Cars with ski hatches - how many skis?

A snowHead

We are starting to look at replacement cars for the main car. We are considering a second full electric car with a big battery. One thing we would like is a fold down central seat, but this limits options considerably. If we look at ski hatches that gives a few more.... but how many pairs of skis can you get through? We have 4 sets as there is 4 of us. Girls complain terribly if we have them squashed next to each other to have one seat down in back, which is why we are looking.

A snowHead

With or without bindings removed?

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Without... though would it be easy to remove? I have never looked at doing so.

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@NickyJ, they are easy enough to remove if on rails. Then the flat skis fit can be bundled together taking up much less space and dont splay out, you should easily fit 4 pairs through the meanest of ski hatches.

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Roof box. More comfortable for everyone

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@holidayloverxx, i have bought one for my car, but it doesn't have the range needed to do a return trip to Heathrow without charging. However with roof box have to be very careful of heights in carparks. That is the fall back is making sure we can get roof bars attached. I may only need to change the attachments for my cars bars to move it onto the other car.

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I have moved my roof box and rails 3 times now, only needing new feet. As said above, I would imaging you'd easily get 4 pairs through.

I tried the fold down seat method for 4 adults but found that the skis then took up too much of the boot (big saloon boot) to get the rest of the clobber in, so always stuck with the roof box. However that's on a diesel that easily will do 800 miles driven carefully on an autoroute, so we always got 650+ out of it with a roof box on. I would imaging a roofbox would kill an EV range horribly. I have a Mustang Mach-E on order which doesn't have the ski hatch/fold down, so might not be a goer for skiing, as much as I want to try it!

After all it is free

Check the length of your longest skis if using a ski hatch, and where they will end up at the front. We have an estate and fold one seat down, but have to load long skis at an angle. In the centre, they would be bothering the driver.

@NickyJ, a ski hatch is basically slightly smaller than the size of the fold down armrest excluding the depth of the armrest which stays down with the skis on top of it. So depending on the size of the car, probably around 12" by 7". Some also have built in ski bags so you can put the skis in naked.

With bindings, two pairs is realistic. Without bindings, four should be ok

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@NickyJ, if the skis are of varying lengths ie 2 adult length, and 2 children length, i've comfortably managed 4 pairs of skis through ski hatches in various hire cars over the years. The problem comes ( as @ster mentions above ), when the skis are all of similar lengths as the bindings need to be roughly in the same area and therefore the hatch then becomes a pinch point, and you then have to slot the skis in at an angle which eats into the back seat passenger seating area, and indeed the boot space !

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We can get 4 pairs though the ski hatch of an Audi A3 with bindings on. That’s generally two pairs of piste skis and two pairs of longer fatter offpiste skis. Taking the bindings off, at least double that. If they are on a rail, it’s the work of a couple of minutes to slide them on and off.

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Thanks all. This is very useful input. Lengths of skis are 150, 154, 158 and 170. So conflicting bindings is likely. Though also thinking retracting brakes and rotating skis with bindings on inside, is what I did to get 4 pairs in a double ski bag, may help.

The key words you're looking for are a "40:20:40 split fold rear seat for through-loads". Thats a 'ski hatch' but more useful as you can fold down the centre 20% seat and stick stuff through. We specifically hunted down a car with one as we don't want to do the roof box thing. Boiled down to 2 cars for us, the Golf SV and the BMW 2 tourer series. Went with the Golf. The other one we looked at was the BMW X series which also had them, and they do a full electric version of the X3 now and that will probably have the 40:20:40.

On the trip to the Familybash, we had 3 sets of skis, poles and 4 snowboards in a bag going through the middle of the car, and I've had more before. I use an old snowboard bag for packing them in. Also makes an excellent child barrier to prevent throttling on 7+ hour car journeys

You know it makes sense.

The electric Porsche Taycan has a pretty good middle section for plenty of skis...

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We've had four adults and two full ski bags (2 pairs in each plus other packed items) down the middle of loads of bigger airport hire cars over the years.

We've also fitted them in cars like Golfs and Polos using the same method but taking the skis out of the bags.

Poles go in the boot or under passengers' feet in the back.

A snowHead

@NickyJ, …endorse the drift of comment here…I originally in the 90s got quite excited by having a Jetta with a ski hatch - it had a small hatch and a zipped bag - looked great - and then found that it was pretty useless because of conflicting bindings…only a couple of pairs of skis and much wrangling. Since then we’ve used roof racks and bagged the skis on the racks for the long haul over.

Have used the richard sideways approach in some cars.

But simple approach is try before you buy….

A snowHead

@Richard_Sideways, We have this format in our last rental car and easliy did 4 skis with bindings in-situ for 3 of them, but we only had to drive 1 1/2 hr to resort, then the daily 2min trip to and from the bubble.

I think @NickyJ mentions the middle seat fold down option in her first post but discounts this format as too limiting and ends up her girls being squashed (I assume over a much longer journey)

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@ster, would rather middle seat fold down, but so few cars on the market.

The arguments are caused if we have a side seat down, as for very slim girls they have spikey elbows!

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@NickyJ, ah yes, in fact skis down the middle stopped many an argument in our back seats.

The car with the middle seat down we had was a BMW Gran Tourer 2 series (all others have had ski hatches) , it wasnt a bad drive for a big tub, plenty of space . But was a polluting diesel, no idea if it comes in electric

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@NickyJ, we have the exact same problem! Side seat down is a complete no no unless you want a car journey full of bickering!

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Last time we had it, I let my 15 yr sit in front and I went into the back just for the peace and quiet. Seriously it was perfectly comfortable, so it doest frustrate me that we are having to look at this requirements....

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Consider it this way - If you put a roof box on then you are increasing your cost of travel. Both in fuel/MPG, and transport costs (if you're using the eurotunnel) and you can end up falling foul of things like toll-booth height limits and car park heights (happened at Kashmir on FamBash for some). If you can on-board your kit then its protected, and you're just another car on the road.

After all it is free

@NickyJ, get a 7 seater then everyone has their own row in the back and skis can still be carried inside, either middle or side seat down!

Don't know your budget but the Tesla Model Y has 331 range and fold down flat middle seat.....

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I wouldn't get 2 full electric cars, if energy prices keep going the way they are petrol might be cheaper. hedge your bets, get a plug in hybrid. that way you have a proper range on petrol model, rather than having to find somewhere in France to charge your car.

Leave the kids at home if they can't sit next to each other without bickering

Volvo V60 has 40:20:40 split rear seats as do many cars I think now.

If you're flying, by the time you take int account additional luggage charge and ski service etc its probably cheaper to hire skis in resort.

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@t44tomo, skis get used by us all in UK and abroad, I do all servicing at home and flights like my easter ones are Lufthansa and free ski carriage.

Depending upon motive power, would a hybrid be a consideration?

The VW Touran has one of the most useful cabin arrangements for this type of luggage adaption. The three rear seats can all be positioned independently, also completely removable with just two catches very simply, and gives many configurations to help.

With rear middle seat removed (leave at home) any amount of long items can be placed centre and low on the floor so not interfering with two rear passengers.
Alternatively if it's the seven seater, you can use one rear and one far rear to make it still four seat plus much long stuff. We often configure with only one rear seat for 3 pax plus 3 MTB inside cabin for mtb sortie too. Basically anything you can think of really, including all three rear seats out for complete van capacity if moving things around.
Truly very versatile and maybe worth a look at dealer to guage.

You know it makes sense.

@NickyJ, we had Audi A4 and A3 , no problem the A4 even had an Audi ski bag that clipped into the seatbelt to stop them sliding around, kept it when we moved on to A3. We now have a Volvo XC40 and you would struggle to get two in the hatch is quite small, the best was the BMW were the armrest is the ski hatch, it folds down as if it were a seat.

Not sure about electric cars, all those rare metals and then the battery recycling Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

PS I'd guess at 2 pairs of skis max with bindings not in a bag that would fit thru a ski hatch

A snowHead

@t44tomo, What year V60 is that? My '19 (and the '69 I had before) had 60/40

A snowHead

Many many good petrol and diesel options - electric as per OP very much more restrictive. Tesla 3 horrid in the back seats. Model X is just …. H U G E . Iconiq an option…

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The Hyundai doesn't have a through load, only a 60/40 split fold seat

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Oh … RS … I thought 22 version did have drop down middle section

See

https://www.parkers.co.uk/hyundai/ioniq/review/practicality/

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@valais2, we went and took at a look at Hyundai Ioniq 5 which has the range we after,but that definitely was only 60,40. However I haven't seen the ioniq in the flesh which is model you linked to.

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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

@stuarth, …I still like the roof box vomiting skis…

http://youtube.com/v/s-THL5wtBxk

Having had a couple of decent crashes off mountain roads (admittedly a lot more sporty than most euro roads) I never ever carry skis or boards inside the vehicle. Way too much chance of accidental decapitation, especially if you keep your edges sharp. Chuck em in a roof box and be careful getting a drive through burger.

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Cars with ski hatches - how many skis?

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