Loading up the moving (mini)van

It finally got to the point where enough work had been done to my recently purchased house (a fixer-upper, mid-century-modern ranch seemingly inspired the movie "The Money Pit"), so that my wife and I could move in. We hired a moving truck for the big things and decided to move the rest between her '05 Honda Odyssey and a borrowed minivan from work. Eight loads later over three days, we were moved--almost to tears by the effort. But, we were moved all the same.

Unlike many minivan buyers, we use our Odyssey to haul more cargo (short whitewater kayaks and bikes) than kids. Using the vans to move gave us a chance to test their mettle for moving even more stuff. Below are the lessons and insights gleaned from our experience:

Toyota Sienna: While most current minivans have a third-row seat that conveniently stows flat into the floor, you're often still left with trying to find a place to leave the second-row seats once you yank them out. The Sienna and Odyssey are no exception. I find the Sienna's seats to be somewhat more fiddly to remove than those in my Odyssey; lining them up with the mounting slots is more critical and I'd prefer a latch rather than a strap to release them from the floor. It also helps to power the front seats far forward, and make sure the headrests are fully lowered. Removing the seats gives you a big flat floor and lots of potential--until I was rear-ended in a minor accident.

Nissan Quest: I went back to the track and replaced the slightly-dented Sienna with our Quest. (Tough life, right?) The Quest's second-row seats fold flat into the floor, but working out the sequence of motions takes a bit of practice. Still, it was nice to not have to worry about finding a place to leave the seats.

While you gain convenience with the Quest's flat-folding seats, you lose out on having a flat floor. The surface created by the folded seats slopes upwards toward the front of the van, and there's a deep recess between them. Bedside table legs liked to get stuck between the seats, a hassle when you try to slide them out. The sloping rear hatch also reduces the cargo area; you need to be careful to have everything far enough inside before shutting the door. And that ultra-slow power-operated door... I probably spent a full hour total watching it creep open and shut.

Honda Odyssey: Like the Sienna, we needed to find a place to stash the Odyssey's second-row seats. (The tiny third-place center seat can fit in the "lazy Susan" under the floor, if the storage unit there is removed.) The seats are somewhat less fiddly to remove than the Sienna's, but you need to make sure the head rests are all the way down before trying to remove or install the seat. Taking out the seats left us with a flat floor, but the plastic moldings that surround the seat brackets can impede sliding things in and out. (I damaged one earlier while moving our treadmill; the molding got caught and snapped out of the floor.)

I didn't even try to take CR's tested Chevrolet Uplander. Why not? The second-row seats don't come out because they're equipped with side torso air bags. (The Uplander doesn't have curtain air bags, unlike most other minivans.) Beyond that, the third-row seat doesn't fold flat into the floor. There's a chintzy plastic bin/organizer behind the seat that makes for a level surface when you fold the seat down, but it takes up space. Worse, stuff can fall into the crevices between the sides of the organizer and the walls of the van. And I'm not alone in preferring other vans.

Lessons learned in moving? Don't be lazy or cheap. Pack up all of your stuff into boxes and load it onto the moving truck when the movers are there to help. One big trip is better than eight little ones. Beyond that, it's too bad we didn't have a Dodge Grand Caravan around: while the current version is otherwise behind the minivan curve, Chrysler has a great idea with their Stow 'n Go seats. Unfortunately, they seemed to contribute to the number of interior rattles in our 2005 test model and made the rear seats thin and less comfortable. (We'll see how the next iteration works in the redesigned 2008 Caravan.)

As for us, boxes cover the floor of the house. We hope to clear enough space to park a car in the garage before it snows. And the seats are back in our Odyssey, until we go to IKEA next weekend...

--Tom Mutchler