Radian Safe Stop

Sunshy9,

If you see this, would you consider changing your long list of adorable daycare kids' names to a list that includes comma's between names? I think it will bump everything down into seperate lines. I don't don't about anyone else but the looooong list stretches my screen out and forces all other posts to be shrunk. I'm on my phone so things are already small enough.

So yeah, comma's I think is the solution, or maybe putting the kids' names into 4 lines?? I dunno, but pretty please with sprinkles on top could you do something.

I'm reading the manual online (http://www.skjp.com/simg/19544804.pdf) and page 20 says

ALWAYS use Safe Stop with LATCH installation for forward-facing child under 40 pounds (see page 26)

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and page 26 says

ALWAYS use Safe Stop when using LATCH or top tether with forward-facing child under 40 pounds

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Right, the SafeStop is required for a child under 40 pounds if the lower anchors are used, or if the top tether is used. You cannot use the SafeStop, ever, for a child over 40 pounds. So if you're seat sharing, you have to add/remove the SafeStop every time, or have the seat untethered with a seatbelt install for the under 40 pound child.

I'd always leave it top tethered, safe stop or not, no matter the child's weight FF. Tethering isn't allowed to be *required* in the US, so they put in the weird rules, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't top tether it for a kid under 40 without the safestop, it's just their way of following FMVSS 213. Follow CMVSS213, Canada, and you're going to have a safer, top tethered install, every time.

We need to make a Safe Stop flow chart.

:dizzy: I'm glad my kids are heavy enough that by the time they are FF in the radian they are already 40lbs. Don't have to even think about safe stop.

No kidding! My RN is so old it only RF's to 33lbs, and the Safestop I had to call and order for it is labeled to 48lbs. Sheesh.

mamakc said:

:dizzy: I'm glad my kids are heavy enough that by the time they are FF in the radian they are already 40lbs. Don't have to even think about safe stop.

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:yeahthat:

The almost 5 year old I do daycare for is about 38 lbs. I was wondering if I should use the safestop or not. She has consistently been 37/38 lbs for awhile. I will prolly be just using this seat for a month. It's installed now without it just in case, since she's so close to 40 lbs, but now I'm wondering if I should go put it on?

The SKJP engineer has said that it is better to have the SS on for a 41-42 pound child than to have it off for a 38-39 pound child.

NannyMom said:

I have the Safe Stop, that's not the issue. I think the SS is making it harder to tighten the seat. I would prefer to use it with SS, but if I feel I can't tighten properly.....

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Same with me, it won’t tighten enough so its snug, Izzy can get her arms through and out of the harness the way it is now, and it has the safe stop on.

christineka said:

What I was advised of doing when I asked a similar seat sharing question was: no safe stop, top tether for over 40 pound kid, and no top tether for under 40 pound kid.

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Pixels said:

Because the SafeStop does a lot of the same thing that not tethering does: it reduces head injury and chest forces.

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Pixels: Christineka said the SafeStop was NOT on the seat. So I'm supposed to just install the seat ff with the seat belt and nothing else for a 33lb child?

Pixels said:

The SKJP engineer has said that it is better to have the SS on for a 41-42 pound child than to have it off for a 38-39 pound child.

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Even if the harness doesn’t tighten enough???
I’ll upload a pic to show you what I mean.


Canadiangie: I’ll pm you

Sunshy9 said:

Even if the harness doesn’t tighten enough???
I’ll upload a pic to show you what I mean.

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I don't understand how the harness wouldn't tighten enough. I've used the radian with safe stop for my dd since she was 34 pounds and I could get the harness plenty tight- in fact too tight sometimes.

Ok it won't let me upload an attatchment so its in my Radian photo album on my profile. Look at the harness and see how much room there is in it.

LISmama810 said:

We need to make a Safe Stop flow chart.

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:yeahthatlove:

canadiangie said:

Oy.

I find my Radians a total beast to tighten too. Solution is to buckle the chest clip only, then tighten (tug tug tug), and then insert the buckle tongues into crotch strap. It's like butter.

I do this with my BV, FNXT/85, MR65, RN's... It works so good.

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That is exactly what I do also. :thumbsup: Works like a charm!

Sunshy9 said:

Ok it won't let me upload an attatchment so its in my Radian photo album on my profile. Look at the harness and see how much room there is in it.

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I just looked at the picture and I know based on the length of the safestop and the harness slots that your dd is using that the harness should tighten further.

My suggestion for the time being would be to loosen the install of the seat, tighten your dd's harness, and then re-tighten the installation. My guess is that the safestop is either getting compressed between the vehicle seat and the back of the shell, or perhaps it's not able to slide around the bend at the bottom of the seat. Of course, with 2 kids sharing the seat, tightening the harness before installation isn't really practical - but it would be a solution if she was the only one using the seat.

It would be a royal pain in the butt to not be able to loosen and tighten every time if that's what you're used to, but physically the harness can most definitely be tightened enough.

We drive an Outlook which is the cousin to your Acadia and has the same interior seats. Do you have any seats installed in the outboard positions, and does anyone else ride back there? You don't have to have the seat reclined if it's only a seat in the center position, but if nobody else rides in the 2nd row, I would try reclining the seatback and see if that removes the interference. (If you have a seat installed in the outboard position using the lower anchors, then you have to have the seatbacks reclined and both sides of the seat must be reclined to match.) If you have adult passengers who ride back there, then I'd leave it upright just because you don't want the adult passengers as reclined as how they'd end up with the bench reclined.

Knowing how the radian installs in that position with the seat reclined, I can imagine that if you have the seat upright right now, the shell is pressed very firmly along most of it's length in to the back of the vehicle seat and it's probably a case of it not being able to slide freely.

If you don't currently have the seat reclined and decide to give it a try, there is the very slight chance that once you recline it you may be able to pull the harness enough to the side from the back of the shell that you may be able to take the safestop on and off without having to uninstall the seat. That may actually fix both your problems if you don't have the seat reclined already, but if you do decide to go that route, just be careful to keep track of the harness straps so you don't end up with any twists.

Sunshy9 said:

Same with me, it won’t tighten enough so its snug, Izzy can get her arms through and out of the harness the way it is now, and it has the safe stop on.




Pixels: Christineka said the SafeStop was NOT on the seat. So I'm supposed to just install the seat ff with the seat belt and nothing else for a 33lb child?


Even if the harness doesn’t tighten enough???
I’ll upload a pic to show you what I mean.


Canadiangie: I’ll pm you

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Since one of the kids using your seat is clearly over 40 pounds (not just on the cusp where one day they are 39, the next they are 41), you need to have the SS off. That means when the 33 pound child is using the seat, you should disconnect the top tether because that child is under 40 pounds and the SS is not being used.

If you can't get the harness tight enough, then I would not use the seat at all. You know that the adjuster is ratcheting, right? Tug release tug release. I assume that you know it, but just in case.

Pixels said:

That means when the 33 pound child is using the seat, you should disconnect the top tether because that child is under 40 pounds and the SS is not being used.

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Where in the manual does it say that? That you shouldn't use the tether with a child under 40 lbs., if the Safe Stop isn't in use? (The Safe Stop didn't even exist until quite a while after the Radian came out, so we know that it passed all testing without any Safe Stop at all.)

Pixels said:

Since one of the kids using your seat is clearly over 40 pounds (not just on the cusp where one day they are 39, the next they are 41), you need to have the SS off. That means when the 33 pound child is using the seat, you should disconnect the top tether because that child is under 40 pounds and the SS is not being used.

If you can't get the harness tight enough, then I would not use the seat at all. You know that the adjuster is ratcheting, right? Tug release tug release. I assume that you know it, but just in case.

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Really? Is this actually in the US manual?

The way I read the manual, you are being warned against using the safe stop without the tether (ie: Increase in HE without the tether added to increase in HE with safe stop is too much) not against using the tether without the safe stop.