The OnSide Air....with pics

I thought I'd stop by KMart today and see if they'd taken the onSide Air and Boost Air out of the box yet. The Boost Air was still unopened, but they onSide was out.

Yup, it's a well padded Scenera. BUT. I like the Scenera. And it fit my short torso'd kid - and my budget at the time. And it was easy to install RF once I knew how to work around the funny shape of the front of the base.

However, the foam, air pockets, and cover, make for one narrow seat . DS is 10" from shoulder to shoulder and I didn't like the way he had to sit in the seat, then do a bunch of adjusting to squeeze his shoulders in.

DS Stats/History:
4yrs 10mths, 42lb (fully clothed, no shoes), 41.5" tall, 13.5" torso.
He regularly rides in a Radian65. Backup is a GN, Grandma's backup is now a TB.
He outgrew RF at 3yrs 7mths, 35lb AND the 1" rule in an AOE (before we got the Radian)

Full Frontal....hehehe
Don't mind the harness straps, the paper is still attached to the seat and I couldn't take it off.


He had 3.5" of harness left


And a full 1" to the top slots...darn that 40lb limit! ::shakes fist::



The seat in full recline



There is only .5" of space there


Super short crotch strap. I had to take DS out of the seat to really look, but the crotch of his jeans was about halfway between the middle and most forward slot. But I REALLY had to dig for the crotch strap, and when I finally got it buckled, I think I pinched him a little in the thigh. Glad he wasn't wearing shorts.


Overall impressions? Meh. I liked the Scenera. I LOVED my Uptown, and that seat is it NOT! But it's an ok choice if you want a cheaper seat with padding, I guess. Or if you're not too seat savvy. Although I might even chose the Titan over this if I didn't know any better, I mean, it goes to 50lb, right!?

Side note: As I was putting it back on the shelf a couple walks by with a little girl who doesn't look a day over 1year old. They're eye-balling the Air seats and the woman kept saying, "but this one goes to 100lb!" To which Dad would reply, "but she's not even 30lb yet. It says minimum 30lb." DS finally walks over and points to the Boost Air and says, "THIS seat is for big boys like me, not little babies. Buy THIS one (the OnSide) and make her sit backwards like a baby."

Oh, I could have cried tears of joy! LOL. We laughed and dad said thanks. I took that quick moment to point out that he was right and quickly explained ERF. As I strapped DS in the car I saw them come out of the store with the pink Scenera...works for me!

these seats have no eps foam, correct?

Does it seem narrower than the Uptown? I hated how narrow that was.

And good for DS :thumbsup:

FYI, that's not how you measure for rear facing head room. The ruler should be parallel to the top of his head, not an angle to it. Looks like he has a good 2" of clearance there....he would still fit by height rear facing! Great pictures. Did you happen to peak under the cover at the 'air bags'?

Maedze said:

FYI, that's not how you measure for rear facing head room. The ruler should be parallel to the top of his head, not an angle to it. Looks like he has a good 2" of clearance there....he would still fit by height rear facing! Great pictures. Did you happen to peak under the cover at the 'air bags'?

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I'm confused...Based on thread, I don't see how the measurement is off. Even just eye-balling it, I could tell it was outgrown RF right away.

NannyMom said:

Does it seem narrower than the Uptown? I hated how narrow that was.

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It's probably about the same. I sold mine to Andie. So DS was a lot smaller when he was in it.

love-pink said:

these seats have no eps foam, correct?

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no, but between the little air bags and the padded cover, i don't think it would be missed unless that's really important too you.

I know the Scenera generally fits newborns good. I think if Dorel came up with an infant insert for the seat, it could be a contender to skip the bucket.

BabyKaykes said:

I'm confused...Based on

thread, I don't see how the measurement is off. Even just eye-balling it, I could tell it was outgrown RF right away.

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http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201

I agree, it looks like he has more that .5 above his head, but that just might be how he's holding his head in the picture. You would have to put the flat edge against his head to measure from, rather than trying to measure from the top of the shell.

BabyKaykes said:

I'm confused...Based on

thread, I don't see how the measurement is off. Even just eye-balling it, I could tell it was outgrown RF right away.



.

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The ruler needs to be at a right angle to the back of the seat and parallel to his head. You've got it at a serious angle. I'm going to steal your picture and show you in my next post

There ya go. The Red line is where you measure the top of the shell. THe Blue line is where his head is. The green line is approximately the 1" mark.....so you've got 1" of torso growth left. He fits rearfacing by height with room to grow

(Also, I know the new Scenera 40s have eliminated the 1" room in favor of 'even with the top of the shell'. This seat may have the same rule, in which case he'd outgrow it at the red line, not the green.)

Maedze said:

There ya go. The Red line is where you measure the top of the shell. THe Blue line is where his head is. The green line is approximately the 1" mark.....so you've got 1" of torso growth left. He fits rearfacing by height with room to grow

(Also, I know the new Scenera 40s have eliminated the 1" room in favor of 'even with the top of the shell'. This seat may have the same rule, in which case he'd outgrow it at the red line, not the green.)

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That is an AWESOME picture.... my kids are no where near outgrowing their TF's but i always sort of wondered how to "correctly" measure, and i had read the previous threads but was still a little unclear .... this illustration has made things crystal clear.

And OP thanks for the pics.... I think I'll stick to a Scenera for a back up, I've got lightweights

Plus with the seat on the floor, he's at a full 45deg recline. I imagine once it was installed/more upright he'd gain more room. Gravity tends to help with that.

Maedze said:

There ya go. The Red line is where you measure the top of the shell. THe Blue line is where his head is. The green line is approximately the 1" mark.....so you've got 1" of torso growth left. He fits rearfacing by height with room to grow

(Also, I know the new Scenera 40s have eliminated the 1" room in favor of 'even with the top of the shell'. This seat may have the same rule, in which case he'd outgrow it at the red line, not the green.)

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks! That's good to know.

Too bad he's maxed out every limit on this seat, though...I hope my next kid has this small of a torso...