Harness tightening ?

My friend messaged me through FB saying this,

"why is it that once the seat is installed that the straps tighten "unevenly" once the child is seated in the carseat (I have this issue with my Marathon and Radian that my dd (3) rides in AND with my Regent and Nautilus that my ds (6 1/2) rides in--and related to that, why are they SO HARD to tighten properly in the car? I am constantly having to make my child get out of the seat, slightly adjust, put them in, take them out, adjust some more, etc... Once they are adjusted, I don't touch them, but if my husband or sitter drive them, they loosen the straps to take the kids out of their seats and then it starts all over again... what is causing this and can I do anything about it?"

I told her,

"Some seats have a continuous harness, meaning that the harness is just one big strap so it goes under the seat itself. Sometimes this causes the strap to get caught on one side or the other causing the issue you describe. On seats like the Nautilus where it's not a continuous strap sometimes it's the splitter plate (the piece the straps connect to on the back when you adjust harness position height) that is getting caught on something. Otherwise, I'm at a loss. I'll hop on to cs.o & ask there too."

So ol' wise ones, what else could be the issue? She never mentioned this the last time I helped her with her seats otherwise I would've checked things to help find the issue.

TIA.

Could be the kid not sitting in the center of the seat or leaning as well. All the seats you said I think have separated harnesses. I know the RN an fr85 do.

Only one I don't know for sure is the regent. The rest do.

But neither of her seats have a continuous harness, so that can't be it.

Did she misrouted one of the Britax hip straps?

Kid sitting lopsided or not pulling both hip areas tight are the most usual culprits.

LISmama810 said:

Kid sitting lopsided or not pulling both hip areas tight are the most usual culprits.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

Thats what I was thinking, that is the only time I have ever had that issue with a non continuous harness seat.

Ok, I'll suggest that to her. Although, I'm 99% sure that's not the problem. She's an absolute nut about car seat safety like we all are (I keep telling her to come join our craziness) so she's really on to her kids about sitting appropriately.

I couldn't remember if the MA was a continuous strap or not but knew the rest weren't.

I have a similar problem with my Radian65s. When I looked at the harness straps on the back, the problem seemed to be where they hook on to the adjuster strap. Since both straps go onto the same piece, one of them is on top of the other and that side is the looser one when I strap them in. Is there a way to get them more level-ly attached on the back so they lay evenly on the shoulders?