Most people wouldn't immediately consider a pickup truck for a family vehicle, but many trucks are tapped for family duty. When I was a kid, I spent many afternoons being carted back-and-forth to ballet and tae kwon do in my dad's Ford F-150.
Related: Which Cars Fit Three Car Seats?
Flash-forward 20-plus years and three of my own kids later: Will three child-safety seats fit in a 2015 Ram 1500 crew cab?
With an almost-5-year-old daughter and infant twins, I have two rear-facing Graco Snugride infant seats and a Harmony Dreamtime high-back booster; the Ram accommodated all three seats with ease.
This is a different trio of seats than we use for Cars.com's official Car Seat Checks, and typically my personal assortment is even harder to fit in cars because of the two rear-facing infant seats, which take up a lot of legroom.
I installed the infant seats with the outboard seating positions' accessible Latch anchors. Though the leather seats in the Laramie Longhorn test model were stiff, the anchors themselves weren't set too deeply into the seat bight, so connection wasn't difficult. My 6-foot-tall husband was in the front passenger seat, and we didn't have to move his seat or the driver's seat forward to accommodate either infant car seat.
I thought my preschooler would have trouble climbing into the tall cab, but the 1500's height-adjustable suspension and running boards are little-person-friendly options. I installed her booster in the middle spot using the seat belt. The wide, lightly bolstered seat cushions helped hold the booster in place, and the stable buckle stalks made it easy to connect the seat belt. My daughter also had plenty of legroom and could even reach the floor-mounted cupholders.
Parents of kids in forward-facing convertibles should note that the Ram's top tether anchors are different from what you'd find in a sedan, SUV or minivan. In the pickup, they're actually straps behind the head restraints and connecting to them can be complicated if you've never done it before. When installing a forward-facing convertible in an outboard seat, raise the head restraint, weave the car seat's tether strap through the opening and then route the strap to the middle seating position's tether anchor strap. It's a bit tough to tighten once it's connected because of the strap's angle. There are also hooks in the ceiling; however, parents shouldn't get them confused with the top tether anchors.
All in all, the 1500 was comfortable for my whole family. The wide, deep center console wasn't quite large enough for my diaper bag, but it easily swallowed my purse and some snacks. The truck obviously lacks cargo room for larger items, like my double stroller, but strapping a few bungees to the bed could solve that problem, though with some nasty weather in the forecast, I decided to save this test for another day.
Cars.com photo by Jennifer Geiger
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