Question Harness will not loosen on Safety 1st Alpha Omega or Complete Air 65

We're trying to install a rear-facing convertible car seat in the back seat of a 2008 Grand Cherokee (using LATCH), but are having no luck. We first tried with a Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite, but once I finally got it installed nice and snug with the proper incline the harness straps would not loosen once we got to where we were going. We had to unbuckle the harness without loosening it and squeeze our daughter out of it. Once she was out, the harness would loosen like it should... everything worked fine as long as the seat was empty. Assuming it was just a defective seat, we returned it and figured we'd take our chances with a Complete Air 65... the same company and a few more bucks, but as long as she's safe and the straps worked we didn't care. We tested the seat (with her in it) on our living room floor and it worked great, but once it was installed in the Jeep we had the same problem: straps will not loosen if she's in it. It has to be impossible to get two defective seats in a row, so there must be a problem with the install or the vehicle. Everything seems good (I've uninstalled and reinstalled the seat a few times), and have tried using both a towel and a fat pool noodle to adjust the incline. If any body has any ideas or any experience with this, I sure would appreciate it.

Ok dont quote me on it, but I believe both those seats come with their latch straps set to Forward Facing, did you switch them to Rear Facing? If not that may be interfering with the adjustor since they run under the cover...i vaguely remember this happening with my complete air

Thanks for the reply, Brittney. I think we got everything figured out late last night. It seems that because we weren't pulling straight up and out on the harness tightening strap, it was getting caught underneath the harness release lever. When we went to push down on the release lever it wouldn't go anywhere because the strap was pinched underneath, but once we pried our daughter out and there was no tension on the harness the strap would fall into place and the lever would move just fine. This was never an issue with our Graco SnugRide seat, but I think the thinner straps on the Safety 1st seats give a little less room for error.

We were more careful this morning and had a safe and stress-free trip to grandma's house because of it.

Thanks again for your help.

I had this problem with my Alpha Omega too! Glad to hear you figured it out, we sold our seat cause it was just being to big of pain!!!

Lucky you! You unknowingly returned an OK seat for a great seat. The Complete air is recommended here often. It fits most any kid to 40 pounds rear facing. Feel free to search this forum for pictures because many techs & advocates here keep their 2,3 and even 4 year olds rear facing in that seat.

Hope you stick around!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sssIsceKd6U"]YouTube - Rear facing vs forward facing position in the car[/ame]

Can anyone with a LATCH manual check if the 2008 Cherokee allows center LATCH?

You're asking about the OP's 2008 Grand Cherokee, right? There is no 2008 Cherokee - its last model year was around 2001. The 2009 LATCH manual indicates 2005-2009 Grand Cherokees have dedicated sets of LATCH on the rear passenger side and driver's side. Jeep allows two outboard LATCH installations, or 1 center LATCH installation in the 2005-2009 Grand Cherokees by borrowing an innermost lower anchor from each outboard set of lower LATCH anchors if the child restraint has flexible lower LATCH connectors (not rigid LATCH), and if the child restraint allows LATCH installs with lower anchors spaced 480 mm apart. The LATCH manual indicates Dorel branded carseats (Safety 1st, Cosco, Eddie Bauer, Maxi Cosi) allow borrowing to do a center LATCH install if the vehicle manufacturer allows it, so that would be an allowable install method in the OP's vehicle.