can't tighten harness on Marathon

[sam's mom 2]

I'm almost in tears I'm so frustrated, and worried, about how our new Britax Marathon is installed. Here's my first and biggest worry: The harness (that comes over his shoulders and buckles on his front body) will not get as tight as I want it to. When I practice this without him in the seat, I can pull that strap at the front of the seat (that removes slack) and the harness will retreat all the way. But as soon as I put him in it, buckle him up, and then pull on the strap to tighten the straps against him, I seem to hit a lock. The harness does tighten on him but I'd like it to be more snug. But no matter how hard I pull on that strap (my husband has tried also), it won't budge. Any tips?
Thank you in advance.
Also--This is my first post--I expect to be up all night reading on the forum, there is so much great info here!

[Stresch]

The Marathon works a little differently than most other seats. Instead of one bid pull, you need to give it a pull to get most of the slack out. Then stop and tug stop and tug. It works as a ratcheting motion. Each little tug with tighten it about 1/4-1/2 an inch. It's really easy once you know about that. Otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy trying to get it tight.

[Patriot201]

Is he rear-facing or forward-facing?

How old is he?

How much does he weigh?


If he is rear-facing, you can take the HUGS (the long rubber pieces) off the harness straps in order to get the harness tight. Just don't lose the HUGS- they are required for forward-facing!

As the previous poster said, the Marathon requires a pull and release, pull and release motion to tighten the harness. IF you have tried that and it still isn't tightening, check to make sure the splitter plate isn't caught on something. That is a rare thing to have happen in a Britax, but it can happen.

Good luck!

[lynsgirl]

The previous posters had some great and helpful advice :). The one other thing I'd add is that if you're worried about how tight it seems on his belly area, don't be. There will be some space there and it will seem looser. Check to make sure there's not extra slack down on the leg portion and if there is, pull it through the buckle tongues. You want to make sure it's tight up at the shoulders. All you need to do is check up near his collar bone to see if you can pinch any of the harness between your thumb and finger (the long way, like you're trying to pinch his collar bone or something, if that makes sense). You shouldn't be able to pinch up any of the harness. If it passes the pinch test (snug as a hug :love:), you're good to go. The shoulders and hips are what matter, restraint-wise, since they are strong bone areas. :)

[snowbird25ca]

Yep, exactly what Amy said. I find with the MA the best way to check for tightness is to try and pinch a fold horizontally at the collar bone. The harness just never feels snug the same way on the MA as it does on other seats - but it passes the pinch test feeling looser compared to other seats. I think it's just that the hugs make it feel slightly different.

[Defrost]

One more tip to add to the others: the "buckle" on the back of the seat that connects the harness loops to the pull-strap? Sometimes it sits right at the curve of the seat, and pulling the harness strap hard enough to get it past that curve is really hard. If your child is RF, you can put your hand under the seat and press that metal "buckle" forwards towards the front of the seat while pulling on the harness-tightening strap as usual, it will slide forward and tighten the harness.

I hope that makes sense! I just had to do it on our Marathon when we installed it for my friend's daughter; we couldn't tighten it past that point just by pulling the front-harness adjuster.

[Synchro246]

IF you have tried that and it still isn't tightening, check to make sure the splitter plate isn't caught on something. That is a rare thing to have happen in a Britax, but it can happen.

Good luck!


It happens to me at least once a week with my boulevard.

[Defrost]

It happens to me at least once a week with my boulevard.

The splitter plate! I couldn't remember what it was called! Yes, that's what I was talking about above - it wasn't actually "caught" on anything, it just doesn't like to slide past that curve very easily.

[Patriot201]

It happens to me at least once a week with my boulevard.

REally? WOW! I haven't had it happen yet. Hmmm...

[Cindy&Connor]

check to make sure the splitter plate isn't caught on something. That is a rare thing to have happen in a Britax, but it can happen.



I've never had this happen on one of my Britax seats but it did happen quite often with my sil's first Decathlon. When her dd was ffing (before we knew better) it happened while we were at a store. There was no way to fix it without taking out the seat and this was before I was really comfortable installing by myself. We had to be really careful not to loosen the staps very far because that's when the splitter plate would get caught on the black sleeve over the harness.

[Synchro246]

[/QUOTE]

We had to be really careful not to loosen the staps very far because that's when the splitter plate would get caught on the black sleeve over the harness.

LOL, this is my problem. It's often a a result of a hasty loostening of the harnes to it's maximum looseness.

[cookie123]

I have no experience with the BV or DC. Do they also have problems with loosening and tightening?