Survive the Drive

[karyn]

In our local Sunday paper was a phone # of this place which will rent a TV/VCR unit for the car for $99 a week, or a car video-game kit for $19 a week. They ship directly to you. Visit the website www.survivethedrive.com or call 800-573-6018. If you are from Jersey it was in the Travel Section of the Star-Ledger , Family Traveler by Eileen Ogintz. Check it out if you have an upcoming car trip. Good Luck!

 

[dtuleya]

I LOVE THIS COMPANY! We have rented from them twice for drives from Pennsylvania to Myrtle Beach. You can hook up your own game system to them (make sure you rent the adapter kit), rent headphones (you can use your own, but you need a splitter to hook more than one up to the TV), rent movies and buy activity sets for the trip. They ship the TV/VCR unit to your house the day BEFORE you are going to leave and when you get back, you just pop it in the box and send it back. Make sure to purchase the pre-paid UPS label. It makes returns a lot easier. The great thing is they consider a week to be 10 days. You can also rent movies from them since any movies rented from a video store would be overdue by the time you got back. If anybody has any questions, please feel free to call me. If I remember correctly, they have a store you can deal directly with in Havertown, PA.

 

[kevster]

We bought our 9" TV/VCR combo from Best Buy for $120 and change last year.
Fits in nicely between driver's and passenger's seats. Will be using it in 2 days for our Disney Drive!

Why would you rent for $99 when they're pretty reasonable to buy?

When it's not bungeed down in the car, it serves as an extra TV in a room in the house.

What am I missing?

 

[dtuleya]

Bunging down a vcr/tv combo for a long drive in the car is not something I would do. Couldn't that become a projectile if involved in an accident? The unit we rent is comes in a rectangular soft sided suitcase. It comes with straps that attach directly to the case and the tv/vcr and confinded in the suitcase by velcro pouches. They are starting to sell similar units, but they are closer to $250-$350. They have only come out in the past year or so. The entire suitcase is very padded and lightweight. I have no fears that my children could be injured if it we are involved in an accident. We too have a VCR/TV combo, but it is cumbersome and bulky. It also is not lightweight. I would never consider putting this in our car. We are considering purchasing one of the "suitcase" combos, but at the time we rented these, there was nothing on the market that was under $500-600. Plus, it hangs level with the headrests of our van, so our kids can look straight ahead (this helps to prevent motion sickness).

 

[buzz5985]

I have a FunTV unit. Soft sided, light weight. Plays VCR tapes, and you cna hook up your games to it. Under $200.

 

[dtuleya]

We're probably talking about the same thing. I haven't priced them lately since we haven't done a long car trip. They sure are a lifesaver though, aren't they?

 

[Lorix2]

I too think that the monitors that either hang from between the seats or the drop downs ($$$) are much better for kids viewing too, simply because the units that fit on the floor and make you have to look down will definitely cause motion sickness. Not something I'd want to make worse when the kids already have a tendency to get car sick on long drives...

I too would not suggest the big tv/vcr units to bungee down in the car - they are not made for travel. This could definitely cause serious injury or worse in an accident. Your much safer with the lightweight monitors and unit - movies only - but that's ok, just tape your favorite shows all night long and you've got tv! just my .02