Any bright puzzling ideas for 24"?

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
I had a several-hour fight with carseats and the back row of my Pilot today. I worked on it so hard that I took of my socks, sweatshirt, and eventually had to turn on the ac, (in Ohio, in Feb)... plus I lost my shoe, lol. It was a heroic effort, but the Pilot won.

I need to put three kids back there, at least sometimes. I can put two carseats and my 8yo dcb back there; he's legal and mostly passes the 5-step test. I note "mostly" because although he passes, he won't stay like that the entire ride. I was hopeful, but he both slides down/slouches, and leans out of position to poke at the kids he's sitting near (not in a mean way.) It may be a possibility to constantly stay on him 'til he learns to sit right, but I'd much rather just put him in a backless. I thought he'd need a highback, but I had him in a backless yesterday and it fixed the problem.

I have a variety of kids, some RF, some FF, some either, some booster, and a variety of seats. I'm willing to put whoever wherever, I just need to fit them all back there.

The overall width of the seat isn't a problem, however, it's a 60/40 split and I cannot for the life of me get two seats to fit on the 60 portion. The driver's side has a fixed "plug" for the non-buckle end of the lap belt, and a long buckle stalk for the female end. The center has a long flexible stalk for the "plug" end, and a fixed stalk for the female end. These are both 3-point belts.

If I don't get the base of both seats totally within those fixed points, it doesn't work. They seem to be super-tight, then I remove one and yeah... independently installed they are not. There can be overhang on either side of the set, but both bases have to fit in between for the install to be tight.

I have the following seats:

Radian80SL
Coccoro
Nautilus
Cosco Ambassador
MyRide
Scenera
(Plus a Monterey on the way.)

Any combination of seats, RF or FF is fine, except FF Coccoro w/FF Scenera. I can make the other seats work as I need to; anything but the Nautilus works on the 40 split back there and I can put lots of combos in the second row, I think. I feel like at this point, getting this puzzle to work out is the key to getting the kids in the vehicle.

Thanks for any flashes of brilliance. Otherwise I guess I'm going to attempt to acquire a second Radian and hope it works. Sigh.
 
ADS

safeinthecar

Moderator - CPS Technician
I would think a ffing Radian and a rfing Coccoro would be your narrowest option. Rfing both the Radian and the My Ride would be a good bet too, as the Radian should fit under the edge of the My Ride.

Sometimes it can be hard with a switchable retractor to get a tight installation unless the carseat is dead center in between the anchor points. Using a locking clip instead may give you a tight off center fit.
 

Callansmomma

CPS Technician
Hey, it was pretty warm here today in Central Ohio!:) We were skiing and no one got cold. We even ran around without coats this afternoon.

I am trying to think what might work in your car.
 

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Yeah, I have no complaints about the temp! After the last few weeks, I'll take it. :) (BTW, somehow I missed that you were in Central OH too! We have quite the crew here!)

I asked my roommate to come give me a hand, and although she was less than thrilled (poor thing is carseated out, lol,) we managed to get it done. I got a RF Coccoro plus a RF Radian in there. The Radian is definitely firmly touching the seat in front of it, but I don't think it's bracing... the angle may change very slightly but at this point in time I'm okay with it. Of course I'm not a tech, but since SK won't provide a clear definition of firmly touching vs bracing, I'm gonna call caregiver decision on this one. And then I *think* I got the MR in there on the rest of the bench, but I didn't verify independent installs (I just can't do it tonight... lol...) so I'm not certain. And if that doesn't work, the Ambassador definitely does fit there.

I did try the RF MR and RF Radian combo, and it didn't work, though I don't remember exactly why. I tried so many combinations, lol... I think the bases had enough room but the tops not quite enough. I may re-try that another day, though. I'd really like to keep the Radian RFing, as otherwise I have to turn my 3yo, but I'm also not interested in keeping him RFing at that age at the expense of chancing his big brother being gutted by the belt. SBS is not okay with me.

Good thought on the locking clips. Every vehicle I've owned before this was ELR, I've never had ALR belts or LATCH. And always lap-only belts in the middle. Honestly, I'm finding I really miss my locking latchplates, I could install much more easily with them. And I even miss my stupid dangerous van, with ginormously hugely wide benches, that you could fit anything on easily. Now that I have belts that lock at the retractor, I forget that locking clips are an option. I'll give that a shot when I have more energy for the task.

Thanks ladies! :)
 

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