5 car seats in a 2010 dodge journey?

Hrsutlow · Apr 29, 2016

My sister and I are taking our kids down to the cabin for the weekend tomorrow morning and originally we were going to take my Odyssey, but my husband needs it for work so now we have to take my sister's vehicle. She drives a Dodge Journey, I'm 90% sure it's a 2010. I've never installed car seats in her vehicle and I'd like to have a game plan tonight so I know which seats to uninstall from the Ody to put in her Journey.

Her daughter is 9 and uses the integrated booster in the Journey, but I have a spare Harmony Youth Booster she could use if it would make more sense for her to sit in the back.

My 4 kids are almost 8, 6, 2.5, and 17 months. The two eldest are booster trained, but also ride harnessed in some vehicles and may be more comfortable harnessed for the 3 hour trip. If boosters will work better space-wise, that will be fine though. The two youngest are rear facing.

What I'm hoping you all can help me with is where everyone should go and which seats would fit the most comfortably with minimal install issues. Also if anyone is familiar/owns this vehicle, are there any quirks I should know about before installing seats?
The seats I own that we could possibly use are: Harmony Youth Booster, Britax Parkway, Safety 1st Boost Air, Britax Frontier CT, Evenflo Securekid, Britax Boulevard CT, Diono Radian R120 (x3), Evenflo Sureride (x3), Graco Dimensions, and a Graco Myride.

TIA!

jacqui276 · Apr 29, 2016

I have a 2013 Journey, so slightly different interior but hopefully can weigh in a bit. The back 2 seats don't have a top tether attachment. I'm not sure what your comfort level is with harnessed seats without one (it is illegal here so a no brainer for me to not put ffing seats in the back row) but I would ideally put 2 booster riders in the back. There isn't enough space to install rfing seats back there very easily. I tried to put my rfing Radian in the back with angle adjuster and it just barely did not fit. The back seats are reasonable roomy width wise so I would imagine just about any booster would work as long as the angle of the head rests don't interact negatively with a high back booster.
The 2nd row has big plastic bolsters on either side of the middle seat, which can complicate car seat installs. I would probably do rfing radians on either side and the harmony youth booster in the middle. If you do seat belt installs with the radians so that they are as close to the doors as much as possible, the harmony youth should fit in the middle with room to buckle. Is there a headrest in the middle? If not, that may not work.

In googling it, it looks like someone had success installed a ffing radian in the middle seat in a 2012 journey (picture here: http://m.cafemom.com/groups/read_topic.php?group_id=115189&topic_id=17007936&next=11) If they can fit a Nautilus beside it, you can probably fit a variety of seats there since the Nautilus is pretty wide.

ETA: Just noticed that you are in Canada so won't be able to put FFing seats in the back row so will likely have to use boosters back there.

Hrsutlow · Apr 29, 2016

jacqui276 said:
I have a 2013 Journey, so slightly different interior but hopefully can weigh in a bit. The back 2 seats don't have a top tether attachment. I'm not sure what your comfort level is with harnessed seats without one (it is illegal here so a no brainer for me to not put ffing seats in the back row) but I would ideally put 2 booster riders in the back. There isn't enough space to install rfing seats back there very easily. I tried to put my rfing Radian in the back with angle adjuster and it just barely did not fit. The back seats are reasonable roomy width wise so I would imagine just about any booster would work as long as the angle of the head rests don't interact negatively with a high back booster.
The 2nd row has big plastic bolsters on either side of the middle seat, which can complicate car seat installs. I would probably do rfing radians on either side and the harmony youth booster in the middle. If you do seat belt installs with the radians so that they are as close to the doors as much as possible, the harmony youth should fit in the middle with room to buckle. Is there a headrest in the middle? If not, that may not work.

In googling it, it looks like someone had success installed a ffing radian in the middle seat in a 2012 journey (picture here: http://m.cafemom.com/groups/read_topic.php?group_id=115189&topic_id=17007936&next=11) If they can fit a Nautilus beside it, you can probably fit a variety of seats there since the Nautilus is pretty wide.

ETA: Just noticed that you are in Canada so won't be able to put FFing seats in the back row so will likely have to use boosters back there.

Thank you so much, this was very helpful! I don't believe that there's a headrest in the middle seat, so I'm thinking maybe my best bet will be 2 RF radians outboard, an FF radian in the middle for my 6 year old and my 7 year old and niece in boosters in the back.

lgenne · Apr 29, 2016

I would also consider RF Radian outboard, something else RF center (Dimensions?), whatever you want outboard (FF Radian, integrated booster, Securekid, etc.) Especially if either of your RFers likes to kick.

5 car seats in a 2010 dodge journey?

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