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Quote: Originally posted by Valk_scot on 15/5/2010

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Mondeo estate by any chance? I've got one of these. If I was taking this combo of people and dogs plus another car I'd flat down the back seats of the estate, shove all the gear in that and only use the front two seats for people. You can get a lot more in the back of one estate than you can two boots.

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I've got a Mondeo estate too, and with that seat down you could play five aside football in there. I could probably camp in the car, and leave the tent at home!

Even if it's the saloon, it might be worth putting the back seat down in one of them.

Quote: Originally posted by grapefruitmoon on 16/5/2010

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Our tent is pretty big and heavy so we have to put it into the boot first and we pack everything around it.

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Ours is big and heavy (the bag is close on 5' long and 18" in diameter, and it's so heavy that we have to separate the loose poles and get it into the loft in two goes). It's for that reason we have to  get it in & out of the boot last - we can't get it any further than the tailgate!

We just leave a space where it will fit in sideways, on top of uncrushable things like the chairs.

I'm already making lists of all the things we would use camping, then annotated for what we will need for a stopover trip (going to top of Scotland on ambitious trip this year), then what we'd quite like but not need, so can leave out if car is looking over-full.

Therefore my recommendation - lists.  Then my OH who seems to know how to turn the car into a Tardis.

Quote: Originally posted by star1234 on 15/5/2010

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We have just got our new tent and the perfect place to put it in the car is between the 2 kids, means all the other crap normally inbetween them gets put in the boot!

Also did the blanket under the car seat's trick, although I have got gripper mats (used to have leather seats in old car) and put these on top of the blankets to stop the seat's from slipping!

The footwells at the back are usually stacked high as well and the kids put their feet up and stretch out!

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I too now put the tent on the back seat between my two girls, they don't mind as they can lean on it if they wish to.  Also I take out the rods in their bag and put them on the floor across the rear foot well in front of the younger one.  This makes it easier as the tent isn't so heavy then and it distrubutes the weight a bit more.  As mentioned above, I use the footwells aswell.  I personally put the chairs in the boot first otherwise if put in last they come out first and are then immediately sat on with no one else helping to unload the car and put the tent etc up!!

  Lol, this might sound a bit 'anal' (see the other thread!) but how about taking a few pack by pack photo's, cos for the life of me I can never remember what I put where, when packing on the way home and it ends up getting shoved and crammed in!

  Best wishes Sam

I really hate the packing the car with lots of bits stuffed into gaps her and there. It takes so much longer to pack the car, even worse when coming home. I like to have stuff organised into as few things as possible.  It does mean you probably need a bit more volume to pack the same amount of stuff. But it makes the loading a much easier process.

Ok, we do ahev a decent sized car (mondeo estate + roofbox) but the adavtage for me of space is it makes for easier packing, rather than just an excuse to take more stuff.

Even better now we have the trailer (but leave roofbox behind). A lovley rectangualr space to pack :-)

I'd also go with the suggestion of putting the seats down in one - it'll be easier to pack one larger space than 2 smaller ones.

Quote: Originally posted by Librasam on 17/5/2010

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  Lol, this might sound a bit 'anal' (see the other thread!) but how about taking a few pack by pack photo's, cos for the life of me I can never remember what I put where, when packing on the way home and it ends up getting shoved and crammed in!

  Best wishes Sam

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I am very glad to say my days of trailer tetris are well and truly over, when we started camping we had an espace, one rear seat removed and managed to get everything crammed in, the kids were small so used the footwells and door pockets. soon discovered that we didnt need half of the crap we thought we did and refined our kit a lot.

Graduated to a multipla with trailer, bigger kids = bigger tent,more kit etc, etc, and before you know it I m back to packing stuff in the glove box! hey presto trailer got built up by another foot or so, loads more room= loads more stuff you never knew you wanted or needed ( I use the word needed very loosly as we all know the difference between want and need ) and what do you know, yip struggling for space again.

This year, Vivaro double cab - hey voila- no more worries about packing space, about a third of the cargo bay left to fill, unfortunatley no more money to buy more gear to fill it with. All donations welcome though