I emailed him yesterday as soon as I read Doriansmummy's post and told him I had just bought a radian last week, but a friend had recently received a replacement seat b/c of the buckles.
He replied today with this:
I'm definately going to have them send them to me, but I have my doubts about gettingthem on the seat.
People keeping there frayed radians to use after they have received a new one....either it is a safety issue or it isn't! Which is it????
As for sunshine kids making changes to the radian, I was under the impression they were not changing all their future buckle toungues, just sending people who had issue with them seats with the new buckle tongues...
Some people are saying the fraying harnesses are safe, others are say they are not, really who knows? (that is a literal question)
I
Well I think they are keeping the frayed harness seats as Russ will give them new buckles?
And it seems like he is giving those out instead of new seats.
I really dont understand the buckle situtaion with SK either.
Now I am paranoid to use my new one and paranoid to use my old one which I still have.
*Deep breath everyone* My honest opinion is that all the back and forth has caused things to kind of snowball and a lot of confusion.
Here is what I've read, just to sum it up into one place:
- Those with frayed harness seats that asked for new ones, have been asked to send the old seats back. Russ was going to issue call tags - for those of you who have received your replacement seats, have you gotten the call tags yet?
- Those who contact SK with concern that their new radian might develop a problem with fraying because of the narrow buckle tongues, will be offered the wider version to PREVENT it from happening.
- All harnesses pass the same minimum standards and any car seat manufacturer could change the harness if they wanted to. It doesn't affect whether or not the seat still meets FMVSS 213 or CMVSS 213 standards. The harness is an integral part of the restraint, quite obviously, but it is the physical shell of the seat that makes or breaks whether a seat meets standards since all harnesses have passed the minimums.
I understand that we all get panicked when there's so much info coming from every direction. I believe that Russ and SK in general believe that the harness is safe to continue using with the pilling or a little fraying, however, in the name of keeping the customer happy and erring on the side of caution, they are offering to replace the seats.
Are there some finicky things with the Radian? Yes, I don't think anyone would argue about that. But I honestly think the whole buckle thing on this thread has been blown a bit out of proportion. :twocents:
I think what it comes down to is this - the Radian is still a relatively new seat. There are more and more being bought, and more people having questions or problems. I don't think it's a sign of inherent problems with the seat, but more that there's more seats being sold and used, therefore more problems being reported. Hopefully SK will be responsive & address the concerns like the chest clip and the narrow harness at the neck. Hopefully they will do something to address the incompatibility issues some vehicles have & maybe they'll redesign the harness so that it can be removed.
Something just to ponder... 6 months from now, unless Recaro has their new seat 100% absolutely perfect, we'll likely be seeing posts about their new convertibles. Not the same concerns, but there's likely going to be something that comes up.
I really hope that people aren't swayed from at least trying the Radian - it does have a lot of good features, and if it fits well in your vehicle, then it's a nice seat. It also has unique features you won't find in other seats.
