Radian harnass tightening help

[dragonfly8]

My 3 year old is FF in a radian, and I went to tighten the harnass straps on it yesterday by giving it little tugs and it wouldn't tighten. He was in the seat at the time. I had him get out and tried to tighten the straps, and it was no problem. I had though maybe the plate at the back was caught as I had the seat out the other day to move it to another position in the car, but now I am not thinking that is the problem.

Should it not be easy to tighten the straps when my son is in the seat?

[hipmaman]

Sometime the weight on the seat can make some carseat hard to tighten, especially those w/o the 'separate' seatbelt routing cavity and the weight of the child pressed against the seatbelt and weird things happen (and that if it's installed by seatbelt). Is it installed by seatbelt or UAS?

And is he wearing bulky outerwear? That certainly would be harder to tighten, get a snug fit, etc.

Thinking out loud...

[snowbird25ca]

What's the DOM on your seat? Prior to Jan 07 the channel at the back of the seat was a good deal shallower and didn't extend as far up the back of the shell as it does now. In some vehicles this led to the adjuster strap and/or safe stop basically getting trapped between the weight of the carseat and the vehicle seat. If you have a pre-07 seat, maybe it's installed a bit more upright or a bit tighter than it was before, and that difference is just enough that with your son's weight in it it's making it hard to tighten the harness?

If that's the case you could try re-installing it and seeing if that makes a difference?

[mommycat]

I find it very difficult/impossible to tighten my RN with DS in it as well. I tend to not adjust every time, other than a little bit as needed. If I need to tighten I tend to tighten a good bit with him out of the seat and then incrementally loosen until I can get him buckled in.

[T.O. Twins]

I just got two radians (DOM 11/29/2008) for my girls and am also finding it is very difficult to tighten when they are in the seats. From what I’ve read on this forum and other places online, it seems typical to be difficult to tighten the Radian and you must use short tugs, rather than one, long pull. I’ve also heard that tightening gets easier when you are using the highest slots.

I’m also having a great deal of trouble LOOSENING the harness on my radians. Has anyone else had this happen? I have to pull and tug and pull really hard to get them to loosen at all – whether the seat is occupied or not. (In case this is valuable information, I’m using the 2nd highest slots and the Safe Stop, and my girls are about 30 pounds.)

I will try uninstalling, folding, and unfolding and re-installing the seats tonight, but if this is the way they’re supposed to be, that’s ridiculous!

[canadiangie]

It doesn't always solve the issue, but you can try buckling one buckle tongue, then tightening the harness, and once it's tight, buckle the other buckle tongue. Once you're satisfied the harness is tight, buckle the chest clip.

My Radian(s) are beasts to tighten. I have an older shallow-shell design, and an newer version with the deeper shell. Both are equally annoying. :o

Good luck,

[unityco]

I don't generally adjust mine, but when I do, I always squeeze my hand behind the shell (my seat is FF) and pull down the splitter plate until the harness is tight - then I pull the adjuster strap. The adjuster strap goes in one easy movement when I do that. It's not the most elegant solution, but it works for me. :shrug-shoulders:

HTH! :)

[Mommy090804]

It doesn't always solve the issue, but you can try buckling one buckle tongue, then tightening the harness, and once it's tight, buckle the other buckle tongue. Once you're satisfied the harness is tight, buckle the chest clip.

I just wanted to add that we do the same thing. If I find that the harness is not tight enough, then I unbuckle one (ideally both - it makes it even easier) buckle tongue, and then pull on the harness strap. Very easy to tighten. I then fasten the buckles again. The last thing I do up is the chest clip - the less resistance when tightening the harness straps, the better. It does seem to be time consuming when I explain it, but it is much easier to tighten the harness straps than when they are already buckled. After a while, you just get used to it.

I did think there was something wrong with the adjuster, but then realized that the Radian is even more difficult to to tighten than the Marathons. I do the same trick with the Marathons, and don't ever find myself doing the "little tugs" anymore. HTH!