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My hubby is interested in getting a toyota troop carrier 11 seater, and was wondering what your experiance has been with this car, good or bad.
We have not seen one up close only online and i am wanting to know how a baby seat or 2 fit in the car as the seats are sideways and i dont see any anchor points?
Also how do you find it with no side doors and having to get the kids in and out via the back door.
TIA
There are no anchorages for child or baby seats, although I have seen them modified so a row of rear facing seats is added immediately behind the first row of seats and could be used for mounting child seats - you would need to get an engineer to sign off on the modification.
The lack of side door isn't usually a problem, kids are quite happy scrambling in and out of the back door - although it useful to have a box, or step fitted to the back bumper as it can be long way off the ground.
We've been away camping with some people that use one to move their seven children around, and it seemed to work reasonably well for them.
all car seats/ capsules say not to be used in side ways seats,
have you looked at the toyota hiace?? same amount of seats i think but like a normal people mover in the way of seating
It is illegal to have a baby seat on a rear facing or sideways car seat. they have to be on a forward facing seat. That is whay they are not fitted with anchor points unless they are configured to all face forwards. When all of your kidlets are out of baby seats it should be great but not so easy with babies.
If you are looking for a 4 wheel drive there are some 11 seaters with forward facing seats but they are rare and will take a bit of work to find them. It will be almost impossible to get one second hand (sorry, speaking from experience).
Found a web page the describes one way of retrofitting the required anchorages - http://remotehealthatlas.nt.gov.au/p...f_fittings.pdf
my IL'S always had a troopy about a late 70's model used with 4 kids and then also family day care
I don't know about the car seats .... but i'd have to warn you - i reckon a semi trailer would be easier to drive. ...LOL
Thanks for the replies, i forgot about the "not putting carseat in sideways" rule, but other than that does any one know how they run, are they costly etc.
Hi Lisa,
It depends on how you run it (city or highway) k's but if your looking at a diesel model without long range tanks your probably looking at about 4-600k's per tank.....
what model are you looking at getting ?
He is not sure, he wants something that will tow a boat and hold all the kids as we are trying to expand the family, problem is that we still have 2 in baby seats.We also need it to be the family car when we all go out after we eventually have #6 as my car is a 7 seater only.:
thats fair enough.....
i don't know how you'd get around the baby seats though..... i'm pretty sure you'd have to get them front facing seats put in and have them engineered......
DF says to look at a '91' troopy if thats in your price range - they are a big step up with power steering etc (much nicer than ours ...LOL)
he said to make sure you get diesel and the largest engine you can afford and that way you won't have any probs (other than with your fuel bill i reminded him) but there are places now that do diesel gas conversions that don't wreck the engine so thats something that might be worth looking into.
he also said that some models seat 11 with forward facing seats..... i hope this helps
yes thanks doubledee, hubby has fallen asleep on the lounge so when i wake him ill let him know what you said, we thought about a seat conversion but think its way out of our price range.
We looked at getting one, but it turned out to difficult for the babies to get in and out, (you have to climb up in there, and then get back out with them)and having the prpoer seats insatalled is surprisingly expensive.
We ended up with a 14 seater Hiace Commuter, and just love it!!!! We took out the long back seat, and made it an 11 seater, with a MASSIVE boot. (In the Troop, everything just sits on the floor, between the two side seats. We didnt like the idea of flying luggage around the kids!)
All front facing seats, anchor points on any seat, and good on fuel. WE payed $10,000 for second hand, with air con and proper seat belts, not just lap sashes. The Troops we found only had lap sashes.
Good luck, I hope you find the right car for you!!! :D
hey thanks purplemamma, we talked about a hiace commuter, it is still very much an option for us, i think hubby liked the idea of the troop as it looked more like a 4b than a big van iykwim, at the moment we are still looking and trying to get peoples opions, personally i dont like the looks of the toyota troop on the inside, even when the kids are out of babyseats i still dont like the idea of sideways seating, i might try and push the hiace commuter again.
We need a large spacious car, and as we just keep having babies even though we say we are done, we definatly want at least 10 seat min, how does the hiace commuter go in the undercover parking, and do you need to add the anchor points or are they there already? And do you know if it comes in any elsething but white? lol
We cant go in most underground parking, but can go through most drive thru (takeaways).
But we have found any big shopping centre has parking outside for "tourist buses", and we are legally allowed to park there!!
We can also use "bus parking" and "bus lanes"!!!!
Our bus had one point, we added the other, and now will need to add another one!!! :lol:
You just drill it in to the floor, and bolt it from under the bus.
ALL the older ones are white... :rolleyes:
But the new ones are GORGEOUS, and a lot are now in silver....
ETA... As for spacious, you can swing a cat in ours!!! And the kids love it. You can them fairly cheap nearly everywhere. They are often ex taxi or hire cars, so have been really well looked after too...
We are definatly looking for second hand, but affraid the ks might be to high if it was an x hire, or taxi.
Hubby also wonders if the 'top' of the car is to heavy and would be difficult going around corners.
He stated to me that he wants a car that can tow a boat,( we dont have one), and said that the hiace might be good for me but not what he needs it for! Men are impossiable!
I am not yet driving (31, i know slack) but will be taking lessons soon, atm i have a 7 seater voyager chrysler 97 model, so it is alot smaller than the hiace commuter, is it difficult to drive or do you find it easy early on, iykwim?
I live in QLD, how do you find out if we can do that here?:
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I have no idea sorry!!! :doh:
My cousin is a licensed car dealer, and said the old Toyota Commuters can get to around 600,000km before dying!!! Ours has 310,00km, and has run perfect every day since we got it. It is a heavy car, ie SAFE bus, but has power steering.
It is high, but doesnt sway like the cheaper, lighter buses. We have travelled to Qld twice, around 3 hrs away heaps, and to Sydney HEAPS, and its great for travelling in. You dont even go out of your lane on a tight round-a-bout in them.
I had only driven sedans, but drive it no worries. I drove it home when we bought it!! :lol:
Ours has a tow bar, but not sure on weight restrictions and such...
wow, thanks for all the info, ill definatly pass it on to hubby. :)
Hey there , we have a 12 seater Toyota Hiace and it has heaps of rrom in the back for 2 buggys and an electric wheelchair. We love our van!! We got ours from a childcare centreand it goes great! Our friends kids (with their late model Holdens, etc) always want to ride in the van! Fun, fun, fun!!!:p
We have an ex-tour bus... it is a 4WD, but has 6 wheels (last 2 are on a lazy axle). It was originally a Landcruiser ute which was transformed into a 14 seater bus. It now has a 6.5l Chevy V8 diesel motor in it, for better grunt :D There is a few of these or even Oka's getting around, which gives you the 4by-ness, 14 forward facing seats (which we only had to install the bolts and get mod plated in Qld) for car seats, especially now that kids need to be in car seats til they are 7 yrs old and there is a step to help you up & down.... Kids can see everything being so high up, they think it's great, as does all they're friends. It has huge grunt, so towing isn't a problem either.
Otherwise Landrover Defender 110 County are a 10 seater 4wd.... but not real easy tracking one down as they were only made form 1981 to 1991, and no-one who owns them seem to want to part with them. They are 6 forward facing seats (inc driver) and 4 side facing seats.
Van wise... other options are Ford Transit BUS - these are standard 12 seaters... or a Mercedes Benz Sprinter BUS - come 10 to 14 seats from memory...all are forward facing seats in both these and can be purchased brand new. If the vehicle has more than 12 seats, you will need a LR truck licence in Qld to drive it and it will be in the annual inspection program with Qld Transport (where it gets a roadworthy check)... however you can have seats removed to 12 to drop it down a classification to be driven as a car & no VIP.
Hope this helps :D