Loading up the 5: let's see pics!

[Nurburgringer]

While not as voluminous as other so-called "mini"vans, the 5 can still carry some stuff.
Let's see/hear what you've loaded into yours!

I'll start: trip to the home store and supermarket this morning, picked up four 2x3s (making a ladder), six 8' pcs 3/4" quarter round oak, various sundry and liquor.
8' lengths of whatever unfortunately won't fit inside running straight up the middle, unless you bungee the rear hatch. If you want the rear door closed (and don't want length sticking out a window) you'll either have to jack up the end near the front to clear the shifter, or do as I did and lay them from corner-to-corner, resting on the front armrests. This should work with up to ~8 2x4s, but if I had more to carry than the pics below I'd probably support them midway instead of having all the weight on the front armrests.
Criss-crossing them like I did left just enough space to reach down and shift. Only a 5 minute drive home, but could have done further without a problem.
If you don't have a passenger I bet the front pass seat can be reclined back to lay long items flat from the rear corner to the front. Have to try this out next time.

What have you lugged in yours?
My wife and I are off on a 14 hr drive to NJ for Thanksgiving on Wed. I'll be creating a luggage zone, a doggy zone (two curious Shih Tzus that both like to lay on the driver's lap. Sorry pups!), a human zone, and a doggie/human snack zone. Pics to follow

 

[dieseldriver]

That's pretty good Nur... longest pieces I carried in my car was not the 5 but my Beetle. 10' EMT's for my HAM radio mast. Other than that, I haven't really carry much load except for the 36" Sony Trinitron TV that I carried over to the recycling center. It's amazing what the 5 will carry. BTW, you're coming to my home town I see. I will be the chef for Thanksgiving, our tradition. My dad always prepared Thanksgiving dinner and I am carrying out that tradition. My kids love turkey dinner so I bought two Butter Balls this year. One for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas!

While not as voluminous as other so-called "mini"vans, the 5 can still carry some stuff.
Let's see/hear what you've loaded into yours!

I'll start: trip to the home store and supermarket this morning, picked up four 2x3s (making a ladder), six 8' pcs 3/4" quarter round oak, various sundry and liquor.
8' lengths of whatever unfortunately won't fit inside running straight up the middle, unless you bungee the rear hatch. If you want the rear door closed (and don't want length sticking out a window) you'll either have to jack up the end near the front to clear the shifter, or do as I did and lay them from corner-to-corner, resting on the front armrests. This should work with up to ~8 2x4s, but if I had more to carry than the pics below I'd probably support them midway instead of having all the weight on the front armrests.
Criss-crossing them like I did left just enough space to reach down and shift. Only a 5 minute drive home, but could have done further without a problem.
If you don't have a passenger I bet the front pass seat can be reclined back to lay long items flat from the rear corner to the front. Have to try this out next time.

What have you lugged in yours?
My wife and I are off on a 14 hr drive to NJ for Thanksgiving on Wed. I'll be creating a luggage zone, a doggy zone (two curious Shih Tzus that both like to lay on the driver's lap. Sorry pups!), a human zone, and a doggie/human snack zone. Pics to follow

 

[leewan]

Packed for Minneapolis to Englewood fl

 

[2012]

Yeah, i tried picking up 3 adults from airport, with 3 large large luggages (stand at bottom in parallel), 2 hand-carry size luggages (on top of the 3 large), they fully occupied the trunk.
In addition, each adults have their own backpacks to hold at their seats. That's my fully loaded experience

 

[Nurburgringer]

Diesel - hope your holidays went well!
Our thanksgiving road trip to my parents in NJ with the two doggies was smooth and uneventful. We did a bit under 900 miles in one day, each way.
Took the 5 to Ohio for my brother's on Christmas eve, that 6 hour drive seemed like nothing compared to the NJ trip.
My wife has connections with a carpet place so I made a template out of thin, cheap carpet (will use for hauling really dirty stuff) and they cut and trimmed a very nice piece of rug to protect the seat backs. Think I'll leave it in unless I have to take 5+ people, the color lightens up the otherwise very dark interior, and it will surely extend the life of the seat-back fabric.
Now we just need to stuff a long pillow between the middle seats and the dogs will have a large, flat area to lounge on long trips. Although our older guy liked to nestle down in between the seats when he wasn't snoozing on my wife's lap up front....

 

[dieseldriver]

Hey Nur,

I'm glad you and the wife had a good trip. And that custome carpet for the car looks like it came from the factory!

I was thinking the same thing, maybe on a long trip if there were any in the future, I'd like to put something like an inflatable bed in the car when taking turns driving.

I finally got the speakers upgraded and Dynamats put in the car. And what a difference it made, it is so quiet. Just got the headliner off to do the roof as well, that should elimiate those pesky wind noise.

May be applying the Dynamat underneath the splash cover in the wheel well, the outside sheetmetal. That should get rid of those splashing sounds when I hit puddles on the highway.

My second to last project with time permitting is to put the Alpine PKG-RSE2 10.2" DVD player: just figured out how to mount the bracket, on the sunshade bracket. I will be using pop rivets so that the sunshade side is flush. Wiring's all done except for the AUX2 RCA's for the secondary audio/video input, most likely an XBox360 or a PlayStation3 -- will be mounted underneath the driver's seat with Velcro for ease of removal.

Finally, last and final project (believe me, it feels like eternity) is dark tints from aft of the driver's seat.

Lot of trips are being planned this year. Probably Camelback ski trip, Niagra Falls, and Disney World in Orlando for the kids.

Diesel - hope your holidays went well!
Our thanksgiving road trip to my parents in NJ with the two doggies was smooth and uneventful. We did a bit under 900 miles in one day, each way.
Took the 5 to Ohio for my brother's on Christmas eve, that 6 hour drive seemed like nothing compared to the NJ trip.
My wife has connections with a carpet place so I made a template out of thin, cheap carpet (will use for hauling really dirty stuff) and they cut and trimmed a very nice piece of rug to protect the seat backs. Think I'll leave it in unless I have to take 5+ people, the color lightens up the otherwise very dark interior, and it will surely extend the life of the seat-back fabric.
Now we just need to stuff a long pillow between the middle seats and the dogs will have a large, flat area to lounge on long trips. Although our older guy liked to nestle down in between the seats when he wasn't snoozing on my wife's lap up front....

 

[Nurburgringer]

Inflatable bed?! That'll be like the crew quarters in a B-52 I think, for one set of pilots to snooze on super-long missions
When my wife did her shift on our 15 drive to NJ I sat reading/sleeping in one of the middle seats, one doggie on the lap the other next to me. The middle seats are just as comfy as the front IMO.
I've seen your posts on the DynaMat install - your 5 is going to be quiet as a bank vault!!!
I wouldn't mind hushing ours up, but really my Honda CRX needs it about 10 times as much as the 5. If I ever think the 5 is noisy one short drive in that will put things in perspective!
Ah Camelback, I had some fun times there in the late 80's/early 90's.
Will be looking forward to more of your how-to threads.
cheers!

 

[dieseldriver]

Thanks Nur! We gotta do a GTG when you're in NJ again sometime. We adopted a female rabbit back in May for the kids. I wanted to get another Sheltie but house is too small right now. Virtually no back yard where she/he can run around in. So for now, rabbit is okay, kind of like a cat, very independent.

Right now, car's really quiet, but will be putting silicon weather proofing around the windshield edge, then Dynamatting it. Next, the A-pillar, hood, then the roof. Right now, I hardly hear any engine noise but lots of wind noise, probably coming from windshield area. I wanted to finish that up so I can concentrate on the electronics on the car. I am also looking to add moodlighting (faint blue) LED for the front like my wife's CX9. I know what you mean by CRX being noisier than the 5, probably also the age of the seals around the door and other crevices.

I am psyched about installing the Alpine PKG-RSE2 DVD player and pre wiring for the XBox360 or PlayStation3 for those long trips. It'll be really cool for sure.

I need to get into the habit of taking photos every so often while doing my projects. Let me know how those Blizzaks work out for you on your first snow storm. I was leaning towards Michelin IceX or the Nokian Hakkas but those I need to get from Firestone.

Inflatable bed?! That'll be like the crew quarters in a B-52 I think, for one set of pilots to snooze on super-long missions
When my wife did her shift on our 15 drive to NJ I sat reading/sleeping in one of the middle seats, one doggie on the lap the other next to me. The middle seats are just as comfy as the front IMO.
I've seen your posts on the DynaMat install - your 5 is going to be quiet as a bank vault!!!
I wouldn't mind hushing ours up, but really my Honda CRX needs it about 10 times as much as the 5. If I ever think the 5 is noisy one short drive in that will put things in perspective!
Ah Camelback, I had some fun times there in the late 80's/early 90's.
Will be looking forward to more of your how-to threads.
cheers!

 

[Copper5gt]

Nice carpet!

 

[Nurburgringer]

DD - definitely take pics on your LED install. That's about the only other thing I can foresee doing to our 5, I really like the soft glow of orange LEDs in the overhead console in our '99 BMW, makes operating the HVAC&radio much easier at night.

I need to get into the habit of taking photos every so often while doing my projects. Let me know how those Blizzaks work out for you on your first snow storm. I was leaning towards Michelin IceX or the Nokian Hakkas but those I need to get from Firestone.

We're due to get our first real snow of the season later today, the wifey took the BMW today (which also has Blizzaks) so will take the 5 out for a snow-test for sure

Nice carpet!

Thanks! It'll make cleaning up the back a lot easier, that black fabric & carpet really shows every hair (blond wife and white dog ) and crumb!

 

[dieseldriver]

My Honda Odyssey Touring had that, orange colored mood light. I like the blue one on our CX9 however.

I'll let you know either way. I did wish I can just get a second dome light but could not find the part# for the piece that sits on the opposite side of the headliner. I am willing to bet that the dealer will tell me that it's part of the headliner and I'd have to buy the whole headliner to get the other piece. Not sure if I'd have time to go to the junk yard to salvage it either, let alone same color and style.

Oh well, I might just have to live with it until something subtle pops up on Amazon as an aftermarket accessory.

DD - definitely take pics on your LED install. That's about the only other thing I can foresee doing to our 5, I really like the soft glow of orange LEDs in the overhead console in our '99 BMW, makes operating the HVAC&radio much easier at night.



We're due to get our first real snow of the season later today, the wifey took the BMW today (which also has Blizzaks) so will take the 5 out for a snow-test for sure


Thanks! It'll make cleaning up the back a lot easier, that black fabric & carpet really shows every hair (blond wife and white dog ) and crumb!

 

[Nurburgringer]

8 passengers? sure!

I forgot to take a pic of just how utterly packed it was a few weekends ago when the wife and 3 girlfriends took the 5 on a 1 hour drive for a bachelorette weekend getaway. Bags literally stacked to the roof behind the middle seats, plus more stuff in between.

Last night we set a new record for number of passengers: 7+ me driving.
The 4 girls in the 3rd row weren't all that comfortable, good thing they're all rather thin, and close friends!
On the short drive home one of them squeezed in between the middle seats, and the 3 in the back reported that all 6 butt cheeks had decent space...

After a couple more roads trips she's now up to 8500 trouble free miles. Almost time to swap the winter tires back to the stock 16"ers!

 

[torquelover]

That's a lot of people. We had the most ever, 3 adults 2 kids, in our 5 today. As we passed by large storefront windows and tanker trucks I could see it looked pretty slammed. I can only imagine how low your 5 must have been with 8(!?!) adults on board.

 

[Nurburgringer]

yeah I should have taken a pic outside of the rear wheel well, surely she was riding low!
Even with ~1200lbs of passengers I honestly didn't notice much of a handling difference. We stayed in town with a max of around 40mph, but acceleration, braking and ride didn't seem all that different from just me driving alone.

 

[Nurburgringer]

She makes a fine aircraft carrier: 55" span P-38 fits very nicely with about 2" to spare between the sliding doors.

 

[Nurburgringer]

Been a while since I've posted here, been too busy driving our 5!
She just crossed 20k miles after just over 1 year of ownership, and we've really appreciated the versatility and feel of the car.
Haven't hauled many heavy loads, but as a mobile-hanger for my RC airplanes it's been great.
Last weekend I took 4 planes and 2 women (dropped me and the planes off and went shopping ) the field with a bit of room to spare.
Here's a 55" P-51 and 45" T-28 loaded onto my homemade carrier/pit bench, I also usually take a 40" EDF Jet and 30" pusher-prop delta wing along also.

 

[metalfab]

Been a while since I've posted here, been too busy driving our 5!
She just crossed 20k miles after just over 1 year of ownership, and we've really appreciated the versatility and feel of the car.
Haven't hauled many heavy loads, but as a mobile-hanger for my RC airplanes it's been great.
Last weekend I took 4 planes and 2 women (dropped me and the planes off and went shopping ) the field with a bit of room to spare.
Here's a 55" P-51 and 45" T-28 loaded onto my homemade carrier/pit bench, I also usually take a 40" EDF Jet and 30" pusher-prop delta wing along also.

Nevermind the planes, what brand of beer is that?

 

[Nurburgringer]

Leinenkugel Summer Shandy. Celebrating a successful P-51 maiden flight

 

[Orangutan]

Crossposted in the Lounge, too.


Loaded up with ~70 big pavers:

Loaded up with ~200 bricks (did this twice). Each brick weighs just under 4 lbs, so I figured 800 lbs + me (160) was safe if our max payload really is 1200 pounds.

The finished product of almost 500 bricks, a fire pit/hearth/grill:

 

[ukulele]

I forgot to take a pic of just how utterly packed it was a few weekends ago when the wife and 3 girlfriends took the 5 on a 1 hour drive for a bachelorette weekend getaway. Bags literally stacked to the roof behind the middle seats, plus more stuff in between.

Last night we set a new record for number of passengers: 7+ me driving.
The 4 girls in the 3rd row weren't all that comfortable, good thing they're all rather thin, and close friends!
On the short drive home one of them squeezed in between the middle seats, and the 3 in the back reported that all 6 butt cheeks had decent space...

After a couple more roads trips she's now up to 8500 trouble free miles. Almost time to swap the winter tires back to the stock 16"ers!

These are the kinds of ads Mazda has to run on TV for the Mazda5 if they want to raise it's cool factor and increase sales practically overnight! Guys will by anything that has chicks in it... look at the beer commercials LoL... "Get your hands off my Heiny"