Need carseat advice

If i need to install the seats on the two doors and width will not make a big difference then should i be going for a true fit then? is it better? how does it differ from the radian and a britax/

myztic said:

If i need to install the seats on the two doors and width will not make a big difference then should i be going for a true fit then? is it better? how does it differ from the radian and a britax/

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It's not "better" necessarily, it really depends what you're looking for. I would (and did) choose a True Fit over a Britax, personally. The new Britax ones coming out sound like they may be worth it again, but it sounds like you can't wait to see. As far as Radian vs True Fit, they both have good and bad points (and some things that one person sees as a disadvantage, another might love).

The Radian has a taller shell/higher rf weight limit, is much slimmer, and the XT has the big head wings. But it's a long seat front to back and can be difficult (or even totally incompatible) in some cars. The cover sounds like a pain to get off to clean (I haven't had to try yet). Though because it's slim, often it can fit in the middle between the front seats. If you end up deciding on a Radian, I wonder if you could get an old-style boot sent out at the same time. Apparently some get a better installation with it.

The True Fit has a no-rethread harness (which I love, I hate rethreading car seats for some reason) and the cover is a cinch to get on and off. It has slightly lower limits but still higher than Britax ones. It can only recline to 35 degrees, so I'm not sure if it would end up taking more or less room front to back than the Radian. It's a cinch to install, though I was glad to have someone show me the first time. But it's super wide. Some people don't like the continuous harness, though others really like it. The regular True Fit doesn't have a rf tether, the TFP has an anti-rebound foot. There are varying opinions about how important (or not) that is. The True Fit also has cup holders. I like the cover choices on the Radian better than with the TFP or TF.

(I am not a tech, so hopefully I haven't got anything wrong here!)

I wonder when the new Britax car seats will be available from Amazon? Cuz if it is a two week wait from now then I may as well wait it out and see if people do think the britax has a lot of potential. I just hope they have also made their forward facing a lot safer.

I wish someone else with a cayenne had tried the radian so I would know if it fits or not

Oh, the forward facing thing I think you are talking about is that Transport Canada did some tests, and some of the Marathons (as well as some seats from other brands) had their harness pull through the shell while forward facing. If I remember right though, the tests that happened on they were using dummies that were technically over the weight and/or height limits of the seat.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/safedrivers-childsafety-programs-testing-harness-report-923.htm

In some crashes the forces were so high that the child dummy tore the shoulder harness from the plastic mould it passed through. In eight tests the dummy pulled the harnesses through the child seat and in one, a chest clip broke. These seats were each being used for the first time and included:

two Graco Cargo seats installed in one vehicle during a 48 km/h rigid barrier crash test;

four Britax Marathon seats installed in three vehicles during 56 km/h tests; and

two Evenflo Bolero seats installed in one vehicle during a 56 km/h test.
The 6 year-old dummies seated in the Graco Cargo and Evenflo Bolero seats were over the recommended weight limit for these seats by approximately 2-3 kg (4-5 lb). At the time, the Britax seats were being sold in Canada with a recommended weight limit of 22 kg (48 lb). The harnesses in these eight seats tore through the seats, but the injury measures were within acceptable limits for seven of the eight. The dummy in the Marathon seat installed behind the passenger seat of a Ford Fusion hit the front passenger seat with its head. The Marathon harness did not pull through the shell in 10 other tests carried out with the 6-year-old dummy. The crash speeds for these other tests were between 48 and 56 km/h.

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oh ok, so it was not an accurate test because they were not the right size for the seats, right? that means the britax seats ARE still high in safety?

The tilting more and more issue I believe is usually in Sienna's.

In my experience the incompatibility issues with Radians usually come from one of two sources
1. the seat belt stalk is long - the Radians sit very low on the vehicle seat which combined with a tall belt stalk means the buckle is on the bend where it should go into the seat belt path. From your pictures it doesn't look like you have really long stalks but it is a bit hard to tell. You can twist them down up to 3 times to get them out of the way but that is impossible in some vehicles because they have rigid stalks.
2. the seat belt comes from a spot forward of the seat bight. Think mini-vans where the seat belt comes from the floor beside the seat. If the angle it comes up from is sort of in front of the car seat it doesn't work with the shallow profile of the Radian (hope I explained that well enough). I have this in my 3rd row and I can't get a Radian to work FF but it works great RF. It seems to be tight side to side but back to front it is super loose in my case. The only way I can picture this being an issue in a car/SUV is if you have super sculpted seats where the seat belt comes out of a sculpted side part.

I never thought I'd have a 4 year old RF but I do. He's super comfy and doesn't care at all. The funny part is that he sits cross legged FF as well so I have no guilt about his lack of leg room RF.

Thanks for such a thorough answer. It puts my mind at ease.

I haven't installed a child seat using latch before, is it possible to use the isofix if I put the seat in the middle of my car?

Also can someone that owns a radian measure for me how much the carseat comes out between the end of the back seat to the front seat headrest?
I just wanna know that it will be enough space without having to push front seat unusably forward

chay said:

The tilting more and more issue I believe is usually in Sienna's.

In my experience the incompatibility issues with Radians usually come from one of two sources
1. the seat belt stalk is long - the Radians sit very low on the vehicle seat which combined with a tall belt stalk means the buckle is on the bend where it should go into the seat belt path. From your pictures it doesn't look like you have really long stalks but it is a bit hard to tell. You can twist them down up to 3 times to get them out of the way but that is impossible in some vehicles because they have rigid stalks.
2. the seat belt comes from a spot forward of the seat bight. Think mini-vans where the seat belt comes from the floor beside the seat. If the angle it comes up from is sort of in front of the car seat it doesn't work with the shallow profile of the Radian (hope I explained that well enough). I have this in my 3rd row and I can't get a Radian to work FF but it works great RF. It seems to be tight side to side but back to front it is super loose in my case. The only way I can picture this being an issue in a car/SUV is if you have super sculpted seats where the seat belt comes out of a sculpted side part.

I never thought I'd have a 4 year old RF but I do. He's super comfy and doesn't care at all. The funny part is that he sits cross legged FF as well so I have no guilt about his lack of leg room RF.

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myztic said:

Also can someone that owns a radian measure for me how much the carseat comes out between the end of the back seat to the front seat headrest?
I just wanna know that it will be enough space without having to push front seat unusably forward

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Unfortunately it's going to be different for every car because it really depends on the angle you can get it installed in. The one incompatibility not mentioned above is that sometimes it over-reclines in some vehicles and will not stay upright, or that it's too long and interferes with newer car's airbags.