my opinion.... Follow each other or meet there... I personally get tired and cramped even in the front passenger seat...

 

[Tigger1]

Has anyone noticed that the advertisements at the bottom of the threads are sometimes linked to what's on the thread. I just notices that this one has hitches for the back of a car pulling a luggage carrier.

 

[Tigger1]

The advertisement below reminded me that you will may need to put a roof rack on your van to hold the turtle shell if it does not have one.

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

Has anyone noticed that the advertisements at the bottom of the threads are sometimes linked to what's on the thread. I just notices that this one has hitches for the back of a car pulling a luggage carrier.

I noticed that too. Like a crawler picking out words then putting up an ad to match. Roof packing makes drag on the air dynamics and in torrent rains soaked luggage. You are adding a ton of weight to a vehicle too. The people full load, then luggage, plus what is on top. That is a lot when traveling 2,000 miles round trip. A break down on the tranny could destroy a trip.

8 people is really packing it, I would take two cars, the strain on your vehicle and the weight. I mentioned we used a tag along from Uhaul when taking 7 of us to the dock and that was about 100 miles.

 

[Pooh2]

We purchased a used Sears top carrier (had only been used once) for a long trip. It was hard top and water proofed. When the trip was over, we sold it for almost as much as we paid. So check craigslist for good deals.
Have a great trip!

 

[4littleones]

We don't have a decision yet. My mom is tossing around the idea of flying. Which I guess makes sense because it is a 5 hour drive for her just to get to our house and then another 17 hrs from our house to florida.

The jump seat is the little removable seat that I would sit on the entire way. The grandma's will likely not want to drive so they will switch between the front passenger seat and a seat in the back row. Those are the two roomiest. That is the best I can do.

We aren't new to this. We have done it before. Just one extra person.

I also was thinking about renting a 12 passenger van but I would need to see it first and see how comfortable it would be.

 

[peigirl]

I love our rooftop carrier. We were changing resorts from offsite to POR partway thru our trip and my husband and I loaded up the suitcases in our Montana (1.5 backseat was left home) and took our luggage to POR. We went back to the offsite hotel to wake the 3 kids up (3, 13 and 16) and by the time we packed up van with the cooler and all the stuff we had purchased plus some other stuff of the kids, the van was full. We unloaded everything at POR and went to Pep Boys and bought the rooftop carrier. Best investment we made because nobody volunteered to stay in Florida (I would have but I am the driver lol)

Long story short, the carrier holds alot.

Paula

 

[4littleones]

We looked at the 12 and 15 passenger vans today at Enterprise. The 15 was very roomy and we would take out the last row for luggage. But the 15 is bigger and I am sure harder on gas milage. The 12 passenger has very little room for storage with all the rows in place but there it is generally more roomy than our Sienna for the 8 of us. The price is about $800 for the 9 days would have it w/o any insurance. I can't remember what my husband came up with for gas cost. I think it was around $500 round trip?

So it is between renting the 12 passenger for $800 or taking two cars and doing overnight hotel stop with 2 rooms on the way down.

The kids LOVED the van. I am pretty sure that is what they are voting for. I like the idea of being able to drive straight through other than quick gas/bathroom stops and we could easily do that with the 12. But I also like the idea of us adults getting a break from the kids and sitting in a peaceful car every once in awhile.

 

[rt2dz]

We are family of 6 that does long drives all the time. Check out travelmath.com to see if driving is really more cost effective--driving usually is, but it takes your time into consideration. Anyhow...

We used to use a soft top carrier. One bad rainstorm and lots of things were damaged/unusable. Learned quick to pack everything in bags and then place luggage in a garbage bag. Lots of work. It wore out after a few (4, maybe?) trips. We then bought a large hardtop carrier from Sears. We've had that sucker 6 or 7 years and its great. Keeps the car (drive an SUV) light and that is worth any extra gas it may cost us. DH recently bought a crossover and the first thing he did was get bars to use it when he takes the boys camping--usually once a month, occasionally twice. We store it on a ceiling rack in our garage.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[NotUrsula]

We looked at the 12 and 15 passenger vans today at Enterprise. The 15 was very roomy and we would take out the last row for luggage. But the 15 is bigger and I am sure harder on gas milage. The 12 passenger has very little room for storage with all the rows in place but there it is generally more roomy than our Sienna for the 8 of us. The price is about $800 for the 9 days would have it w/o any insurance. I can't remember what my husband came up with for gas cost. I think it was around $500 round trip?

Did you simply LOOK at the vans, or did you actually drive them? IME, the suspension in vans that large is REALLY not good, and you may end up feeling like you are riding on a trampoline all the way to Florida.

My company has a 12-passenger Econoline that employees are allowed to borrow for errands around town on weekends. IME, it gets around 14 miles to the gallon with nothing in it but two avg. adults and a sleeper-sofa -- fill it with 8 people, three rows of seats + 350 lbs of luggage, and I have a feeling that you will be lucky to get 11 mpg.

I would say that if you have a second vehicle available for the trip (belonging to one of the grandmothers, perhaps?), then you should probably consider taking both of them and not renting. A second vehicle will be quite useful while you are in Orlando, especially if the two older ladies don't have the stamina for marathon park days.

 

[Tigger1]

Roof packing makes drag on the air dynamics and in torrent rains soaked luggage. You are adding a ton of weight to a vehicle too. The people full load, then luggage, plus what is on top. That is a lot when traveling 2,000 miles round trip. A break down on the tranny could destroy a trip.

8 people is really packing it, I would take two cars, the strain on your vehicle and the weight. I mentioned we used a tag along from Uhaul when taking 7 of us to the dock and that was about 100 miles.

The times we took our shell the gas mpg was about 20% less. Our trip was a total of 3000 miles so that was costly. I would get one of those small trailers to hook on back. We even considered getting a pop up tent to carry our stuff in. The pop up never came about but might in the future when the grandchildren go. We always stop on the gulf coast and camp out (usually in a cabin).

 

[MAYNARDS99]

OP please be aware of the load capacity of the Toyota Sienna. A LE model which holds eight has a maximum capacity of 1,335.

Yes, it may have eight seats, but with luggage and a roof top carrier, you may be overloading the minivan.

An overloaded vehicle would be very dangerous to drive.