Alpha Omega Elite Impossible to tighten harness

[Unregistered]

Once the car seat is installed properly in the forward facing position it is extremely difficult to tighten the harness staps once the child is in the seat. Since the car seat is in tight to the seat and the added weight of the child seems to press the straps into the back of the seat and make it difficult to tighten them. Are their any tricks that can be done during instalation to keep the straps from gettin caught?

[joolsplus3]

Hmmm...What car is this in? Are the seats bench-like or sculpted bucket-shaped? I wonder if taking the base off (or putting it back on?) would help? And is the harness yoke/splitter plate getting caught on something in particular (like the seatbelt?).
I'm just trying to brainstorm, because I haven't really heard of this problem in this seat, and you seem to have a good grasp of how the harness works and moves in the back, so there's no 'easy' answer off the top of my head...

:)

[Maedze]

I've noticed that in some AOE/vehicle combinations.

My suggestion to parents is to tighten the harness prior to buckling it, and then putting the child in it, making sure it's tight enough before driving, of course.

[snowbird25ca]

How old is the seat? The seats that were recalled for the harness adjusters all were quite difficult to tighten, so double check your DOM and style of adjuster. If it was made between Nov 2003 and Dec 2005, and has a narrow adjuster strap (1") with the metal lever being flat on one half and horizontal ridges on the other half, then it's one of the recalled ones. The replacement strap improves the struggle, but doesn't completely eliminate.

The other thing to do is check that there's no food or anything caught in the adjuster mechanism. Take a small bristle brush like a bottle nipple brush, and lift the mechanism and check in the grooves. I recently saw a seat that was near impossible to tighten for that reason.

If the seat is ff'ing without the base, make sure that the little "foot prop" or "kick stand" or whatever you want to call it is pulled upright and locked into place. I could see that interfering with the adjustment of the harness in a ff'ing install if it had been accidentally left down.

If none of that applies, and it's a fairly new seat, I'd call Dorel and talk to them. It shouldn't be sticking like that, so it could be that there's something strange going on and maybe they'd replace the seat? When you tighten it, are you pulling down or up? Make sure that you're pulling it down to make it easier. :)

Otherwise I'm pretty much out of ideas without seeing the seat and install for myself. :o