Why 30 degree recline for RF?

cat mommy

New member
Just curious why 30 degrees is considered an appropriate angle for older kids, versus, say 20 degrees or 10 degrees?
 
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bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I was actually going to ask this question too. Does anyone know why the "limit" is 30 degrees versus 20 or 25, 15, etc??
Aren't some swedish seats actually designed to be more upright?
I know the 45 is the limit to prevent overrotation....but wouldnt MORE upright have an even better chance of preventing overrotation? Is there like..underrotation or something? I realize for infant,s, it needs to be reclined for airway reasons..but I'm talking about the 3-4 year olds here. Why is more upright not better?
 

ahgirls

New member
Yeah! Before I found this site I was told the recline on older kids didn't matter as it was no diffrent the forward facing. Please someone explain to curious minds.
 

MaggieQ

Senior Community Member
I'm just assuming the seats have never been crash tested at a more upright angle. Also the leg room lessens the more upright the seat is. I have my big kids closer to 45 degrees again just for leg room.

Sent from my EVO using Car-Seat.Org
 

jess71903

Ambassador
Unless someone has some solid reason for it, I'm going with this: It hasn't been very long that we've been ERF in this country. I bet it's just a carry-over from RF being for little babies.
 

Keeanh

Well-known member
My seats are pretty flat. I just install as upright as I can. I can't get less than 30 deg. Even the Scenera, I install it flat on the seat with no pool noodle and it still ends up around 30deg with the weight of a child. Also, I admit, I'm not super-careful about the *35 deg* of the TF :whistle: . Might have to do with the lack of RF tethering on most seats, so you want the child a bit farther from the seatback? Or maybe companies are worried that people will get confused and leave a seat in FF mode to RF upright??
 

sunnymw

New member
If I had to guess I would say because most of our seats don't have rebound control the way Swedish seats do with their dual.tether and anti rebound bars.

Sent from my HTC Evo using Car-Seat.Org... please excuse typos and autocorrect!!
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
I've seen a senior checker go utterly ballistic that we got a Scenera RF at 38 and it was 'way too upright!!!!!' (It wasn't, for the young toddler in the seat, and allowed large grandmother to have legroom in the front seat :eek:)
Going too upright really does cut into legroom, though, and if they fall asleep (remember, the language is geared towards kids RFing to 2, sleepy toddlers...) their heads dangle... check out this nice upright 3 year old crammed into a couple old Britaxes... http://cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/TobyMA.aspx
 

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