using middle seat shoulder belt with car seats

Can anyone tell me if it is safe to use a center seat lap/shoulder belt combination for a backless booster? We have a Honda Odyssey minivan. One reason we bought it was that it has shoulder belts in all seating positions. However, the shoulder belt in the center rear seating position is designed differently: it is basically a lapbelt, with a separate shoulder belt that hooks manually into the lap belt buckle. Is it safe to use this type of belt for a backless booster? When our entire family of 7 must ride in the van, the 3rd row seat is too small for my older teen boys, so they must use the 2nd row. This leaves the third row for 2 backless booster seats (5 yr old & small 9 yr old) & my 12 year old daughter. I do not want to place my daughter between 2 car seats, as this doesn't seem to be very comfortable. If I do not, I will have to use the 3rd seat center position for one of the booster seats (IF they will fit side by side). Any input is appreciated. Thank you.

I have no problems using any of my boosters in that exact position. Neither the seat manuals (I have a few...I'm a bit of a seat collector, lol), nor the car manual restrict it.
One problem I tend to have there is that the seatbelt is so vertical, it really goes on my kids' necks, so you may need to use a high-back booster with good belt guides, or a no-back with a belt guide that's on a strap to keep it positioned properly on the shoulder.
Hope that helps a little,

I had the two-piece lap/shoulder belts in our '89 Subaru. Depends on how the two belts connect, I suppose, but I found that I was a little leary about the angle of the buckle when going across some boosters (namely the Graco TB). The way mine connected, if the angle was weird, they could have come apart. I did have good luck using the Evenflo Big Kid.

The only seats I know of that prohibit using such belts are the Britax - they say you can't use seat belts where there are two separate retractors.

Raechel
tech and mom of 2

Raechel...I don't think this is quite the same thing that Britax is referring to (???)...this seatbelt only has the ELR in the shoulderbelt, and a locking latchplate on the lapbelt. Since the lapbelt is holding the seat in, it's usually all I use, but sometimes I put that shoulderbelt into use, too, when I want a more exciting installation experience (geek alert! geek alert!).

Anyway, it's not technically 2 retractors, is it?

Oh, I hadn't thought about that (that the Oddessy has a different lap belt). On the Subaru I have, the lap portion is an ALR and the shoulder portion was the manual adjust, locking latch plate ... which I guess is just opposite.

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what Britax would consider separate retractors. I'd always assumed that this was what they meant, just because I couldn't think of any other instances of separate retractors. I suppose the best advice would be to call Britax to verify, if a person was using the Britax boosters in this type of situation. Obviously it's not an issue if you are installing a car seat, as you can just use the lap portion. (I don't know that installing a car seat with the lap and shoulder belts in this situation qualifies as an "exciting installation experience". LOL).

Another thing I thought of as I re-read the post. Julie mentions that the seatbelt is very vertical in this position and may ride onto the child's neck. We recently bought a new(er) car that has very vertical belts in all three rear positions and I had the same problem. I found that the Big Kid did not work to solve this problem - even though it has great (in other situations) belt guides, it does not keep the shoulder belt down with this type of belts. The seatbelt comes up out of the actual guide and rides against the underside of the head wing. I found that the Evenflo Right Fit lbb worked well, though, since the belt guide physically pulls the seatbelt down.

Raechel
tech and mom of 2

Thank you for your responses to my original post. I think the biggest problem I am having is that, now that my children have grown much bigger, there seems to be no way to comfortably fit 3 people in the 3rd seat of the Honda Odyssey van. Until recently, I had my youngest in a Century Next Step, using the harness, in the left outboard position of the 3rd seat. My 14 yr old son sat in the middle, & my 12 yr old dtr on the right side. I noticed that the 2 older children's shoulders were overlapping each other; and, the youngest is now too tall to remian in the harness. Besides this, his knees are too long for the seat of the Next Step, so I don't think it will work for him as a booster. I am wanting to move the 14 yr old into the 2nd row, with his 16 yr old brother, and move my small 9 yr old into the back. She currently uses an Evenflo Right Fit Booster. This seat worked well without the shoulder belt guide, when used in the 2nd row, where the van has seatbelt adjusters. But in the 3rd row, the shoulderbelt guide would be needed in all positions, & it is not easy to adjust properly on each trip. I even tried my 9 yr old in the 3rd seat without a booster, but these shoulder belts do not adjust, and do not fit her neck properly. She is 50 12 " tall & 53 pounds. What would you techs recomend we do, (besides buying a larger van)? What boosters are the narrowest, so that 2 of them may fit in this small 3rd row seat along wiht another child? Thanks again. SDG

Unregistered said:

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what Britax would consider separate retractors. I'd always assumed that this was what they meant, just because I couldn't think of any other instances of separate retractors.

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The font seat of my Saturn has separate retractors. The latch plate is sewn in place. The lap portion is ALR, so I can pull it all the way out and lock the lap belt. The shoulder belt is ELR and moves freely until there's a sudden stop.