Tethering RF (Radian)

[rileyandajsmomma]

Hi,
I went to a car seat checkpoint yesterday on my way to Walmart. They had never seen a Radian before, and after checking in the manual and seeing that indeed you can tether RF, they tried to find a good place to tether it. They ended up tethering it to the seat it's installed in. So, my first question is: Is it OK to tether to the seat that the car seat is installed in? (I know Britax says no). If that is OK, can I tether it swedish style (do I have that right - under the seat to the back where the dedicated tether hook is?). I don't see in the manual if that's OK. Sorry! ETA: I'm in a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country. DH tethered it under the front seat on a metal bar thing. It wasn't clipped on, just barely there. It can't clip on the seat's legs, according to dh. You just can't get under the seat.
2nd question - one of the techs said that RF tether is not really good. He said the seat is designed to come up and smack the back of the car's bucket seat if we were in a collision. AJ's face would smack the seat back, to give a visual. If it's tethered, according to this dude, it will jerk the seat and prob cause spinal injuries. What's the deal??
AJ is in the Radian, she's 13 lbs and 23 inches at 2 months old :)
Thanks!!
Melissa
DD Riley, and AJ

[wendytthomas]

You can loop the D ring around a front seat leg and hook it onto that. That should do it. I don't know SK's stand on tethering to the seat you're sitting on.

That's the debate with the tethering. In frontal crashes it may or may not offer protection. In rear crashes it won't. However, it offers significant protection during a side impact crash, and those are the most likely to be deadly.

It's up to you if you use it.

I'm glad the techs took the time to look it up. So many techs if they see a RFing tether unhook it, even if it's ok. We hear a lot of people here who come in and saw the fireman took off the tether on their Marathon and they thought it was ok.

Wendy

[rileyandajsmomma]

I edited the post- possibly while you were replying :) I can't find a way to tie it off under the front seat. But thanks for the info!!

[wendytthomas]

The D ring doesn't clip. Can you take a picture of what you're talking about?

http://www.elitecarseats.com/assets/product_images/200/100255000000000.jpg

That's the older style D ring, but you get the idea. You loop that around the foot of a front seat (I've done it, you can, you may need to pop the plastic off of the foot) and then you attach the tether to the anchor. The tether anchor itself won't fit around anything under there.

Wendy

[rileyandajsmomma]

Hey - I saw I mistyped it - I did mean tie it off, not clip it down there. Anyway, I will have to try to take a picture and put it on here - not that easy with a 2 month old and 2 year old ;) . I know what you mean about the tie going under the plastic - I've seen the pics, but it isn't working in my van. I will try again, it was actually DH who tried, not me. You never know! He says the whole seat assembly is bolted down. I explained to him about shoving a credit card under it to get some room and find a spot, but he says it's not happening. Really, I'm more concerned about the tethering vs. not tethering RF issue. I hadn't heard about that.
Thanks again!