Question best seats to fit 3 in a row

fit 3 in a row- never mind just need to chose between Symphony and Radian

I have a 15 passenger van and need to put booster seats, forward facing harness seats, and 1 rear facing harness seat in it. I have 4 kids of my own and the other 5 are daycare kids that I transport on field trips.
My kids are 9, 7, 4 and 2 yrs old. The daycare kids are 8, 6, 4, 18 mo., and 5 mo. old. Any Thoughts would be great.
Currently I have 2 evenflo booster seats with high backs, 2 alpha omega that expire this year, and one other birth to 60lbs. seat. Not sure of the brand. It is an Eddie Bauer edition to some brand. I would like to replace the Alpha and get another birth to 80 lbs. seat for the youngest kid I watch.
Thanks.

Could you elaborate a little on who is currently using what seat, which kids will be riding at the same time, and approximate height and weight of each child? That would help a bit. Also, what model and year van is it?

I have a 2008 chevy express 3500. It seats 15 total. I have 3 rows of 3 seats and 1 row of 4 seats. Currently I have my 9 yr old and my 7 year old in the evenflo high back boosters. My 4yr old and a 4 yr old daycare kid also use these 2 booster seats. My 2 yr. old rides in an eddie bauer birth to toddler seat. In the cosco alpha I have an 18 mo. old daycare kid. The infant daycare kid has his own seat but I am looking to use a birth to toddler seat for him cause it is getting hard to lift him up into the van. My van has the LATCH system in every outboard seat. It says in my owners manual not to put 3 in a row but I don't know why. Maybe because it is hard to get 3 seats to fit properly. The middle seats are narrower than the outer ones. All seats have shoulder harness seat belts.
My two alphas expire this year so I will need 3 seats total.
My kids weights are:
9- 57l bs.
7-47 lbs.
4- 38 lbs.
2- 28 lbs.
Not sure of their heights. My oldest is on the short side for her age. My 7 yr old is a little tall for her age and my 4 yr. old is tall for his age as well. He is in 5T clothes.
I think that is all the info the pp asked for.

csully4 said:

I have a 2008 chevy express 3500. It seats 15 total. I have 3 rows of 3 seats and 1 row of 4 seats. Currently I have my 9 yr old and my 7 year old in the evenflo high back boosters. My 4yr old and a 4 yr old daycare kid also use these 2 booster seats. My 2 yr. old rides in an eddie bauer birth to toddler seat. In the cosco alpha I have an 18 mo. old daycare kid. The infant daycare kid has his own seat but I am looking to use a birth to toddler seat for him cause it is getting hard to lift him up into the van. My van has the LATCH system in every outboard seat. It says in my owners manual not to put 3 in a row but I don't know why. Maybe because it is hard to get 3 seats to fit properly. The middle seats are narrower than the outer ones. All seats have shoulder harness seat belts.
My two alphas expire this year so I will need 3 seats total.
My kids weights are:
9- 57l bs.
7-47 lbs.
4- 38 lbs.
2- 28 lbs.
Not sure of their heights. My oldest is on the short side for her age. My 7 yr old is a little tall for her age and my 4 yr. old is tall for his age as well. He is in 5T clothes.
I think that is all the info the pp asked for.

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When you said you only have one child rear facing I looked at the ages and weights of the kiddos, and you should have at least 3 kiddos rear facing if not 4. Your 2 yr old, the 5 month old, the 18 month old most definately should be. Your 4 yr old could still be depending on which seat you get. I would also recommend harnessing the other 4 year old.

Does your manual say not to put 3 car seats in a row using LATCH? Or did it just say in general "Do not put 3 car seats in the same row". You can use the 2 outboard positions using latch and the inner position you have to use the seat belt. I have my LATCH manual at home that I'll look at when I get the chance.

The only seat I can think of in your situation is the Radian XTSL for your 4 year old to rear face in (it goes up to 45lbs) and another Radian for the other 2.
So, I guess in your case you should actually get 5 new seats. I would recommend Graco Nautilus seats for the 4 and 6 year olds (if you don't want to rear face them), 2 radian seats for the 18 month old and the 5 month old to rear face in.

LuciaBella said:

When you said you only have one child rear facing I looked at the ages and weights of the kiddos, and you should have at least 3 kiddos rear facing if not 4. Your 2 yr old, the 5 month old, the 18 month old most definately should be. Your 4 yr old could still be depending on which seat you get. I would also recommend harnessing the other 4 year old.

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This exactly. The 3 youngest definitely should be rear facing, and if the 4 y.o. can, that's good too. I probably wouldn't buy a seat JUST to rear face the 4 y.o., but if that child needs a seat right now anyway, it might as well be rear facing. The 4 year olds really really should be harnessed though, whether it's rear facing or forward facing. At that age, they lack the maturity to sit properly and perfectly in a booster seat every ride, the whole ride. In addition, your 4 year old has not yet reached 40 lbs. Do you have approximate weights/sizes of your daycare kiddos? That's something you'll need to know to be sure they are in an appropriate seat as well.

The Radians are an excellent suggestion, but also check out the Graco My Ride 65 for the 3 youngest--a little less expensive.

So you have 2 high back boosters shared by 4 kids? Does this mean you do not have all the kids riding with you at once? I'm a little confused about your current set up, as it seems you have more kids than seats listed.

I'm very pleased to see that you've checked your owners manual about the car seats! Does yours have any limitations on child restraints in the last row? Some do.

I don't believe there is any Eddie Bauer seat with a 60# harness limit. Could you check, please, while you're checking all the other things pps have asked?

I second the opinions about putting (at least) the 3 youngest back RFing... and reharnessing the 4yos.

I, too, am a daycare provider, and had a bit of a shock when I found this board last year and realized how unsafely I'd been transporting my dck. (The irony of the situation is that I had been transporting many of them *more* safely than they rode in their own vehicles... I always RF'd to 1/20, FF'd to 40lbs and boostered to 8 & 80.) The idea of having to buy a half-dozen new seats was really daunting... as I read this thread I thought it might help to make some suggestions to you with that in mind.

(As I say all of this please realize that I'm not a tech... it's just my opinions based on what I've read here, and based on my experiences.)

The oldest few -- your child 9, daycare child 8, yc7, and *maybe* dck6 are fine in boosters, preferably highback. If your van is like mine (and I believe most 15 passengers are,) the safety ratings are not great and since I can't get a new vehicle, I try to afford the kids every protection I can.

Both 4yos should be harnessed, if not RFing. I love my Graco Nautilus, but when I first started replacing seats, it seemed very expensive. I purchased two Apexes (which have their own caveats,) but since then a few more higher weight harnessing seats have come on the market. You can look at the Evenflo Generations or Maestro for more budget-friendly options.

As a general strategy, I have purchased seats that are more expensive and put them into use at the top of their "use range," knowing I could pass them down, while using what I had for the kids who more easily fit into those categories. Rather, in plain English... I bought a MyRide for a 38lb 2 year old, knowing that he wouldn't have much time in it, but also knowing that I could pass it down to the 4 month old I had. In the meantime, I put the baby into a Scenera. Likewise, I bought the Nautilus for a tall then-7yo, knowing that she'd only last the summer in it, but also knowing that I could pass it down to a 4yo, who I put in an Apex for a while. I used what I had as much as possible, replaced the most critical seats first, and went from there. (I think it took me about six weeks to reseat everyone, and a few have gotten new seats yet again.)

So to apply that to your situation... you have an easy fix with the 18mo, just turn the Cosco Alpha around backwards. No new seat needed, five times safer child. (That seat is only 20% as effective installed forward facing!) I know you'll have to replace it within the year, but it will at least get you started while you focus on seats for the other kids.

For your 2yo, you might want to look at a MyRide or TrueFit... depending on whether your child is shorter and more "solid," or thinner and taller. The MR rearfaces to 40lbs, but has a shorter shell than the TF. The TF, on the other hand, has the taller shell but only goes to 35lbs RFing. (It's hard to know if "2" is "just had a birthday," or "is almost 3," so it's hard to know how the child is trending.)

If you're looking for an inexpensive seat for the baby, you could pick up a Cosco Scenera, or a Safety 1st Avenue. Or, for that matter, the babe could use the second Alpha Omega, until it expires.

Other frequently recommended convertible seats are the Complete Air (very tall shell, rearfaces to 40lbs,) the Evenflo Triumph Advance (rearfaces to 35lbs, but has super easily adjusted harness, which makes it great for sharing between kids!) and the Radian, which as noted above is the only seat that rearfaces to 45lbs (if you're interested in re-RFing your 4yo.)

As for why we're all going on about rearfacing... as mentioned, it keeps your kids five times safer, at least through age 2, and a recent British study indicated it's beneficial through age 4. And that's only what's been studied... although it's always safer to rearface (for everyone, including adults!) the safety benefit does decline at some point, I believe between ages 4-6. The danger, particularly to the under-4 set, is that a child's bones don't ossify until around age 4 and this means their neck can stretch 1.5-2" (I think that's the correct figure) in an accident, but the spinal cord can stretch only around 1/2" in an accident. Check out Joel's Journey on youtube to find a story of a grandfather whose grandson has gone through just that. His Grandpa is now a huge "extended rearfacing" advocate.

Also... a reminder to tether your forward facing seats to reduce head exertion. I didn't think my van had tethers, then got told otherwise by the lovely ladies here, lol.

Sorry... I know that's really long but I felt really compelled to say a few things, I think because I identify with needing to get car seats by the batch, lol. And of course my needs change as my daycare kiddos change...

One final thought as I reread your posts -- if the manual does not expressly prohibit 3 carseats per row, a Radian might be your best bet for those middle seatbelts, since it's the narrowest seat on the market. But, it sounds like you have more seats than kids, so you might not need to fit 3 in a row. If you definitely do, then some of my above suggestions might not be the best.

Chickabuddy... I think there was a 50lb Eddie Bauer that I read of somewhere, when checking a harness limit on a seat one of my dc families had. But I've never seen a 60lb either.

Wow thanks so much for all the input. I guess my post was a little confusing as to who was in what seats. During the day I have 2-4 yr. olds 2 yr old .18 mo old and 5 mo. old. All others are at school. I was giving it some thought and realize that the 4 yr. olds should be in a harness and the other 3 could/ should be rear facing. So I guess I need a total of 4 seats for now and possibly a 5th for the 5 month old in a few weeks. I was thinking 4 radians but some others have been suggested. I am not concerned with cost I just want the kids to be safe and relatively easy to get in and out of the van. Thanks.

I was thinking of having all seats that go from birth to whatever weight they need to be before a booster is ok. My cosco expirres this year and I think the unknown eddie bauer also expires soon. So all I need are seat for the 4 yr olds. 2 yr old and 18 mo old right now. Thanks again. You are all awesome.

Ok so now you have been educated on re-harnessing and extended rear facing.
Honestly, if you really want to get 4 "birth to before booster" seats, then I would go for any of the radians.
If you don't want to spend 1000 dollars on car seats, I would recommend 2 graco Nautilus seats which are only forward facing, but they harness to 65lbs, then turn into a booster up to 100lbs. Then I would get 3 radians or graco myrides for the younger ones to rear face in. This will save you money because the 2 older kids will not need the rear facing portion which you are spending money on. Then when the 4 year olds grow out of the harness portion, you can use it as a booster without having to buy more seats for them.

Hope that helps.

I dug up my owners manual for my unknown eddie bauer and it is called a vantage point. The manual says you can harness up to 40 lbs. So I need 4 seats and possibly an infant one for teh 5 mo. old so I can still see out the back doors. The ones I have been looking at are Symphony, MyRide, Coccuro, RadianXTSL, and the TrueFit. I would love any feedback on these. I like the no re thread option on the truefit and symphony. The booster seats said they are good for 30 lbs. so I figured they were ok to not being harnessed. I did have the over 1 yr rearfacing until I broke the clip on one of the Alphas. Then I had to rearrange and had to have them ff. Now that I have this van I can turn them back around. Because I do daycare I would like to only buy seats that will work for all ages since they kids I have with me changes some years.

The Coccoro, and probably the Symphony, will not get kids anywhere near booster size/age.

I checked my vans owners manual last night and it says not to put 3 child restaints in the same row. There are only 2 top tethers in each row and 2 sets of the LATCH system in each row. Oh well. I'm leaning towards a truefit and radian for now.

Are you sick of me and my questions yet? Last one i swear. Symphony vs. Radian or both. I also need a good infant carrier/seat. Thanks everyone for your help.

Radian. But I'd consider the My Ride and True Fits as well since you can't do 3 across anyway--you'll save some $$. Maybe one 45 lb RF Radian and two My Rides/True Fits. For an infant seat (you mean the bucket that snaps into a base, right?) the Graco Snugride 32/35 is a great choice--easy to use and will fit babies/toddlers the longest. If you're finding you don't like lifting the little guy in and out right now, you can just leave the seat in the car and use it like a convertible, but you'll have the option of taking it in and out with future day care babies.

Oh, and "convertible" is just the term for the seats you're calling "birth to toddler." It simply is a seat that rear faces and then forward faces.

I like the true fits too. Man so many to chose from.I was concerned that with the truefit I would have to by yet another seat when my kids outgrow them and need booster seats. The symphony 65 would cover the booster seat need as well.I think I am going to take a ride to the local toyrus and take along one of my kids and see what I like best. I'm thinking a Chicco keyfit 30 for the infants I might watch. I should have specified symphony 65 but I didn't realize there were other models. Thanks for the input. I love it.