Packing a Van HELP!

[Amandas4]

We are a family of 6, we drive a Ford Windstar. How do I pack so everything fits in the van?
We need our tent, sleeping bags, pillows, air mattresses, clothes, cooking things, a cooler, toiletries, and I'm really hoping to get a screen house or at least a canopy.
How do I fit it all?

 

[mrzrich]

Space bags.

 

[mrzrich]

Do you have a hitch on the van? You might want to consider small box trailer from u-haul. Or if you have a roof rack, you might want to get a roof cargo box or cargo bag. If money is tight you can check Craigslist.

 

[arielmomma]

My DH compares it to a game of Tetris. It usually takes several attempts before everything fits. We are a family of 4 with sto & go seats in our Grand Caravan so with the back seat folded down we manage to fit everything and we are notorious overpackers when we camp. So there is hope.

For your larger family, it might take a bit more effort. Don't wait until the last minute to know if everything will fit. Do a few practice runs ahead of time. We do. Like I said, it usually takes a few tries.

If worse came to worse, would you consider a roof top carrier? We got one really cheap for our car at a garage sale a few years back. Something to consider.


Good Luck!

 

[Disney Bunny]

We are a family of 6, we drive a Ford Windstar. How do I pack so everything fits in the van?
We need our tent, sleeping bags, pillows, air mattresses, clothes, cooking things, a cooler, toiletries, and I'm really hoping to get a screen house or at least a canopy.
How do I fit it all?

Having tent camped with a family of 3 and then 4 for 17 years....with a station wagon and then a Chevy Lumina van......there is no way you are going to be able to pack everything inside the van.

We had a cargo car top carrier that we used for the tent, screen tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses and other bedding, and lanterns. I bought Rubbermaid (or equivalent) containers that could stack on top of each other to pack clothing, toiletries, pots and pans, dishes, and all the other small items that we needed and labeled each container with the contents. Those items, along with the coolers, were packed in the back of the van (with only 4 people we could remove the seats.....you won't have that option with 6). I really don't think that using these tips is going to work for you, but you can try. As another poster suggested, you may want to rent a small trailer to put all your stuff in and tow it. However, you will need to check your vehicle specifications to see how much you can tow. With 6 people, you are already using up quite a bit of your total GVWR for your vehicle.

 

[JanL]

I once had a Toyota Tercel and managed to bring enough stuff to camp for a weekend....but no passengers could ride with me, LOL. Now I have a Toyota RAV4. Eventually I removed the rear seats to make a cargo space...then had to put a cargo carrier on the roof...then had to make the passenger in the front seat hold stuff.

I finally caved and got a Lifetime Trailer Tent. It is a small utility trailer with tall steel mesh panels on each side. I call it the Wannabe Toy Hauler. We load our bins, coolers, bikes, and kayaks on it with room to spare. At the campsite we unload the stuff, pivot the side panels 90 degrees down to form bed platforms and erect a pop up tent over them.

It has an inside height of 7 feet. Each platform holds a twin mattress and 2 twin mattresses on the floor make a king-size bed if guests come along. If we have no guests, we have a folding craft table that fits along the back wall and we put clothes drawers under it and reading lamps, books, laptop, etc. on top. A window air conditioner unit goes on the floor half inside the back door. We zip that door shut and tuck a tarp in the gap. The pop up has a port to run an extension cord inside, which we plug into an outlet strip for the lights, laptop and air conditioner.

I hang tarps outside on the perimeter of the bed platforms to make Wannabe garages for our bikes and kayaks.

Now we have enough hauling capacity for the kitchen sink!

 

[ynottony99]

Big fan of the cargo bag secured to the roof rack. Might just make all the difference.

 

[Shmaxlia1234]

It can be done but be prepared for the kids to have things stuffed around them and wherever there is room. We also are a family of 6 and it was easier when the kids were younger and littler but we did it in our Chevy Venture. The one lifesaver for us was what we called the Body Bag (it was black and did kind of look like a body bag). My husband will stuff anything in there that can handle getting wet, like chairs, hammocks, campfire pokers etc. At the back he puts the tents, tarps, camping bag (essential ropes, axe, tie downs, stakes etc) and then stuffs all the squishy stuff on top until he can no longer stuff. Coolers usually fit between the seats and then anything else went wherever there was room. Wasn't always easy to get kids in and out but we managed for 2 weeks on a trip out east. We went on another 2 week holiday just a month ago in another van and man, much harder with the kids being bigger but again, we managed.

 

[lukenick1]

I second the Ziploc space bags. I put a big bulky Coleman sleeping bag, a queen comforter and sheets into one. Check out the pics before and after.

 

[mrsabbott]

We went camping right after our son was born and we officially became a family of 6! We drove a Kia Sedona.. the base model so it had NO trunk space at all! We were only staying a weekend and weren't bringing a baby bed, an air mattress, nothing!! Only packed one bag of clothes for all of us, tent, sleeping bags/blankets, pillows, cooler, chairs, etc..

I had to sit with my legs crossed up in the seat because I had stuff in the floorboards. The kids were holding stuff in their laps and couldn't get out of the van when we got there until we unpacked it enough to clear a path for them to climb out!

We said NEVER AGAIN!! We now drive a Suburban.

Now, I have a friend that swears by the roof top cargo. She got hers on a yardsale type site for pretty cheap! I'd highly recommend it, especially if you are driving a long way. My legs were cramping and we were only going an hour away. Good thing we didn't need to make any potty breaks!

 

[Bearikens]

Here are a few suggestions that work for my DW and I when we need to travel light with camping equipment.

If we are camping in warm weather, we take sheets and very light blanket instead of sleeping bags (bags take up a LOT of room). We use self inflating sleeping pads now instead of air mattresses (haven't had good luck with keeping air in the air mattresses) and we bring camping pillows instead of full size sleeping pillows.

We try to bring cooking gear that is multi-purpose, for example we bring an electric skillet with sides...it can fry items and is tall enough to use for liquids (soup, boil water, etc).

If you don't need the cooler until you arrive, you might pack items in the cooler. Another packing tip is to pack the "trunk space" with a single layer of bulky items first and before stacking anything on top, fill the vacant floor space with small items. Then stack additional large items on top. Use the space beneath the seats to stow small items.

Fort Wilderness has laundry facilities and while this isn't many people's idea of vacation, you can do laundry so fewer clothes would need to be packed. Suitcases also take up a lot of room, so a suggestion might be to use smaller and flexable duffel bags.

One other idea that I don't remember being mentioned, is if you have a trailer hitch, you can also get a cargo carrier that attaches to the the hitch receiver on your vehicle. They usually have a capacity of 500 lbs.

These are just a few ideas, and while they work for us, they may not work for your situation. Hope these ideas get you started.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

I don't know how big your kids/passengers are, but can you fit 3 across the back seat and remove one of the middle captain's chairs? We always took out one of the middle seats from our Windstar for extra room, but we were only a family of 5. Now that we have a Town and Country, we make good use of the stow and go area when we travel.

Otherwise I would agree on a rooftop carrier or a small trailer in order to fit everything. Or rent a larger vehicle.