Using Force During Installation

When the tech helped install our TFP he put a pool noodle in the gap between the car's seat and the bottom of the car seat (although in another thread Wendy said you don't really need one there, this little gap is just created because of the way the ARB positions the seat and even appears in the instruction manual pics).

The pool noodle he used was the kind with a hole in the middle and when I undid the installation the pool noodle was not only flattened so that the hole was gone, it was so flat that the indentations of the bottom of the seat were left in the noodle (with a little bubble in the central area).

The tech (a police officer) used so much force to install the seat that he left my mom feeling that she really couldn't install the seat properly by herself. (I wasn't there.)

Awhile ago there was a thread about using your knee to install a seat and some people indicated it would be possible to use too much force during an installation and actually break a seat. If you've flattened a pool noodle to an indented pancake is a possible you used enough force to damage the seat? Or is that just what happens to pool noodles if you're not a weakling like me?

How much force is too much? And would you be at all concerned if someone used that much force to install your seat?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Pool noodles do compress and they do tend to keep the marks from the seats.
You are correct on the force though. When I was in training, I was dumb enough to let people practice installs with my seats (in my car) and one of the other students broke my convertible. He used so much force trying to get it in tight that he broke the recline feature on it.
You can use a knee if you have to but it is better practice if possible to use your non-dominant hand to press firmly on the seat and pull the belt tight with your dominant hand. Of course, if you cannot get tight enough with just a hand, you can use a knee but it shouldn't take more than that (and sometimes a bit of rocking on difficult installs).
You can always use a tightly rolled towell instead of the pool noodle if it makes you feel better and if you need something.

The force used during a typical installation do not even approach crash forces. I kneel in the seat, and it makes serious indents in the car, but it also gives me a seat that has a rock solid install. If you watch videos even by companies like graco they suggest kneeling in the seat.

A pool noodle is foam, it's pretty easy to make it into a pancake, especially when it has a hole.

That's pretty typical for a pool noodle. Did he not make sure she could do it before she left?

Maedze said:

That's pretty typical for a pool noodle. Did he not make sure she could do it before she left?

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Yeah that, he shouldn't be installing it for her but teaching her how to do it. Some people think I'm a car seat installing service but I'm not.

Maedze said:

That's pretty typical for a pool noodle. Did he not make sure she could do it before she left?

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I asked her that. She said he did. (I told her he should.) She just thought his installation was better. And I think he must have done it last because she didn't want to uninstall it for fear of undoing the tight install.

Good to know that's a normal response of a pool noodle and not unnecessary force. I just got concerned thinking of people breaking seats during an installation...

I do feel like my installs just aren't as tight as my husband's installs and it bothers me. He was able to get the foot prop on the Hi-Way to touch the floor by tightening the tethers when I had tightened them as far as I could and couldn't get it to touch. I'd like to take a tech course and maybe also do some weight lifting.

When I'm pregnant I often have my husband come out to help re-tighten our seats after I've got them in; I can get them acceptably tight (when heavily pregnant), he can get them tighter. I think a lot of what you learn with experience is how to use leverage and use the vehicle, seat, and your body together to get a tight installation; when I'm pregnant I know my center of gravity changing throws it all off.

ketchupqueen said:

when I'm pregnant I know my center of gravity changing throws it all off.

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People are always asking me if I'm pregnant so maybe that's my problem.

I wouldn't think so. I was just saying that I really think it's leverage and learning to work with your body and the seat and the car, because that will be different for each person to some extent.