Explore Old Washington in a Chevrolet Trailblazer or Equinox

Four miles from our lot on US-62, Old Washington reels people in every autumn. There are the museums, the Simon Kenton Shrine, the Cane Brake artisan gallery, the Paxton House. And then there’s the antique shop. Folks walk out with things. A rocking chair arm wrapped in a quilt. A framed daguerreotype. A cast-iron pot older than Mason County itself. A fair question before the drive is a practical one. Will it fit, and which Chevy should I drive out there?

Here’s the short version. Both the 2026 Chevrolet Trailblazer and the Equinox will handle a typical Old Washington haul, but they serve different kinds of trips. Below is how to match the vehicle to the load.

Will It Fit? The Cargo Numbers, Side by Side

Both crossovers will carry a typical Old Washington haul, so the choice isn’t really about capability, it’s about the kind of load you expect, and Chevrolet lists these dimensions for the 2026 model year to help you match the vehicle before you ever back into a parking spot.

Reading down that table, a few things jump out. The Equinox has a straight advantage in raw volume, with 29.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats (seats fully up) against 25.3 in the Trailblazer, and 63.5 cubic feet maximum against 54.4. Fold everything flat and you gain a meaningful 9 cubic feet of breathing room. If you’re planning to haul a serious piece of furniture, the Equinox wins without debate.

Where the Trailblazer pulls ahead is one trick the Equinox can’t match. Chevrolet engineers the front passenger seat to fold completely flat, creating a continuous load floor up to 8.5 feet long. A narrow antique ladder, a set of wooden chair rails, a framed painting taller than it is wide, those slide into the Trailblazer with the front passenger seat down and the rear seats folded, fully inside a closed cabin, no roof rack required.

The 2026 Chevrolet Equinox earns the nod for family-sized loads. The Trailblazer earns it for oddly long items. Know your haul before you choose your vehicle.

See What Your Trade-In Is Worth

How to Load It: A Practical Sequence for the Old Washington Run

Loading this run well starts before you ever open the liftgate, because Old Main Street in the historic district has limited pull-off space and uneven edges on the lot behind the Visitor Center, so the plan you make at home counts more than any trick you improvise at the shop.

On the uneven lot behind the Visitor Center, the Trailblazer’s smaller footprint (174 inches long versus 183 inches for the Equinox) makes it easier to tuck into tight spots. Keep that in mind at the curb.

Loading order matters on a run this short. We work it in a set sequence.

1. Fold your seats before you leave Maysville. Sorting out cargo setup at the antique shop, with something fragile in your arms, is the wrong moment for it. If there’s any chance you’re buying a large piece, fold the rear seats flat at home and drive out that way.
2. Load heaviest items first, flush against the seatbacks. Cast iron, stoneware, and dense hardwood go in first, centered on the floor. They stay put and keep lighter things from sliding forward under braking.
3. Use the 60/40 split-folding rear bench on the Equinox strategically. You can fold just the 40-percent side for a single long item (a set of chair legs, a narrow mirror) while keeping a passenger in the 60-percent seat. That flexibility pays off when you’re driving three people and one large purchase.
4. In the Trailblazer, fold the front passenger seat for anything over 54 inches. Drop the seatback flat, slide the item in from the liftgate, and it rests on a continuous surface all the way to the dashboard. Chevrolet rates that configuration at up to 8.5 feet of usable in-cabin length.
5. Pad ceramics and glass with the moving blankets you brought. Neither the Trailblazer nor the Equinox has a perfectly flat load floor with the seats folded (the Trailblazer’s is close, the Equinox’s is near-flat by the 60/40 seatback design). A thin moving blanket under fragile items keeps them from rocking on any slight incline in the floor.
6. Close the liftgate and test before you drive. Give the load a gentle push from the side. If anything shifts, rearrange it before you leave Old Main Street. The run back to Maysville on US-62 is quick, but it isn’t perfectly smooth.
7. For the Equinox’s under-floor storage compartment (available trims), use it for small, fragile items. The recessed storage bin beneath the main cargo floor keeps breakables separate from the heavy haul on top.

The Honest Tradeoff You Should Know About

The straight tradeoff is that the Trailblazer isn’t built to haul furniture and the Equinox is, so your pick comes down to whether you’re mostly browsing or planning to buy something you can’t carry out by hand, and that difference decides which one you drive out US-62.

The Trailblazer isn’t a furniture-hauling vehicle by nature. It’s a subcompact crossover built for commuting, easy parking, and fuel efficiency. Its 1,000-pound maximum tow rating (properly equipped) and 54.4 cubic feet of max cargo are real, but they sit behind what it does best, which is moving one or two people around Mason County, parking anywhere, and now and then surprising you with that flat-fold front seat trick.

Built as a compact family SUV, the Equinox plays in a different category for actual hauling. With 63.5 cubic feet of max cargo, a 1,500-pound AWD tow rating (properly equipped), and a near-flat load floor, it handles the serious loads. The EPA rates the 2026 Equinox at 26 city and 29 highway with front-wheel drive. You aren’t giving up efficiency to get that extra room.

For a solo or couple’s day trip, when you’re browsing more than buying and you want easy parking on Old Main Street, the Trailblazer is the right call. For a family run, when you think you might buy something real and want to haul it home without renting a trailer, the Equinox is yours.

Both are sitting on our lot right now. Our team can pull either around for a look before you make the drive.

Job Done: Your Old Washington Haul Is Home

Your haul makes it home clean either way, as long as you matched the vehicle to the load before you left Maysville, and matching it up front beats wrestling with it on the curb at the antique shop with something fragile in your arms. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum doesn’t sell furniture, but the antique shop on Old Main Street might catch you off guard. Old Washington works that way. You drive out to see history and come back with something that belongs in your house.

Chevrolet built the cargo flexibility into both of these vehicles. In the Trailblazer, the 8.5-foot flat-load-floor configuration handles things neither of our buyers expected to buy. The Equinox’s 63.5 cubic feet of max cargo volume handles what our buyers absolutely planned to buy, plus room left over. The specs are verified, the vehicles are here, and the drive out US-62 takes about ten minutes from our lot on Martin Luther King Highway.

Browse our current new inventory