Fully Loaded and Ready to Hit the Road!

[dieseldriver]

Here's the pre-trip photos of my 2012 Mazda5 Grand Touring. Optional accessories includes the following:

1. OEM Roof Rack made by Thule
2. Yakima Rocket Box
3. Draw-Tite 1.25" Rear Hitch Receiver
4. Curt rear hit wiring harness (Mazda5, CX9 wired adapters)
5. Pro-Parts Rear Cargo Carrier
6. Ice Cooler
7. Porta John (eeww(whistle) )
8. Dynamatted Interior
9. Hard-Wired Valentine1 with remote display (www.valentine1.com)
10. Garmin Nuvi
11. Rear Auxiliary Battery (no pictured)
12. Alpine RSE (Rear Seat Entertainment) System
13. MICCA Media Player in the glove compartment with 100GB with almost 95GB of HI-DEF movies for kids.
14. 400W AC inverter for DC to AC conversion
15. Battery Isolator so not to drain main battery when engine's shut off
16. Kicker 10" amp with JL 300W Amp
17. Upgraded factory speakers with Focal components up front, 5.25" two ways in the rear
18. Tinted windows with 5% VLT
19. Rear Splash Guards
20. Yaesu FT-857D HF Transceiver with optional Collins 300Hz Mechanical CW Filter
21. W4RT One Big Punch Mic
22. Yaesu ATAS-120A 40m-70cm automatically tuning antenna
23. Comet SSB2 VHF/UHF Dual Band Antenna
24. Scanguage-E
25. K&N Air Filter
26. Mazda OEM Chrome Exhaust Tip
27. Door Edge Guards
28. Blind Spot Mirrors

I may need to move the license plate from the rear or car to the cargo carrier as it is being concealed as I don't want to get pulled over.

We have a Seawall campsite reservation at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor Maine from Monday July 2nd to Wednesday July 4th. It will be fun indeed!

I'm pretty sure I am missing one or two items but what the heck...

 

[Orangutan]

That's a lot of stuff! The more I see the Clearwater Blue the more I like it. I had the chance to get one in a Touring trim but I (stupidly) wanted black, so I ended up getting the Sport. If I had it to do over again, I'd go for the easier-to-care-for color and the better trim level, or get the manual on the Sport.

We just took a trip to Canada and because it was just two of us, didn't need to use the cargo carrier. What do you think of the OEM roof rack? I was thinking of getting one because we need to carry two kayaks now, but I like the looks of the Aeroblade system from Thule better.

 

[Komodo693]

Nice - will be looking forward to the after trip summary. Have a trip way down the jersey shore coming up. First big trip with the car. Trying to decide whether to use the roof rack or not. Once I am down there, six passengers daily until the trip home so hmmm...

 

[dieseldriver]

Thanks. Eventually, I'd like swap out the factory springs, shocks, struts with heavy duty ones due to the weight. Probably next year, I'll do a complete suspension upgrade to Bilstein and Eibach or H&R.

Nice - will be looking forward to the after trip summary. Have a trip way down the jersey shore coming up. First big trip with the car. Trying to decide whether to use the roof rack or not. Once I am down there, six passengers daily until the trip home so hmmm...

 

[dieseldriver]

We just came back from Bar Harbor Maine on a camping trip to Seawall. Wasn't as good compared to Blackwoods Camp Site we went to last year. We did however managed to hike from from the bottom of the Cadillac Mountain to almost the peak. We we exhausted by the time we were almost at the top. We also managed to feast on some hard shell lobsters. On our next camping trip, may be planning to go to campsite where there's a lake that maybe we can canoe.

Now, getting there, we had some heavy items on the hitch receiver cargo carrier. I think the average fuel consumption getting there there was about 23.8, and coming back, about 24.2; not too bad. It's just shear weight going but coming back, we had the AC on pretty much the whole way; also, I was a lead foot somewhat doing 70-87MPH as we were somewhat homesick.

Overall, the MZ5 met my expectation and all of the addition went into good use except for the 400W inverter, we did not bring anything that would use around 400W power, may be upgrading to 800W to make it somewhat useful to use such items as coffee maker or electrical water boiler.

Extra battery did come in handy when my kids watched a movie at the campsite when they got bored.

Nice - will be looking forward to the after trip summary. Have a trip way down the jersey shore coming up. First big trip with the car. Trying to decide whether to use the roof rack or not. Once I am down there, six passengers daily until the trip home so hmmm...

 

[Komodo693]

Nice, glad you had fun. Sunday I am off to wildwood for the week. By the way where did you get your windows tinted?

 

[dieseldriver]

I tinted the windows myself bought from Walmart. It's the Professional Grade 5% VLT. Came out okay I guess but will be looking to get them tinted with 3M from tint shop which is guaranteed for life of the car eventually but this will have to do in the mean time.

Also, small adjustment I will probably be making is to replace the kicker amp with low profile JL sub and relocate it underneath either the driver's or passenger seat.

Nice, glad you had fun. Sunday I am off to wildwood for the week. By the way where did you get your windows tinted?

 

[Komodo693]

Do a little searching around, you may be able to find a box to fit. I had one in my PT Cruiser (eBay -custom fit), then had an Audison low profile amp under the passenger seat.

 

[dieseldriver]

I might just go with a self contained unit like the Sound Ordinance unit that Crutchfield sells. That one is pretty slim and will fit underneath the driver's seat.

Do a little searching around, you may be able to find a box to fit. I had one in my PT Cruiser (eBay -custom fit), then had an Audison low profile amp under the passenger seat.

 

[Komodo693]

Made it back from the shore alive. Everything magically fit inside, even leaving about 1.5' from the top (got to see a little out the back), that's with the 3rd row down. While there I had 6 passengers continually, the strollers barely fit in back - let alone space for anything else. Next trip the roof box is definitely on...