West Coast road trip

[ravissingh]

Left Seattle Wednesday night, with wife and 1 yr old son. We slept in the car that night in Albany,OR. The seat backs are very hard but I am 6ft and was a ble to stretch out all the way. Maddux had a great time in the back of the LR3.
Arrived in Medford, OR on Thursday morning. Got as high as 18.4mpg on flat freeway stretches at about 70mph but this dropped to 16 after we hit the passes before Medford. Using off road nav, the altimiter was about 50-100 feet less than the posted heights of the passes. We're leaving Medford for Bakersfield, CA in a couple of hours. Should be an 8-10 hr drive. I reconfigured our seating arrangement. Strapped the car seat into the right 3rd row seat. Wife will sit on the left seat. Will keep the 2nd row seats down and use the middle seat for the computer so they can watch videos. I have a power inverter to keep the computer charged. Maddux likes the ride back there because he sits way up high. Got his first forward facing seat for this trip. Purchased some carabeaners? so that I can use the LATCH system to strap the seat in securely. Works very well. After Bakersfiled, off to Palm Springs on Sunday or Monday for a few days, then reverse trip back to Seattle on Thursday.

 

[ravissingh]

Arrived in Bakersfiled in about 9hrs. Hit 105mph somewhere on I-5 south of Stockton. Solid as a rock in the HSE. No problems. Got over 300miles on a tank. Very comfortable road trip thus far.

 

[jcegold]

105 mph with wife and kid in care are you proud of that? how did your wife like riding in the jump seat? I beleive those were met for kids with short trips in mind.

 

[xcursion]

Sounds like a great trip. Any idea of the average mpg for the entire trip?

I myself find the 3rd row seat more than enough space for lengthy trips. (If you think that is small, then the 3rd row on my brother's Volve XC90 is probably only for small dogs...)

 

[ravissingh]

Actually, its quite comfortable back there. Try it sometime. We switch drivers every 3 hours, so I've also spent time back there. Driving that fast is ot a habit, straight stretch, no curves or turns, no other cars for miles, the LR3 did very well. What's with the interrogation?

I'll have to look at my gas receipts and post the mpg for the trip later.

 

[xcursion]

Ravissing, speeding on I-5 is just too tempting. But do watch out for CHP on south of Stockton. Last time I was there, I saw quite a few patrol cars.

 

[roverdawg]

105 mph with wife and kid in care are you proud of that? how did your wife like riding in the jump seat? I beleive those were met for kids with short trips in mind.

That stretch of I-5 is very tempting. Flat, straight, can see for miles, no other cars for miles. There are occasional CHP lurking in the medians. Personally, I might not do it with kids in the car but he took an educated risk. Hit 105, and backed down. He only did it once, lay off. All LR3 owners know how it's too easy to hit high speeds in this car. Due to the quiet cabin and smooth ride, it's a bit surprising to look down at the speedometer and see you're doing 70 when it feels like 50. Happened to me a few times when I first got it, but have got it down now.

The LR3's third row seats are, I believe, designed for the 95th percentile of adults, and are actually quite comfortable. Only possible concern would be safety in a rear end collision....

 

[toddjb122]

... Using off road nav, the altimiter was about 50-100 feet less than the posted heights of the passes. ....

The off road nav has a GPS altimiter? No sh*t. Didn't know that...will have to check mine out tonight.

 

[grommet]

Most/all GPS systems have altimeters... but, as ravissingh said, it's somewhat inaccurate in this design... there is no calibration for it.