toyotas and boosters

Babywearing Meghan

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #1

so is it true you can't lock the seat belt on a toyota when using a booster? if so would you do it anyways? I guess I am not liking the idea of not locking it on Fiona for the long ride in my moms toyota for their road trip..

(booster is happening basically cause she needs to be able to ride in a few different cars, with them and a properly used booster is safer at her age than an improperly used harnessed seat.. not sure my parents could properly install it even if I taught them.)

She sits correctly the whole time, BUT I worry that for the 3 hr road trip they are taking she will fall asleep and fall forward or something.

 

Babywearing Meghan

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #2

no input? maybe my question is in the wrong place?
I want to make sure they are as safe as possible in the car they have access too.

 

F

flutie128

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #3

I have a Sienna but I have never locked the belt for DS. I don't really see the issue with locking the belt though. I locked the belt when I installed his Nautilus.

 

Holly

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #4

I have a Camry and I locked the belt for my dd a few times, but then I heard the same thing somewhere here. I haven't locked it since then (but she isn't in it much, she is mainly still harnessed) but I haven't pulled out the car manual or anything else to check either.
So really, I'm no help at all. Sorry.

 

Babywearing Meghan

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #5

thanks for the input.. I just want to make sure I am probably more stressed over this than I should be, but It is a long ride, and she is bound to fall asleep, I am tempted to install the radian for her, in there untethered and give them the booster for the other cars to have for all the quick trips they take.

 

D

DahliaRW

New member

• Apr 18, 2011

• #6

My Sienna manual says not to. Don't know why, but it does. That being said, I don't see how locking it in a Sienna would be different than locking it in say, an Odyssey, kwim?

 

Babywearing Meghan

New member

• Apr 19, 2011

• #7

yea I see it that way too.. she is going in an avalon 2001 I think is what my mom said.. or 2000.. no top tethers or latch ect.. I am thinking of puzzling the seats Fiona in the center and Julianna on the driver side. make my sister sit on the outboard.. on seatbelt is twisted wrong and I tried to fix it last time and just gave up. that belt will not go to my kiddos lol

 

QuassEE

Moderator - CPST Instructor

• Apr 19, 2011

• #8

We used to recommend locking the belt for younger children in boosters, or who were booster training, back when we didn't have higher weight harnessed seats to recommend as a safer alternative. To the best of my knowledge, switching a retractor serves to eliminate one level of occupant protection in seating positions with pretensioners. This may result in additional slack in the belt in the event of a crash, meaning more forward momentum, and potential interior strikes, etc, because the pyrotechnic event in the pretensioners is not serving to cinch the belt up in a crash. I suppose that if this applies in regards to the belts in those seating positions in your vehicle or vehicles, you'll have to weigh the potential reduction in safety with the risks of the child being out of position if the belt were not switched.

Hopefully you'll get some other answers.

-N.

 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician

• Apr 19, 2011

• #9

So maybe it's bad in a seat with pretensioners, but I don't think I'd worry about it in a back seat of an older car, without them.
Here's a very informative page... this is the locking mechanism, and a pretensioner page is after it... http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/seatbelt3.htm
My suspicion is that Toyota is trying to write to the lowest common denominator: The person who thinks a 'booster' is a 'car seat' and will try to 'install' their kid into it, risking bruising and strangulation. But that's just my guess...

 

Pixels

New member

• Apr 19, 2011

• #10

I don't see how the pretensioner would fail to operate as intended with the belt locked. The belt can still retract. But I don't know, I don't pretend to be an expert on how the pretensioning system works.

If the manual says not to do it, I wouldn't do it. I don't know their reasoning; I don't have to know it. I assume that they had a good reason to bother writing it.

An untethered harnessed seat is no more dangerous than a booster when both are used properly. They must meet the exact same head excursion standard. A lot of people think that an untethered harnessed seat is more dangerous than a tethered seat (true, 9%) or a booster, when in actuality it's that the tethered seat is safer than an untethered seat or booster.

 

MommaWhitney

New member

• Apr 19, 2011

• #11

I wouldnt do it because it says not to. Its that simple.
Here is a picture of a 2011 camerys manual. Im renting it while my 09 sienna is in the shop and it says the same thing it it. I hope its readable.

Sent from my iPhone using Car-Seat.Org

 

christineka

New member

• Apr 19, 2011

• #12

I didn't know about this rule, but I once locked the belt on my ds because he was moving about. I learned that he's pretty skinny and could move sideways out from under the belt, while still remaining in his vivo. When he moved out from under the belt, it tightened up more. That meant, he couldn't fit back under the seatbelt without unbuckling and redoing it all. After that trip, ds went back into a harnessed seat.

 

mommycat

Well-known member

• Apr 19, 2011

• #13

From the wording in that manual, I would suspect it is not an issue in a crash scenario, but a potential issue with the belt continuing to tighten which could make the child uncomfortable and possibly get bruising or broken skin from the close contact (and I suppose even other issues from it being too tight, impaired circulation or something, dunno, just speculating). It really doesn't make it seem like a life or death danger (or they would include stronger wording with "death" or "fatal"). However, would I test that on my child? Not unless it was an emergency and no other options were possible. Has anyone called Toyota engineers about this?

 

D

DahliaRW

New member

• Apr 20, 2011

• #14

My BIL is a Toyota engineer and he has no idea. Though he works on chassis, not belts.

 

Angela

New member

• Apr 20, 2011

• #15

Are you putting her in the Vivo in your Siggie? Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with not locking the belt, but my son has also never slid out of the belt when asleep. He lays his head off to the side, but doesn't fall forward. The reason I'm asking what seat, is that some will support a child more than others. My son falls asleep easily in the Turbo and does just fine. I would think that with the Vivo's deep side and head bolsters, it shouldn't be a problem. I haven't played with one though, so that might not be the case. I'm just throwing that out there.

 

Babywearing Meghan

New member

• Apr 20, 2011

• #16

Angela said:

Are you putting her in the Vivo in your Siggie? Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with not locking the belt, but my son has also never slid out of the belt when asleep. He lays his head off to the side, but doesn't fall forward. The reason I'm asking what seat, is that some will support a child more than others. My son falls asleep easily in the Turbo and does just fine. I would think that with the Vivo's deep side and head bolsters, it shouldn't be a problem. I haven't played with one though, so that might not be the case. I'm just throwing that out there.

Click to expand...

Vivo OR a parkway sg, if I get one, my mom wants the parkway sg for the anti suberge clip lol.. I guess she saw it and thought it was great for a skinny kid like Fiona... but we have a vivo.. which do you think she would sleep better in? I am at this point contemplating a nautilus in the avalon untethered so she can sleep, and packing the booster for the other cars for their short drives.

 

mommycat

Well-known member

• Apr 20, 2011

• #17

Skinny, 42-ish lb DS1 has not done that well sleeping in our PWSG - he was ok when leaning towards the belt, but when he shifted to lean the other way, the belt ended up crossing over his upper arm rather than across his shoulder. I have had to move the headrest up a notch to get it to stay consistently placed even when he is awake. So I might be wary of that. :twocents:

 

christineka

New member

• Apr 20, 2011

• #18

None of my kids have had any issues sleeping in the vivo. They have in the turbo. We only tried out a parkway sg, but the sides of the seat and the headwings seemed more like the turbo's rather than the vivo's or even the os parkway. (Dd2 fell asleep today in her parkway and the head wings cradled her head nicely, so it stayed put.)