For those of you who weren't following or didn't comment on my question to Britax on their Facebook page, we have a very polite response that they are not ignoring us, and that they have taken the issue to their engineers and will get back to us as soon as they have an answer :thumbsup:
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Britax rear facing room issue
- Thread starter Maedze
- Start date
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The overall shell height of the new seats actually appears to have been slightly lowered from the original style. The manual specifies that the child's head must be 1" below the top of the seat for rear-facing. If that's correct, the seat will likely not last to 40 pounds rear facing, perhaps not even the original 35.
However, if they are counting the adjustable headrest in shell height, the way they do with the Frontier, then the overall rear facing room will have increased sufficiently to make the 40 lb rear facing limit realistic.
Of course, I'm rather hopeful it's the latter
Jennifer mom to my 7
Well-known member
I do want to add something here. How are and were they measuring overall shell height? I just measured my decathlon, and got the same measurement as Kecia on the shell height, but with the comfort foam in place, without the foam it would probably be about an inch taller. Do the new seats also have the comfort foam? I also wonder, as Kecia alluded to, whether the shape of the seat itself will add some height, as it sort of cups around the child, am I making sense?
Kecia
Admin - CPST Instructor
The overall shell height of the new seats actually appears to have been slightly lowered from the original style. The manual specifies that the child's head must be 1" below the top of the seat for rear-facing. If that's correct, the seat will likely not last to 40 pounds rear facing, perhaps not even the original 35.
However, if they are counting the adjustable headrest in shell height, the way they do with the Frontier, then the overall rear facing room will have increased sufficiently to make the 40 lb rear facing limit realistic.
Of course, I'm rather hopeful it's the latter
I can't speak for the other new Britax convertibles with a different head restraint design (Blvd, Advocate) but there's no way you could safely use the MA70 rf with the top of the child's head extended beyond the shell. Only the flat portion directly behind the child's head can be raised beyond the shell (on the MA70) so there would be no way to safely contain the head in a crash when the child was rf. Plus, the way that adjustable headrest is designed to flex and move with the head in a crash (within the confines of the shell) means it's flimsy. Check out the video in today's blog to see what I mean.
Yep, I think Kecia is right. I looks like the new 70 seats may need a redesign like the original Frontier did.
Thanks for your evaluation. I had similar concerns when I watched your video, but I'm still hopeful
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