Monterey require headrest?

[Pixels]

OK, so I thought the Monterey could be used without a vehicle headrest behind it. Just the impression I had gotten from reading the boards here. Then today I read the manual. The bottom of page 8 says Maximum Child Height: Child is too tall if the top of the ears are above the top of either the fully raised booster seat headrest or fully raised vehicle headrest. (emphasis added)

A strict interpretation of this would mean that the booster needs the support of the vehicle seat/headrest behind it. No?

[Jeanum]

Or is it referring to when the Monterey would be outgrown by height in highback vs. backless mode? SK needs to clarify that IMHO. You could also try sifting through the transcript of the online CEU chat (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=40794)with the SK engineer to see if he was asked about this - I think it was discussed there. :twocents:

[MomToEliEm]

I read that too when I was playing with my new seat on Sunday. I looked all through the rest of the manual and it seems that when used with a high back, it doesn't matter about the support behind it. That needs to be corrected in the manual though as looking at it literally, it does state that it must have as support.

[Pixels]

Here's what I found in the chat transcript (edited out extraneous messages that don't relate to the question at hand):Is SK considering increasing the hip-to-shoulder height for older children in vehicles without adequate head support?
The Monterey like any booster has to rely to some degree on the auto seat back for support for rebound, so given the current capacity of the Monterey we really can't go much taller otherwise we run out of adequate head neck support

In regards to seatback support, will using the Monterey in an older vehicle with very low seat backs be a risk to children on the higher end of the seat limits?
The owners of older cars shall have to simply follow our instruction manual with that application. I don't mean to give you a bland response here but the variation in seat height can be considerable. And the safety of the child is the real concern, so some older vehicles may not work given their low seat back height
I'm still not sure what the answer is. The booster has to rely to some degree on the seatback.:shrug-shoulders:

[Defrost]

I took that to mean that really, any vehicle seat with very low seat backs (some of them in much older vehicles hit average-size adults at the shoulder blades!) isn't safe enough, and if you're stuck with that vehicle, it's the vehicle that's the problem and no booster is going to correct that. This is definitely not an issue of the Monterey just not being made well enough - any HBB needs at least a certain amount of support from the vehicle seat in a severe enough crash.

(Well, except maybe the Start. I swear that thing is made sturdier than the vehicle seat it's sitting on in my car!)

[scatterbunny]

I agree with Debbie.

As a parent, if I had a vehicle with those super-low seat backs (older Explorers, maybe?), I'd choose to use the sturdiest hbb that worked for my child, and feel comfortable that I was doing the safEST thing possible.