3 across in Prius w/Diono - heavy kids

[toby]

There are a lot of threads about 3 across, but I haven't found quite what I needed.

I've got a 2010 Prius. Once every week or two, we transport our young friend and all of her children. Mom is fairly large, so needs the front seat, leaving us with the backseat for all three kids.

Child 1: Age 5, perhaps 50 pounds.
Child 2: Age 3, just over 50 pounds (yes, really)
Child 3: Age 18 months, perhaps 30 pounds

I own one Diono R120. The youngest child usually rides in a Cosco Scenera, rear facing. But we need our own seats, so I can install them in advance.

We tried the Diono in the outboard side, the Scenera in the center, and a Cosco high back booster on the other side. Resounding failure. I won't even tell you what came next - it won't happen again.

One option is to buy two more R120s. They hold every one of these kids, they have high weight limits, and they're narrow. But they're expensive and heavy. I'm hoping to put the two younger children in Diono 120s, and get a narrow booster for the 5 year old.

1. Should I bite the bullet and put them all in Diono seats?
2. If I go with a booster, what's the narrowest one out there?
3. Have any of you put two Diono side by side with a booster in a Prius? What's the best configuration?

Thanks everyone!

Toby McAdams
CPS tech in Minnesota

 

[creideamh]

Some options:

The easiest one is going to be the 3 Radians (FF, RF, FF) if you are leaving the seats in the car and transporting the kids fairly regularly. A booster in a tight 3 across is a giant PITA and even with a very narrow one, will likely require you to have the child sit, pull child+booster out toward the door, buckle, and push child+booster back in. (Owner of a Prius and many 3 across configurations here.)

A slightly cheaper option would be 1 Radian, 1 RSTV, and 1 Bubblebum. Neither of the latter 2 are especially fun to buckle kids into many times a day, but for occasional rides, it's not bad and will definitely fit.

There might be a couple of other combos possible- the Defender is narrow, but I've read it's pretty much impossible to properly install in a Prius (not tried it myself.) You might want to try it for yourself (2 outboard and the RF Radian in the center.)

Hope that helps!