Holden Crewman or similar?

[OceanPrincess]

DH needs new car. He desperately needs one. We just don't know what to buy. He's a tradey and needs a ute or van. We've kind of decided a van is too expensive for what he needs so we think a ute. We'd like a dual cab so he can take the kids so we're looking at a Holden Crewman.

Has anyone had one of these with car seats in the back? What kind of seats and how many did you have? He did they fit - tight squeeze or plenty of room?

Does anyone else have experience with other dual cab utes?

[Phteven]

We have a dual cab hilux.
We looked at the crewman but it's the size of a bus and also whilst we don't do any serious off-road driving we do like to have the option of going onto the beach.

I wouldn't like your chances of getting 3 full sized car seats into the hilux but if they were slimline ones it might work.

ETA - How much equipment does your DH need to carry? Because he will need a cover to protect it and with the cover on the amount you can carry in a ute is restricted.
Unless he got one of those big bubble type things I guess.

[Kazzo]

We have a hilux duel cab too. We can not get three carseats into it and my girls seats are not wide at all.

We have a canopy on the back, but it is pretty easy to take off if needed. They are a great car though.

[~Kim~]

We recently looked at a triton and a Navara, but the rear seat wasn't deep enough to accomodate DD2's RF carseat. I think the crewman has standard seats though, so you should be good....it does pay to check though.

[~Raven~]

Crewman sucks for room in the back seat. We endured one for a few years and was glad to see the end of it!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

The other thing to remember with most Duel cabs aswell is that they get the room for the second row of seats by making the tray smaller.
So depending how much gear he needs to carry & how he may have to look around for the tray size.
DP wont buy a duel cab for that reason, he has 3 boxes in his at the moment plus gear in between and about 1/3 of that stuff wouldn't fit.

All i could siggest would be to take your carseats into a holden dealer and ask if you can place them in one of them to make sure they would fit.

[OceanPrincess]

Hmm this isn't sounding good!

He's got a falcon ute ATM with a canopy on the back. Great for room. It is always full, always. He carries a lot of stuff.

He has acknowledged that he may lose some room... He can use the seats to transport stuff when he doesn't have the seats in.

Sounds like we might need to try our car seats...

[Netix]

Unrealistic. Unacheivable. Your children will have back problems before they are eight. Imagine sitting on a cheap park bench for hours, this is how you will feel after a few minutes of sitting in the back of a crewman. Need we go on?

And do not go for the round, bubble-shape triton (mitsubishi). They have severe chassis issues.

The Man recommends the D40 or D22 navara, or mazda bt50 is good value for money. He says depend son if you want turbo diesel or petrol. ....further discussion as I'm typing, he says diesel bt50, with a 3inch exhaust, will out perform the v6. Pm me for more, and the best exhaust contact.

[willow5]

Unrealistic. Unacheivable. Your children will have back problems before they are eight. Imagine sitting on a cheap park bench for hours, this is how you will feel after a few minutes of sitting in the back of a crewman. Need we go on?

But if they are in car seats not on the actual back seat it shouldn't really be an issue should it? Or is it a suspension thing?

[Netix]

The seat themselves are awfully upright, and there really isn't much leg room. You could probably stuff someone in tuere for a short trip, if you didn't like them very much. Booster or kids seats would be okay, but I know from puttng kids seats in other small cars (wih not much legroom), the kids end up with their feet tucked up, or else they are pushed into the back of tje front seats. If you need a twin cab ute, do look at the two wheel drive models, they are not tall, and have good cab size.

[willow5]

The seat themselves are awfully upright, and there really isn't much leg room. You could probably stuff someone in tuere for a short trip, if you didn't like them very much.

[~Raven~]

But if they are in car seats not on the actual back seat it shouldn't really be an issue should it? Or is it a suspension thing?

Its hard to explain but the way car seats seem to be designed, they need the slight recline of a regular rear car seat for them to be in the correct position. Because the crewman seats are straight, the car seats sit at a different, more upright angle and as soon as the little ones fall asleep their heads flop forward.

[Phteven]

Are you sure a van is too expensive? My friends have a family with 4 children and they have a van called a Hyundai iLoad. They have room for 4 children up the front and in the back they have just as much space as DH's ute. It might be worth having a quick look at one.

No idea how it performs but you can take it for a drive and read the reveiws.

[willow5]

Its hard to explain but the way car seats seem to be designed, they need the slight recline of a regular rear car seat for them to be in the correct position. Because the crewman seats are straight, the car seats sit at a different, more upright angle and as soon as the little ones fall asleep their heads flop forward.

Not hard to explain at all, I'm a bit of a car seat freak Just not familiar with the Crewman. Would be ok for short trips but you wouldn't want them in there too long. Where are the anchor points? I didn't think there was room behind the back seats, but again never had a look at one.

[Jules84]

We own a VW Amarok. The cab is wider than a Nissan Patrol so would fit three seats I'd say. Really good on fuel. We absolutely love it!! Plus the tray is MASSIVE