britax boulevard installation

[Unregistered]

I just bought 2 new britax boulevards for my daughters - they were in a roundabout and marathon - loved them but my youngest was outgrowing the roundabout and i like the side impacy on the boulevard - other than it being very large i did get it in the car but my question is about the tether. How tight should it be? I normally pull it real tight but I think the boulevard has some stiching or something i need to be careful with - also, the buckle strap is kind of short. I called britax and they said i should return it and get a decathalon that has an adjustable buckle strap. I thought they might have a better suggestion than that since I do not have kids anywhere near 65lbs in the seat. I bought this seat for the side impact which none of the others have - my daughter is 4 and only weighs 28 lbs and I have a hard time buckiling it - I was wondering if anyone has bigger children in this seat and found it to not be a problem - my 16 month old is 30 lbs and hers is pretty hard to buckle. I guess basically my question is do others have it and have found a way around this?, is it safe this way? and also is the inconvienence of possible thigh pinching worth the side impact or should I go back to my marathons that offer no side impact? Thanks for any help you can give.

[DaniCPST]

Are you installing them forward facing or rear facing?

If they are forward facing then just pull the tether as tight as you can without exerting extreme force on it. If your anchors are in the ceiling of your vehicle then you don't want to pull them too tight that they lift up on your BV's, but if they are on the seat back or on the shelf behind the seat I don't think it is that easy to pull them too tight. I don't think human force will affect the "rip-stitch" tether on the BV's unless you go bonkers with them.

If they are rear-facing just pull them taught so they don't sag or have much slack left in them.

I have my 3 yo son in a BV and he is about 43lbs and tall (sorry don't know how tall) and we haven't had a problem with the crotch buckle. I used to have a Decathlon and really I don't feel that the adjustable crotch strap made that big of a difference.

If you want to look into a different/bigger seat for your older child there is the Regent or the new Frontier which both hold bigger children better than the BV.

HTH and let us know if you have any more questions about your new seats!

[Unregistered]

They are both front facing - I pulled pretty tight on the tether but I don't think i used extreme force - I will check when i get home though! the anchors are on the bottom of the seat backs - I think I also need to remove the headrests - I thought i new what I was doing with the smaller seats bit when i got those two monster seats in the car they really threw me for a loop!

[Mom to a few]

I don't mind the buckle being close because it seems to hold the harness very snug accross the tops of their thighs that way--and the round pad that goes behind the buckle prevents pinching the child's legs (or it's never been a problem for us anyway). My 3.5 yr old (35 lbs) still uses the Blvd, and one of my other kids outgrew the seat at 4 yrs, 9 mos (43 lbs) by height. If you really want something that has more room, the Regent that my 5 yr old rides in now has TONS of room in the buckle area--and that's on the position closest to him!! My 7 yr old fits without moving the buckle out too. I know it's tough to try to weigh the pros and cons of all the different seats. Good luck deciding!!

[Defrost]

If you're installing RF, be sure you're routing the belt on the correct side of the crotch strap. I can't remember if it goes in front of it or behind, but I do recall that if you put it the wrong way it makes the crotch strap much shorter.