Baby Trend Flex Loc questions

My sister needs a new infant seat as her Snugride is expired. She is due in a few months with child number 6 so they are buying a new vehicle as well. They are getting a 12 passenger Chevy van. She is interested in buying the Baby Trend Flex Loc since they have it on Woot.com for only $50. But she has two questions so I told her I would ask here.

1) How is the seatbelt install? Her van will not have LATCH so it will need to be installed with the belt. I read in the little quick review that it can be hard, but does that mean impossible? The seat it will be installed on will be a captain's chair if that makes any difference.

2) Is it compatible with Graco products? The bottom of the seat looks very similar to Graco seats so she was hoping it might snap into a Graco stroller. Has anyone tried that?

3) Any reservations about this seat?

1. I had no issues with a seat belt install. I think the handle has to be back/down in the car, though.

2. Not positive, but I know Graco seats are listed as compatible with Baby Trend strollers.

3. Nope! It was in my top 3 running seats because of how narrow it is.

eta: it does have a puzzle buckle.

The seatbelt install may well be incompatible, it's got a very narrow foot that might not work with a long buckle stalk. The handle MUST be down in the car. If she has time to do that every time, that's cool, but I'm way too busy to bother with it and must have a seat that I can leave the handle up, personally . It has a plastic 'puzzle buckle' that you have to hold together to be able to clip the harness, which can be a bit challenging with a wiggly baby in the seat. The weight and height limits seem very exaggerated (if it's the 30lb/30" seat model?...it's very short and narrow...fine for a very petite kiddo, but won't last anywhere near as long as a Snugride 35). Not sure about the compatibility... probably....?

I've had a few seatbelt installs where it was ok. Otherwise it was blood sweat and tears.

Wendy

Hmm, not sure if I should recommend it or not. I'm not worried about the handle being down because she was under the impression that her Snugride required that too and has always put the handle down. She doesn't even have the van yet so I'm not sure how she could test out the install.

1) How is the seatbelt install?
The seatbelt install was very easy in both my cars ('05 Matrix and '10 Tucson). I wasn't able to get a good LATCH install.

2) Is it compatible with Graco products? The bottom of the seat looks very similar to Graco seats so she was hoping it might snap into a Graco stroller. Has anyone tried that?
Never tried.

3) Any reservations about this seat?
I really liked how narrow it was in my car. It's very easy to adjust the harness height (just turn knob on the back). The base/seat release is by the baby's feet, which I like. The puzzle buckle was a little annoying, but not a big deal. The handle has to be down in the car, but also not a big deal at all for me.

I had this seat and my DS outgrew it by weight at 4 months. He is really chunky though.
I did not like the puzzle buckle, did not like that I could not get it tight enough with the latch because the big latch things got stuck against the base, did not like the seatbelt install in DH's car, or putting the handle down, though that did seem pretty natural to me since there were several times I looked back to check that it was down and didn't even notice that I automatically put it down.
I did like the harness adjustment, the colors it came in, it wasn't really heavy and also how the release button was at the front instead of back. I would have kept it if I had the higher RF one and if my cousin didn't need it for her DS.

it will not work on graco strollers... the baby trend trays have these big slots (I think now they are disguised as cupholders.. in the past, you had to slide the real tray out and down to expose a bar for clicking) similar to how evenflo has to attach.

for an inexpensive infant seat, I'd be more apt to get the safety 1st comfy carry elite from kmart - http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/s_10151_...yword=comfy+carry+elite&viewItems=25&sLevel=1

Seat belt installs with this thing are a real pain. I had a LATCH install in my car, and it took me 5 minutes to get a solid install. I spent 20 minutes installing this base with a seat belt (in another vehicle) and it truly was blood sweat and tears. I tore up my hands trying to get the seat belt routed, and trying to stick my hands in there to reach the belt (which i lost hold of a dozen or so times and had to start over) It was a necessary install at the time (since the boy i was watching thought it would be "fun" to unbuckle the base on his way in) and i nearly chucked the base out the window.

The puzzle buckle has not been an issue with this baby, but if the baby is at all squirmy, or crying, it could take a year buckle the baby up.

The release (from base) is up in front (by baby's feet) and can be a real issue to get to in some vehicles (depending on the vehicles seats) especially for those with bigger hands)

The triangle handle is difficult for me to carry. I have issues carrying infant seats anyways, due to my height, but with most infant seats, i can loop my arm through the handle, and carry the seat up near my stomach/chest area, this makes it impossible, so i have to carry the seat with one hand on the back of the seat, and one on the front. The handle is equally awkward to carry IMO.

The no rethread adjust is nice, but wouldn't make me buy the seat, with all the other things i dislike about it. I could get over the base install, since most likely she'd only have to do it once, but, the rest of those things are kind of a pain IMO.

As for if it will work with a graco stroller, i highly doubt it. Graco makes their strollers to match their snugrides and safeseats, and that's about it. Every stroller i've seen from graco has specifically said that they are only compatible with their infant seats.

It doesn't snap into the Graco stroller, but it totally works and is stable. The seat won't fall out of the stroller unless you roll the stroller over onto its side. We did this all the time with DD (BabyTrend seat and Graco stroller) and it was fine.

The seatbelt install on the base is no that bad, IMO. I'd rather do LATCH when it's available in that seating position, but I'll install with seatbelt in the center rather than LATCH outboard. The belt path is exposed and nothing blocks access.

I like that the release is by baby's feet rather than head. That means that the front seat and carseat can be jammed together, and you can still get the infant seat out without having to move the front seat up.