Two Radians and a SafeSeat in Xterra - where to put which one?

[bert76]

I'm expecting my thrid baby in a month. I just got my new SafeSeat and am trying to figure out the best place to put each seat in the second and only row in my 2002 Xterra. My two other seats are Radians. My other kids are a 2yo girl and a 4.5yo boy.

My first try was to put the Safeseat outboard on the passenger side, DS in the middle and DD outboard on the driver's side. I seem to have decent installs on each of them, with the outboard Radian being the biggest challenge - I had to twist the buckle stalk once.

But having the two Radians next to each other is challenging because they get wider around the mid-torso area. And it seems strange to have the outboard Radian so close to the window (when I just had two kids I kept the two seats as close to the middle of the car since LATCH on Xterras are pretty close to the middle).

My other thought was to put the SafeSeat in the middle, giving each Radian more room to be secured tightly. Is that more safe or less safe for my older kids?

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

Bert

[CDNTech]

I'm guessing that your 2 yr old is Forward Facing?

Lifting a carrier in/out of the center position does not sound like fun in my book.

I would probably put the SS1 passenger side (easier to see baby from driver's spot), 2 yr old center, 4.5 yr old outboard... unless you think the 2 yr old will bug the baby, then 4.5 yr old center and 2 yr old outboard.

RFing is much safer than FFing... the general rule for placing carseats is to have the least protected child in the most protected spot.

Most protected child down to least protected...
RFing child,
RFing infant,
FFing Harnessed (oldest to youngest),
Booster,
Seatbelt

Most protected down to least protected spots...
Center Back,
Outboard second rows,
Third row center,
Third row outboards (I know you don't have a 3rd row, but I thought I'd throw it in there anyway).

Hope that helps.

Edited to add: I will have three across next spring and I will be doing the following...
6 yr old harnessed driver's outboard side, 3 yr old harnessed center, Infant rearfacing passenger's outboard

[bert76]

Yes, 2yo DD is ffing now. I guess i could turn her back around in the Radian (she had been rfing in an AO until recently - she's 29 lbs). But I think she might really protest, and it would make it very difficult for 4.5yo DS to get to the middle seat with two RFing seats in the outboard positions.

Plus, there is scant room between the second row and the front seats (no third row in Xterras). In the current configuration, the SafeSeat1 is making the front-row passenger seat sit really far forward.

I would put DD in the middle, but she can't buckle herself (DS is very good about getting himself buckled correctly). And I am concerned about DD being within arm's reach of the new baby (she just turned two in June).

My other random option is to use a Snugride that my neigbor's son just outgrew (at 6 months!) because it seem narrower. But I think the SafeSeat1 is a better seat and certainly will last a lot longer for new baby.