As part of the continuous reporting of YETI achievements, and critiques, I'm pleased to confirm that our favourite compact SUV, Soft-roader, estate whatever you want to call it has swallowed everything I wished to feed him.

The carrying capacity of cars has always been something that has exercised me over the years, and, mainly because of the job (carrying equipment and medicines and wellies and disinfectant baths and so on) I have had a preference for a decent sized estate. That way everything I needed to be self-contained on my rounds at whatever time of day or night was safely held in the confines of the back of the car, leaving the seats free for carting kids to school or whatever else needed doing.

Those days have gone, but the need to have flexible load-carrying space has remained, and today for the first time I loaded him up with three guitars, a fiddle, 6 PA speakers, bags of leads, amps and so on, cameras, computers, suitcase - and I still have a couple of seats to spare! What really surprised me was that I could pack the guitars in vertically rather than on end or flat. This immediately opened up far more combinations of packing than I'd ever thought of, and all because of the height internally of the load-space.

In order to make use of the length I removed the central seat so that various stands and the pretty long bass guitar could go there. I tumbled the left back seat forward to create a long-ish level space, and found that the footwell under the folded forward seat offered sufficient usable space for various costumes to be stuffed. The back right seat remains in position and therefore usable. And despite all this kit in the back the view out of the rear window is virtually uninterrupted! One useful aspect of design was that the shopping hooks can be swivelled upright so that they don't intrude into the load area. I know they can come off, but since I don't want to lose them... ... ... ...

When I compare this to my previous three cars (VW Toe-Rag, VW Sharan, Renault Megan) the YETI is by far the most accomplished. With the Toe-Rag it seemed higgledy-piggledy and I lost quite a bit of the view out of the back. The Sharan needed more seats removing, and things tended to shift around with the acre of flat space, and i seem to recall that access to the load area was not the easiest, whereas with the YETI it is all very handy with no stooping or stretching. The Megane was surprising in what it did carry, but it took huge amounts of ingenuity to actually fit things in - a bit like a three-dimensional jig-saw, and of course, all three seats in the back were used up.

So - there we go. I will be interested to see what the effect is upon MPG and performance having the extra load in the back. I also expect that it will rattle and squeak a bit with the pattery ride over uneven road surfaces, despite being swathed in old travelling rugs to try and stop that, and to camouflage the contents from prying eyes! And since we're playing in the Lake District there will be the urge to conquer the Hardknock pass or whatever it is called, even fully loaded.

And now I will go and say my prayers - that I don't get a puncture and have to offload everything in the rain by the side of the road!

At least my load is made up of relatively uniform shapes and sizes, and not at all like bikes and barbecues, so I'd be interested in others' experiences too, of loading a YETI to the gunwales.

As I said somewhere else: a "compacious" car this Yeti!

When loading up for a Viking re-enactment weekend.

The javalins just go diagonaly in the boot (I have removed the spare wheel)

The spear had to go through the gaps in the rear seats, and the steel head hovers in front of the Bolero.

Shields store flat.

I think that the roof rails will be used next time.

When loading up for a Viking re-enactment weekend.

The javalins just go diagonaly in the boot (I have removed the spare wheel)

The spear had to go through the gaps in the rear seats, and the steel head hovers in front of the Bolero.

Shields store flat.

I think that the roof rails will be used next time.

Man in blue: "Excuse me Sir, what is the purpose of your journey"

Driver: "I think we are attacking Northumbria tomorrow"

........

tom

Man in blue: "Excuse me Sir, what is the purpose of your journey"

Driver: "I think we are attacking Northumbria tomorrow"

........

tom

can you imagine all the motorway cameras would be tracking the spears on the roof and there would be a stampede by the boys and girls in blue to pull you over!!

a65rocket...although the thought of the hovering head inside the car is hysterical!! But it sounds like good fun!!

Edited 19 May, 201016 yr by Lady Penelope