How to Set Up Your CDJR Vehicle for Black Friday Shopping in Panama City

Black Friday around Panama City is never a single stop. You run a loop. Pier Park on the Beach, the big-box corridor along 23rd Street, then maybe a Home Depot run to close it out. By store three, the bags are on the floorboards, the back seat is buried, and you're trying to Tetris a boxed television into a space that was never set up for it.

The fix takes about five minutes in your driveway before you pull out. We'll walk you through setting up each vehicle so the cargo works for you instead of fighting you all day.

We've seen enough customers roll up after a holiday run to know a Ram with a half-folded rear seat and a loose box bouncing around started as a problem back home. Configure it right before you go.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is the SUV our team watches people undersell. Jeep lists 37.7 cubic feet of cargo room behind the rear seats, which is competitive in the midsize class, though that room sits unused on plenty of errand days.

What You Need Before You Start

Different vehicles want different prep, so run through this quick-reference table before you touch a single seat lever. Each row tells you the config, the volume, and the kind of load it's built for. Take ten seconds with it now and you'll skip a lot of guesswork at the curb.

What to gather before setup:

• A soft moving blanket or old beach towel (protects the cargo floor from sharp box corners)
• Bungee cords or a cargo net (stops bags from sliding on flat Florida roads)
• A reusable shopping bag for the cab's door pockets (keeps smaller purchases off the floor)
• Phone showing your errand list in priority order (determines whether passengers ride or seats fold)

Setting Up Your Vehicle, Step by Step

Ram 1500: The Bed Is Your Superpower. Use It.

Ram rates the 2026 Ram 1500 at a maximum payload of 2,360 pounds when properly equipped, so no stack of bags from Pier Park is coming anywhere near that number. The setup question worth your time is access and security, not capacity.

Step 1: Confirm your bed length. The 6'4" bed gives you 61.3 cubic feet of open box, and the 5'7" bed gives you 53.8 cubic feet. If you've got a tonneau cover, decide now whether to pull it or keep it for weather protection. November on the Panhandle runs mild, so leaving purchases uncovered in a truck bed for an hour isn't a problem. But Pier Park is an outdoor lifestyle center, and if it rains, that box gets wet.

Step 2: Lay your blanket or liner flat across the bed floor. Sliding boxes scratch factory bedliners and scratch each other. Two minutes now saves a busted corner later.

Step 3: Back your truck to the curb or loading area. With the tailgate down, you've got a natural loading shelf. For boxed electronics, slide from the tailgate toward the cab instead of lifting over the rail.

Step 4: Stage purchases in order of size, heaviest first, closest to the cab. A TV box flush against the cab wall with bags around it won't shift. Bags balanced on top of a heavy box will.

Step 5: Use a cargo net or straps across the top of the load. Florida interstate speeds and sudden stops send unsecured items forward fast. The Ram 1500 has integrated tie-down cleats in the bed for exactly this.

Smaller haulers like the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited handle a solid errand day too, with 31.7 cubic feet behind the rear seats and up to 72.4 cubic feet once the rear seatback folds forward. With the family home for one stop, that's a real haul.

Jeep Grand Cherokee: Know Which Row Is Doing the Work

This is the config people get wrong most, because the gap between the two numbers is huge. The 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee offers 37.7 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 70.8 cubic feet with the rear seats folded flat, per Jeep's published specs. Those 33 extra cubic feet are the difference between fitting a boxed item and leaving it at the store.

Step 1: Decide before you leave: passengers or maximum cargo. You can't have both on a big shopping day. If you're bringing family, the rear seats stay up and you're working with 37.7 cubic feet. If you're running solo or with one other person, fold those seats now.

Step 2 (rear seats up, family along): Load heaviest bags flat on the cargo floor, lightest on top. Keep the cargo area behind the rear seat line. Don't stack items above the seat backs if you need rear visibility.

Step 2 (seats folded): Lower the rear seatbacks fully flat. The Grand Cherokee's rear seats fold with a single pull-strap on most trims. Confirm the headrests are dropped or folded before you lay the seatback flat, otherwise the headrest creates a bump in your load floor.

Step 3: Slide long or flat items (TV box, framed art, flat-pack shelf) in from the rear. The 2026 Grand Cherokee's load floor sits relatively low, which helps when you're sliding a 65-pound box in from a curbside.

Step 4: Use the cargo area's side pockets for smaller items. Bags of ornaments, small accessories, and gift wrap rolls fit in the side bins and stay out from under a heavy box.

For the Grand Cherokee L three-row, fold the third row and you're at 46.9 cubic feet while still carrying five passengers. Fold both rows and you're at 84.6 cubic feet. That second configuration is a furniture run, not a family trip.

View Current Specials at Bay Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram

Chrysler Pacifica: Stow 'n Go Is the Only Black Friday Feature That Matters

The 2026 Chrysler Pacifica's Stow 'n Go system is class-exclusive on gas models (per Chrysler's own spec page), and it folds the second and third rows completely into floor compartments without pulling a single seat out. Stow just the third row and you're at 87.5 cubic feet. Stow both rows and you're at 140.5 cubic feet. No other minivan does this.

For context, that 140.5-cubic-foot figure rivals many pickup truck beds in raw volume. The difference is the flat, weatherproof, lockable floor of the Pacifica against an open truck bed in a Pier Park parking lot.

Step 1: Identify whether you have the gas Pacifica or the plug-in hybrid. The PHEV version doesn't offer second-row Stow 'n Go, because the battery sits under that floor. Third-row Stow 'n Go works on both. This matters. On a PHEV Pacifica, your maximum cargo with just the third row stowed is 87.5 cubic feet, full stop.

Step 2: Stow the rear rows in the right sequence. Third row first, always. Grab the two pull-straps on the back of the third-row seat, one on each side, fold the seatback forward, then lift and fold the seat cushion into the floor pocket. It takes about 20 seconds once you've done it once.

Step 3 (gas model, maximum cargo): Fold the second-row Stow 'n Go buckets. Lift the cushion and fold the seatback forward into the floor. You end up with a flat, uninterrupted load floor from the tailgate to the back of the front seats. That's your 140.5 cubic feet.

Step 4: Lay your blanket across the load floor. The Pacifica's floor is carpeted and shows drag marks from boxes. A blanket keeps it clean and gives you a low-friction surface for sliding things in.

Step 5: Load largest items first, deepest in the vehicle. A TV box or storage cabinet goes all the way to the front wall of the cargo area. Bags and soft items fill in around and behind it.

Step 6: Use the underfloor storage bins for valuables. The Pacifica has underfloor bins that stay accessible even with both rows stowed. Cash, keys, prescription bags, anything you don't want visible through the window goes there.

The One Thing Our Team Keeps Seeing

November in Panama City Beach runs mild, in the 60s and low 70s, so cargo left in a vehicle between stops won't overheat. But Pier Park is an open-air outdoor center. If a brief Gulf rain rolls through, and it can in November, anything left visible in an open truck bed or through a large rear glass is both wet and in plain sight. Load electronics and gifts into the enclosed cargo area first, or run a tonneau cover on the Ram if you're hitting multiple stops.

Your Pre-Departure Cargo Checklist

Print this, photograph it, whatever works for you. Run through it before you back out of the driveway.

Browse the full lineup on our lot if you're shopping for a vehicle that makes this run easier next year. We keep all of these in stock, and our team is happy to walk you through the configurations in person before you commit.