Question about kids in the center of the back seat

Tacoma owners with young kids:

I checked the other threads and a couple of YouTube videos, but didn’t see much for answer to this specific question... for a young child in a front facing child seat, does having the child in the middle alleviate the somewhat tight spaces in the back seat of the DC? We don’t want to have to crank the seat up to the dash if we don’t have to and I want the kiddo to have a little leg room, so does putting her in the middle of the back seat solve this problem? It’s our only child and will be our only child and I’m wondering if you can keep the passenger seat back for as much leg room as possible up front if the child is in the middle. The child is 5, still only 40lbs, and we will likely wait until she’s around 50lbs to graduate to the booster seat.

Thanks in advance. A purchase of a Tacoma likely hinges on this.

 

Made it worse in my second gen. Because now both seats can’t be slid back far enough, my seat was wider than the space allowed. Yours may not.

 

A front facing child seat?

 

So I have three kids and 5 year old, a 3 year old and a 6 month old. from right to left I have my son in a forward facing car seat, my 6 month old daughter is in the middle in a rear facing car seat bucket, my oldest 5 year old is in a booster on the driver side. Works well because with the bucket car seat in the middle both front seats can be in my normal 6foot 2 inch spot.

 

Oops. My bad.

Front face is all good! Rear facing seats are the devil.

 

So you can put the front seats where you want and the kiddos floppy legs will have room? Like I said, a purchase likely hinges on this!

 

If you only were using the middle, can you use one latch point on each side, or do you have to use the middle seat belt?

 

Latch was a little far apart to use the middle but might vary by seat.

You should be alright. I’m 6’7” and 35” inseam, so a bit different size for us. Personally what I’d do (and will do from here forward now that I have 3 kids) is bring the seats to test drive. That way I can make sure everything works for us and them right off the hop.

 

My 5yo 50ish lb son sits in middle in a seat. No issues with seat back travel. Gives him more room, usually puts his feet on cup holder area (not a fan of it usually fills with dirt). Enough room on both sides to fit people, not comfortably for long rides but short no issue.

 

It works as you would hope. I put my 3 year old son's seat in the middle so my wife can have a little more room. It sucks getting him in and out of it so I usually move it back to the right side. It's only for a little while, he'll be in a booster before we know it, it seems.

It's actually not really any worse room-wise than my 2006 Silverado Extended cab was. It was a little easier to get him in and out of the middle of the Silverado but I don't regret getting rid of Big Karen for a moment. I love my Tacoma and so does my son!

Edit: I use the side ISO-Fix brackets and the rear center bracket for the middle position.

 

"It" lol. I have one of our child seats in the middle and she seems pretty comfortable there

 

Awesome to hear. Unlikely I’d take more than the 3 of us at any point. I just want to be able to move the seats as we please and give the kiddo some leg room. In fact, I think she would love the middle seat more because she likes to watch the road and the navigation map.

 

Thanks for the input. I figure the harness could get annoying to buckle if she’s in the middle.

 

“It”, qualifies for the days she’s demon possessed lol

 

My son spells out t-o-y-o-t-a! when I start the truck, calls out the time and volume, traffic lights... "two green circles, one yellow arrow..."

If he's in the right rear seat and it's just us, ill pop the passenger headrest out and he can see as well as I can. I highly recommend it!

It's not the harness for me, its hoisting him up and out from the middle when he's asleep. Its about like balling up a pillow and hoping to not pinch something, hook a foot or bonk his head on the roof of the truck. Poor kid...

 

I’m actually good as far as a sleeping kid goes. She wakes up whenever we stop and the engine goes off.

 

I will say With my daughter I liked the room that it allowed but it annoyed me that it blocked the vision out of the rear window and the slider. So I just bought the smallest/safest car seat from Diono that I could find and put it behind the passenger and called it a day

 

middle seat belt.

 

We love the diono. They are super compact, but $$$ it’s the only way we could fit three seats in my truck.

 

Yes car seat will basically block enough to not see out. The one my son uses in my truck, forget brand but it's one he's used since a baby and converts down the road. I had to remove all headrests to see what bsm wouldn't pick up (bikes). Which is not gonna help this coming week when my softtopper comes in anyways. Def try to find a carseat where the head protection is not 2 feet wide..