Carseat on the seat crack?

[leighi123]

I have Levi's TrueFit installed rearfacing in the centre of my parents 2001 Jeep Laredo, and the way it sits is bugging me. The Truefit has those 2 sorta 'rails' as the bottom, and one of them is in the crack where the centre seat and the side seat come together. It makes the carseat tip a little bit. Its in super tight, no movement along the belt path in any direction, but when I had it in my subaru, none of the carseat moved, and in the jeep, the back moves a little (I know its allowed to, its tight where its supposed to be and it might just be because the seat overall is a lot more 'squishy)

Sooo Is there any way I can put it so its not 'in the crack'. I was thinking maybe put a noodle there? or would that not be ok? Or I could just put it outboard... but that means someone would have to ride in the lap only belt, no headrest when all 5 of us are in the car.

Oh and also with this car - the seat behind the driverseat has a permanatly twisted seatbelt - apparantly other than getting a new one installed, there is no way to 'untwist it', does that make it less safe (either for a carseat or for a grownup)?

AND on the same seat, the bottom cushion part flips up so it can fold ot of the way for putting things in the trunk or whatever, but it doesnt seem to 'lock' in its normal position anymore, so when you sit in it, if you lean forward, the seat comes up (does that make sense....sorry). Is that bad?

Thanks!

[canmom]

IMO, I would try to keep the carseat in the middle especially since it isn't a very safe seating position. I think you could try a pool noodle, provided it doesn't cause the carseat to over recline of course.


in my subaru, none of the carseat moved, and in the jeep, the back moves a little

Do you mean if you pull on the carseat where the childs head would be? I am not 100% sure if that is what you are talking about but movement there is completely fine... I don't think a pool noodle would help fix that.

With the twisted seatbelt I would not use it for a carseat and I don't think an adult should use it either. With the seat not locking and needing to sit forward I would definately not use it... doesn't sound safe for anyone. JMHO.

[NannyMom]

First let me say, the fact that the vehicle seat doesn't lock into place is a bad thing. In a crash it could actually injure the passenger. It should be fixed immediately.

The twisted seatbelt, is it just 1 twist? I actually ran into that situation recently. The woman I was working with told me it was ok to use, even to install a carseat with.

I've often had problems with carseats falling into the 'crack' in DH's Durango. It's a very narrow seat, with a crack on either side... tons of fun :rolleyes: You can try to shove a towel or something into the crack. Shove it in flat (perhaps folded a couple times, depending on the size). Work it in slowly. I had to do that to both cracks in DH's durango. It would work for awhile (months) then I'd have to fix it.

[SusanMae]

It sounds like the crack you are talking about is NOT the bight of the seat, it sounds like you are talking about the crack of a 60/40 split.

If that's the case, you canNOT use anything to fill it. The only time a noddle or towel are ok is when you are trying to get a recline.

Susan

[NannyMom]

It sounds like the crack you are talking about is NOT the bight of the seat, it sounds like you are talking about the crack of a 60/40 split.

If that's the case, you canNOT use anything to fill it. The only time a noddle or towel are ok is when you are trying to get a recline.

Susan

I have a 40/20/40 split. I had a CPST-I fill in both of the cracks in my seat. :confused:

[cryswilkins]

Personally, I would't fill the seat crack (on the 60/40 split) with anything, there is just no way to know how it would act in an accident. :twocents:

[Pixels]

If it made the difference between getting a good installation or not, I wouldn't fill the cracks. But if it's just to correct the lean, I would.

[leighi123]

Yeah its one where there is a 40/60 split - the seat doesnt move at all along the belt path, so the install is fine, its just the slight tilt to the side that bugs me because of where the base of the carseat is in the crack. I think I'll just leave it for now, sense its a solid install.

The other seat I guess we need to get fixed for the 'not locking in place' thing - it seems like its not very safe that way.

There is maybe 3-4 twists in the seatbelt - I have no clue how it got that way, but no amount of trying to untwist it has helped.