Evenflo Triumph Advance DLX "Durango" carseat

[strollerfreak]

I received an Evenflo Triumph Advance carseat to review for an online website and have been using it for the past week.

Cosmetics - Cosmetically this seat is appealing to parents who want a seat that will blend in with their vehicle's interior. No fun patterns or prints like Britax, but there are several cover choices depending on price point and where it's purchased. I received "Durango" but there are others available on the Evenflo website.
The fabrics are plush & comfortable, though as the previous reviewer commented because ours has "leather" patches on it, it is recommended to spot clean only.

Hardware - The chestclip is the traditional Evenflo chestclip. All of my children have a difficult time unbuckling it...so if yours is an escape artist this may be an incentive for you. The harness webbing is VERY soft. While this may feel good on the child, it makes for very easy to twist straps. The first time my oldest child used it he managed to twist the strap and pull the crotch buckle over the twist, resulting in a crotch buckle tounge facing the wrong way that made my almost 7 year old burst into tears because he knew he couldn't ride in a twisted harness, but couldnt' figure out how it got that way or how to fix it. The next trip my almost 5 year old rode in the seat and I caught him before he did the exact same thing. So make sure that you are diligently checking the harness straps for twists everytime you use the seat. The LATCH strap has the traditional "closed hook" ends on it, and it appears that they did NOT lengthen the LATCH strap even though the seat has increased in size; this can be an issue, I'll address it further down in the review. Apparently some models are available with the "Britax" style LATCH ends, but my model did not come with them. There are built in locations to store the LATCH strap on the base of the carseat which is a really nice little feature. The tether strap is easy to use, and has a push button style release on the adjuster similar to the one on a Britax Marathon. There are markings on the side of the seat to indicate which position the seat is in (RF recline, FF recline, FF upright), it would have been nice if they had placed colored stickers on these indicators as it's kind of hard to tell where it's lined up with black on black. The crotch buckle is SO easy to move back & forth between the two positions; I did it on the fly when installing it rear-facing to finish up this review because I forgot, LOL!!

Ease of Use - Forward Facing
I absolutely LOVE the infinite adjust harness on this seat. It makes it a cinch to adjust the seat for all of my children that ride forward facing (almost 3yo to almost 7yo). The harness adjuster system takes some getting used to, but it's not difficult to use, just different. My older two boys (almost 5yo and almost 7yo) are used to being able to adjust their own harnesses and did not like having to be dependent on myself or my husband to adjust their harness and release them everytime we went anywhere. (And to be honest, after years of letting them do it themselves it's a pain in the butt for mom too! LOL)

Ease of Use - Rear Facing
I used this seat for a week for my youngest child who was around 5 months old at the time. It was easy to switch the crotch strap to the position that he needed it in, compared to the position that the older kids needed it in. I didn't have any problems with the harness twisting while buckling him, but I do make sure of this each and every time the seat is used as well. It was fairly easy to adjust the harness tightness for every trip, even with the adjuster knobs sort of smooshed into the vehicle's seatback...annoying yes, difficult to adjust no. I did not use the infant padding with my son as he was comfortable with out it and the seat fit him well without it as well. I like that it can rear-face to 35lbs, but don't like that it can't be tethered in the rear-facing position...oh well, you can't get everything right?

Installation - LATCH
My test vehicle again was a 2008 Ford Escape.

Installation with LATCH in the rear-facing position was difficult if not impossible. The hooks on the LATCH strap were positioned at a weird angle and it made it difficult to pull the strap through the adjuster. Adding to the problem, the LATCH strap was almost too short! I had less than an inch of free-floating webbing out of the top of the adjuster, which made it very difficult to get leverage to pull with. With only myself to do the installation I could not get a secure install, maybe if I had someone else to help put weight in the seat so I could try and get a better angle it would have worked better, but alone it was unacceptable. Also I was very concerned about crushing the EPP foam that was on the outer edge of the rear-facing belt path...I don't know if this is an issue or not, but it seemed like it would get crushed, leaving a LATCH belt sized indentation in the foam, had I actually been able to get an acceptable installation.

Installation with LATCH in the reclined forward facing position was difficult as well. Because of the angle of the CRS in regards to the back of the vehicle, it was pushing the CRS out away from the vehicle seat and made it difficult to adjust the LATCH strap tight enough. I did get an acceptable installation, but it was difficult.

Installation with LATCH in the upright forward facing position was fairly straight forward. It didn't present me with any real issues. The base of the CRS wanted to slide on the vehicle seat as my test vehicle had leather seats, but once the seat was properly installed it was not an issue.

Installation with a Seatbelt - Rear Facing
All seatbelt test installations were done in a 1999 Chevy Suburban.

This seat was installed in the 2nd row driver's side outboard position for the rear-facing review.

The installation was quite simple, one of the easier rear-facing seatbelt installs that I've had. However, my son is older and sitting unassisted so the angle of the seat is more upright. For a younger baby or a newborn this installation would have required the use of several noodles as the base of the CRS is about 5" away from the bight of the vehicle seat. The harness release mechanism is slightly difficult to use as it's smooshed into the back of the vehicle seat, but it's not impossible to use. This seat also meshed well with the FF Britax Marathon that is installed right next to it as well.

Installation with a Seatbelt - Forward Facing

This seat was installed in the 3rd row passenger side outboard position for the forward facing review.

This installation was more difficult. I'm not sure if it was because of a weird combo of the angle that the belt comes down from the side ceiling of the vehicle or the positioning of the belt path, but it was a bit of a chore to get this installed properly. To achieve a proper install I ended up having to twist the buckle stalk 2 times to shorten the length as the latchplate kept ending up right on the cusp of the CRS's beltpath and allowing slippage when testing for tightness at the beltpath. I was able to achieve an acceptable installation however.

Overall Impression
Overall I was impressed with this seat. It truely fits a child from birth until they would be an adequate age/size/maturity to move into a dedicated booster. At $129 it is at a much more reasonable price point than a Britax. All of my kids commented that the seat was "comfy", and all of my kids were frustrated at having to rely on Mom/Dad to help with harnessing.
I would definitely recommend this seat to anyone who is looking for a lower price point seat with a higher weight harness option.

Pictures


Reiker is 5 months old, weighs 16lbs and is about 26" tall.


Reigan is a month shy of 3 years old, weighs 28lbs and is about 35" tall.


Reide will be 5 in December, weighs 36lb and is about 41" tall.



Reilly will be 7 in January, weighs 44lbs and is about 47" tall. He outgrew a traditional carseat by height (Britax Roundabout) at 2.5yo and moved into a Britax Husky at that point as at that time it was the only thing besides a Graco UltraCargo that had a tall enough harness on it for him.

[Yoshi]

Thank you for all the pictures- what great comparisons- 5 months to 7 yrs!!!! We love ours as well.

[heyruthie]

Thank you!

I' mconsidering buying one for my 3 yo. This review is helpful!

[Betsyconnersmommy]

WOW soo much better than my dinky review i posted! I love the pics as well. I have this excact same seat! My 31 month old son rides in this seat and I am still amazed at how much room he has to grow. Thanks for the pics. My son is 31 months old (as i said before) weighs around 30-31 lbs and is 36" tall. It is great to see the age from 5 months to 7 yrs old being able to still fit in this seat. WOW this means I have alot of time on this seat for my son (and hopefully soon a new baby to use it)! Thanks for the review.

[BABYGIRLLYNDSEY]

This review is great. I love that you compared the kids at different ages. I wish we had this seat in a store near us to try my 2.5 yr old in it.

[dd9736]

thanks for the review, I'm glad your kids found it comfy, one more selling point for DH