Baby seat recommendation for AC Tacoma

I found some old threads on this that have me worried. Who has made this work?

With the supply shortage and outrageous prices we’re having a hard time replacing my wife’s Impreza (we want a RAV4) so a new DC truck, at least anytime soon, is squarely out of the question.

Is there a rear facing infant seat you’ve made work in an AC? Ideally, without having to move the passenger seat up all the way into the dash. My wife is tiny so she doesn’t need much leg space up front but she also prefers to sit as far back from the airbag as possible. Does this become impossible with an AC when the kid is ready for a forward facing? It’s clearly not a family vehicle, and when I bought it 7 years ago that wasn’t even a consideration. I need to work with it for now.

 

I have a DC and an infant car seat pushes the front passenger seat almost all the way up. There's room for me if wife is driving, but its tight and I'm 5'10 at best. no room to recline. Possibly may work if the car seat is in the middle.

If you primarily drive wife's car and only need the taco sporadically, then it could be doable. but figure ~2yrs before switching to a forward facing seat. Similar problem tho, since the seat will be bigger and so will the kid (legs/feet kicking the seat).

EDIT: Congrats on the kid!

 

^thank you

The AC doesn’t even have a middle seat, just 2 fold down “jump” seats with a padded back right up against the rear of the cab, promotes great posture! The wife’s car, whatever it is, will be the primary transport but the Taco does need to accommodate all of us as well. It sounds like once the kid is forward facing the seat fits better, until the time comes that little legs don’t fit. By then, maybe it’ll be time for a DC.

 

Do the double cab upgrade

 

Baby seats barely fit in the DC let alone an AC. I'm sure you can make it work, but I would look at upgrading/upsizing if comfort is important for you.

 

Hey OP,
its definitely possible as I've done it myself with 2 kids, both have ridden in the truck since infants. One's now 7, and the other is 4.

here is how I did it / do it.

Kid #1
Front seat. Yup, I'm going to get flak for this, and I know the safest place is NOT the front seat but us AC's have the airbag disable switch for a reason. While the front is not the SAFEST, its still safe IMO. Airbag disabled, and it has the child latch thingys in the front seat. I did this with my son in one of those Graco Click connect seats.
my view of the side mirror was obstructed and I had to move my head to look around it but it "worked"

once the click connect was too small, I switched to a Britax something... ( I wanna say boulevard ) also rear facing. Again obstructed side mirror, but it worked.
once they reached my provinces requirements for forward facing, flipped that bad boy around and that's where they stayed until kid # 2 came along.


Kid #2
switched the oldest out to a Britax Parkway and put it behind the drivers seat ( with the baby seats in the front passenger, the top restraint strap thingy goes over the top of the seat, under the headrest and straight back to just under the headrest in the rear jump seat making the passenger jump seat useless )

and that's how I've been rolling for 6 years now, 4yr old in the passenger side with airbag off, 7yr old behind me in his booster and the wife stays at home when I take the truck. If the whole family has to go somewhere ( or my wife has to go somewhere with me ) we take our 2nd vehicle.

for us the truck is the 2nd vehicle with the other car being our "primary" car.


is it perfect? no. My wife can't come with me in the truck unless I remove a car seat.
Do we car swap vehicles occasionally? sure, but for us its less about being "My" Truck and "her" car. They are both family vehicles that both of us pay for. The truck just happens to be my preferred ride with some extra goodies on it that make it a less attractive option for my wife.

Honestly, Keep the AC, make it work. your kid will be able to sit in the back before you know it.

oh and one last thing, the truck is engeneered to have a kid seat in the front, its got the necessary safety latches and anchor points, airbag disable etc... no matter what you drive, there is always a risk of accident. All we can do ( besides stop driving ) is to mitigate the risk as best we can within our comfort range.

Ultimately its up to YOU to decide if its an acceptable risk or not.

D2

PS: I'm up for a civil discussion on this, but not interested in an "internet fight" or name calling. The necessary latches are there for a reason
PPS: OP, if you want the exact model of the car seats I use / have used just tag me and I'll get it.

 

its not the safest thing according to probably most people but i have an access cab and we have a clip in infant car seat the I have strapped in the middle on top of a sub box that I had built and it works perfectly for me once you move the seats back to where they normally go it sandwich's the car seat in place and its so firmly in place I can shake the car seat and it doesn't move the whole truck moves so i feel like its extra safe plus they are in the middle of the vehicle now and if there was to be a side collision they should be safer if they normally would of been on the wrong side of that accident

I will add a picture of it later also i am a 3rd gen ac so idk how much that changes things

 

Appreciate all of these replies! Need some time to absorb it all, great info/experiences. And I have until July to figure this out. Wife already has a seat in mind for her car and I know zilch about this stuff, so I really do appreciate all the sharing. As mentioned, wife’s ride will always be the preferred primary. Taco the backup. And Taco isn’t getting upgraded to a DC anytime soon as we want/need to replace her Subaru which blows the budget for a DC truck. I’m hopeful for a solution that can accommodate the 3 of us, 4 if we count the dog, he’s never complained in back seat. At minimum, I need to take the baby places solo. Especially since we can’t car swap, as she can’t drive a manual and won’t drive large vehicles.

I don’t think I can turn the air bag off on the passenger side, I think there is just a weight switch. I’m not sure if that seat has the mentioned hooks either. I know in the back they are present.

 

Hey OP,

looks like Toyota changed things in the 2012 re-fresh. I guess you don't have the little keyed switch like I do under the passenger middle air vent to turn the airbag on/off.

but what I did find was the user manual online and section 1-7 ( page 106 ) goes into great detail on the do's and don't of child seats, and how to configure those seats for each model and child seat variation.

I'd start there, and then find the seat to suit your needs.

when it was time to move Kiddo #1 to the back seat, I found a mom & pop baby store that had "floor models" of their seats and actually encouraged / insisted me to take the seat out to the truck and make sure it fit. Which is exactly what I did. Sure they were not the cheapest place around, so what I spent in a little extra up front cost, I saved in way of my time / frustration in trying to find a seat that fit.

Good Luck!

 

Circling back as this thread may help someone else down the line.

Kiddo due any day now. We have a Nuna Pipa RX car seat and it’s a behemoth. I’m astonished at the space need for rear facing car seats.

It does fit in my Taco AC, if and only if, the passenger seat is both full forward position and the seat back folded as far forward as possible. So in other words, impossible to carry baby and momma. It’s one of the other.

Taco will never be the first choice and I envision the only time baby will be in it is when momma is elsewhere. Otherwise her car, an Impreza, will fit all three of us but a little snug. We do have a VW ID4 in order to alleviate that issue but build time is anywhere from 6 months to forever it seems.