MA no tether lapbelt only

[crunchierthanthou]

I installed ds's MA in the center of my mom's 03 Grand Cherokee yesterday. Even though there isn't a tether for that position, I put him in the middle so that we could still have l/s belts for adults in the outboard seats. I thought I had it nice and solid, but when I went to tighten the harness the base slid forward. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any way to avoid it other than the obvious "get it tighter"?

[orangemnms]

I only way I could avoid that in my old Excursion (leather seats, lap belt only install) was to recline the seat and then force it back upright. I'm talking getting in the 3rd row pushing with my legs on the seat back forcing it upright while someone else pulled the lever kind of forcing. :o

[snowbird25ca]

Maybe a dumb question, but did you thread the lap belt underneath the LATCH bars? When installed ff'ing with a lap only belt it goes underneath the bars - not sure if that can affect tightness or not?

Maybe it was a case of the base just naturally wanting to sit further forward and that was more the natural position of the seat for the base to sit flat?

One trick that works nicely with lap only belts is unbuckling, manually tightening the lap belt a little, and then re-buckling it. So it's a version of get it tighter, but it's a bit easier than yanking on the tail. :thumbsup:

[pastrygirl]

I noticed that my base sometimes seems to pull up a bit when I tighten the harness. I was able to tighten the seat a bit more, and though it doesn't pull up as much or as often anymore, it still does happen sometimes. :(

[BW1426]

I actually would probably want him in the scenera. Because an MA installed with a lapbelt and no tether is going to have pretty high head excursion simply due to the high profile nature of the seat. It might fix your install issues too.

[skaterbabscpst]

Use your knees to push the seat back into the bite of the vehicle seat as you use your arms to push DOWN into the same. And of course pull the belt parallel to itself. You may need to twist the female end of the buckle a couple of times.

[crunchierthanthou]

Thanks for your suggestions.

It was routed under the LATCH bars- which need to be about 1/8" farther away from the shell to accommodate fat locking latchplates. :rolleyes: I don't think it was just settling into position because it slipped a little with each tug. I was pushing down and had my sister pull the tail back through the beltpath. It should have been at the correct angle to tighten and did feel tight when I checked. My very pregnant hips weren't feeling up to the bounce it was going to take to pre-shorten the lapbelt. There is no twisting of the rigid buckle stalks in that MY, but they aren't that long anyway. What I really need to do is train my sister to install it. Ds rarely rides with anyone other than dh or me, but odds are it's with her if he does. It really wouldn't be any different in her vehicle (a 1997 cherokee).

I gave it another try last night. I actually climbed up and knelt on it and pulled next to the latchplate. It seemed to do a lot better and didn't budge when I tightened the harness. Like I expected, it really was just a matter of getting it tighter- even though it felt acceptable. :o

I actually would probably want him in the scenera. Because an MA installed with a lapbelt and no tether is going to have pretty high head excursion simply due to the high profile nature of the seat. It might fix your install issues too.

Hmmm. that's a good point. I should get it out and see if he even fits anymore. He's right at/just above the 3rd slots on the MA. I'm going to have to think about that one.

[MissKatie]

I actually would probably want him in the scenera. Because an MA installed with a lapbelt and no tether is going to have pretty high head excursion simply due to the high profile nature of the seat. It might fix your install issues too.

I agree, I think in that situation the scenera would be better if he fits. I love Britax seats but their head excursion numbers are pretty high.