The Dodge Grand Caravan is one of the longest-running American minivans in the United States, competing with alternatives like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Kia Sedona, Nissan Quest, and of course, its Chrysler twin the Town & Country. As a result, it was high on my priority list to try a number of car seats in it to see which ones fit well and which ones didn’t, especially when it came to 3 across configurations. This list is not exhaustive, but it’s off to a good start, and I’ve got many more seats to borrow in order to try out installations in the Dodge Grand Caravan.

You know the basics of best practices in car seat safety: rear-face as long as possible (ideally until 4!), and then forward-face as long as possible (ideally until 5, 6, or 7!), and then booster until a regular belt fits your child (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal in these recommendations, which I follow with my own children, is to keep children as safe as possible by keeping them in the safest configurations we know of for as long as possible.

However, for this information to be helpful, you need to know if a particular car seat will fit in your particular vehicle. Here are my experiences fitting a range of seats inside various years of the Dodge Grand Caravan. I’ll periodically update each page as I try more seats in more positions.

You can access the complete 3 across guide for every vehicle here and the complete list of recommended seats here. Canadians can find recommended car seats here. 3 across car seat images are courtesy of Wikipedia.

2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan (Gen. V)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

2nd / 3rd row – Clek Fllo (x3).

2nd / 3rd row – Clek Foonf (x3).

2nd row – Diono Radian / RXT (x3).

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Diono Radian / RXT, Clek Foonf.

2nd row – Clek Foonf, Diono Radian / RXT, Clek Foonf.

Tips and Tricks:

This generation of the Dodge Grand Caravan is 203 inches long and 77 inches wide, which should make almost any 3 across installation a rather straightforward affair. However, there is only a single tether anchor in the 3rd row, which limits safe forward-facing options in the 3rd row, and 3 in total throughout the vehicle.

Besides that, something else to keep in mind is that it’s quite difficult to fit a booster seat in the 3rd row, and that it’s basically impossible to fit a Diono seat in the center 3rd row position.

The 2001-era Grand Caravan has 5 tether anchors, while every year beyond it is limited to only 3 tether anchors in total.

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan (Gen. IV)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

2nd / 3rd row – Clek Fllo (x3).

2nd / 3rd row – Clek Foonf (x3).

2nd row – Diono Radian / RXT (x3).

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Diono Radian / RXT, Clek Foonf.

2nd row – Clek Foonf, Diono Radian / RXT, Clek Foonf.

Tips and Tricks:

The 2001-2007 generation of the Dodge Grand Caravan is 189 inches long in the short wheel base version and 201 inches long in the “Grand Caravan” lnog wheelbase version and 79 inches wide, which means it’s actually easier to install car seats in 3 across positions in this generation than int he following generation. However, once again, there is only a single tether anchor in the 3rd row, which limits safe forward-facing options in the 3rd row, and 3 in total throughout the vehicle.

Besides that, something else to keep in mind is that it’s quite difficult to fit a booster seat in the 3rd row, and that it’s basically impossible to fit a Diono seat in the center 3rd row position.

The 2001-era Grand Caravan has 5 tether anchors, while every year beyond it is limited to only 3 tether anchors in total.