Please tell me that the techs in my area are misinformed

This is a long one!!!

DS is 13 months, 21 pounds and 30 inches.

We have a Britax Boulevard installed in the middle seat with the seatbelt.

From my understanding it is:
1. Safest in the middle, but no latch can be used (2007 Toyota Prius)
2. Safest rear-facing until the upper parameters of the seat.
3. His recline must be between 30 and 45 degrees but not exactly 45 degrees now that he is older.

On to my question...
I want to move my seat a little so that he is not reclining so much, I think he would be more comfortable. Also, the way that it is installed right now since it has to be installed with the seatbelt it leans to the side.

How much can I set him up? How can I tell if it is 30 degrees? How can I make it so that the seatbelt doesn't make the seat lean over? I got conflicting advice about using a locking clip. One person told me to put a locking clip on that side to hold the shoulder harness down, while another told me that it was unsafe to to that and to leave it leaning.

I can't find answers anywhere, I hope that I find them here!!!

One other thing, those black clips on the side of the Boulevard to hold the seatbelt in - do they have to be clipped? If they are, then the seat seems to not be reclined enough. Any experience here?

THANKS SO MUCH.

30 degrees will look pretty upright. That is fine as long as he's okay with it.

You can prevent the tipping to the side by using the built in lock-offs (the little black clip on the side). Use the lock-off farthest from the buckle. Put both the lap and shoulder portion of the belt in the lock-off. Then, after it's locked you can lock the seatbelt (pull the shoulder belt all the way out of the vehicle seat and then let it ratchet back in). Do not lock the seatbelt first and then try to use the built-in lockoff (it will be near impossible to close the built-in lock off).

After you've installed it, it will be pretty upright. Use the rear-tether and attach it to something in the car that is bolted down and non-movable, like the front seat post. Then you can adjust the recline by tightening the tether. Plus, it adds stability and prevents rebound in an accident.

P.S. If you have locking seatbelts you don't have to use the built-in locking clip, but it can help with the tilting issue.

HTH!

Post a pic if you can. That can be really helpful.

Unregistered said:

This is a long one!!!

DS is 13 months, 21 pounds and 30 inches.

We have a Britax Boulevard installed in the middle seat with the seatbelt.

From my understanding it is:
1. Safest in the middle, but no latch can be used (2007 Toyota Prius)
2. Safest rear-facing until the upper parameters of the seat.
3. His recline must be between 30 and 45 degrees but not exactly 45 degrees now that he is older.

Click to expand...

Your understanding is perfectly correct.

On to my question...
I want to move my seat a little so that he is not reclining so much, I think he would be more comfortable. Also, the way that it is installed right now since it has to be installed with the seatbelt it leans to the side.

How much can I set him up? How can I tell if it is 30 degrees? How can I make it so that the seatbelt doesn't make the seat lean over? I got conflicting advice about using a locking clip. One person told me to put a locking clip on that side to hold the shoulder harness down, while another told me that it was unsafe to to that and to leave it leaning.

I can't find answers anywhere, I hope that I find them here!!!

One other thing, those black clips on the side of the Boulevard to hold the seatbelt in - do they have to be clipped? If they are, then the seat seems to not be reclined enough. Any experience here?

THANKS SO MUCH.

Click to expand...

Britax doesn't allow the use of locking clips - those little metal ones that come with some car seats. However, those little black clips you're speaking of are built in lock-offs. Using those instead of locking the seatbelt will stop your seat from tilting.

Using the lock-off will be described in your manual in the rf'ing installation seatbelt installation section. In short, you open up the lock-off on the side opposite where the seatbelt will buckle, thread the seatbelt through the rf'ing beltbath, buckle the seatbelt and tighten it as much as possible. Then, making sure both the lap and shoulder belt are aligned in the lock-off, you close the lock-off. Check that there's less than 1" of wiggle room at the belt path or front to back and you're good to go. That should fix the tilting problem.

You can sit him up to a maximum of 30 degrees. There's a thread in the coffee break forum where another member has been a real sweetie at calculating approximate angles based on pictures. He has software that will figure it out. 30 degrees is pretty upright, so as long as you still have somewhat of a noticeable recline, you should be fine - and post some pic's here and we'll all help you.

Are you using the rf'ing tether? If the seat is too upright when installed with the built-in lock-off, then the angle can be adjusted by tightening the tether. We can help with how to use the rf'ing tether if it's not being used with your current installaion.

Oh, if you need help with rf tethering, knowing the type & year of vehicle you drive will help us find a suitable point for tethering. :thumbsup:

You are correct with all three of your assumptions: safest is middle, provided a good installation can be achieved (in other words, a solid install outboard is safer than a so-so install in the middle), Toyota says no lower anchors for a center install, only seatbelt, safest rear-facing to the limits of the seat, 45 degree recline for infants, more upright as the child gets older.

The tilt problem: since your seatbelt locks at the retractor (where it feeds back in), what's happening is that when the carseat shifts at all a little bit more of the belt slips back into the retractor, causing it to tighten and re-lock, which causes the tilt.

The fix? Using the built-in lockoffs. No locking clips with seats with built-in lockoffs, that's what the lockoffs are for. Easier said than done, because lots of folks have problems with the lockoffs, especially rear-facing.

You said you wanted him a little more upright, correct? And that the lockoffs caused the seat to be more upright? Is it too upright?

I have no way of explaining how to guess recline angle--I just eyeball it, LOL. But this site might help: http://www.carseatsite.com/reclineangle.htm

You don't HAVE to use the lockoffs on the carseat if you install it with your seatbelt locked; if you use the lockoffs you don't need to lock your seatbelt.

If you have trouble with the lockoffs, try installing it by locking the seatbelt again, but here's what I'd try: thread the belt through, buckle it, do NOT engage the locking mechanism yet. Grab the shoulderbelt near the belt path and pull it not UPWARDS but straight out, parallel to the lapbelt, to tighten the lap portion. Once it is as tight as necessary, hold the shoulderbelt portion parallel to the lapbelt portion and then engage locking mode. Let it retract only enough to take out the slack; don't yank up on the shoulderbelt to force more belt into the retractor. The tight lapbelt portion will hold the carseat tight, the shoulderbelt will be locked but shouldn't be so tight that it's pulling up on the carseat. SHOULDN'T. But it still might happen over time.

I heard Britax was changing something about the lockoffs to make them easier to close; not sure what this change was/is, and if your seat has the newest lockoffs or not.

Oh, one last thing--you can use one or both lockoffs, if you use them at all. And it's your choice which lockoff to use. The manual might specify one or the other, but Britax has OK'd one or the other, or neither.

www.carseatsite.com has videos of installing britaxes rearfacing using the lockoffs and the rearfacing tether (swedish style, your manual calls it).

And, even though you can't use a locking clip with your seat (nor do you need to), a locking clip must *always* be on the buckle side of the seat. It should be as close to the buckle as possible, preferably .5" or less from the buckle. The "tech" who said you could put it on the opposite side was dead wrong.

scatterbunny said:

I heard Britax was changing something about the lockoffs to make them easier to close; not sure what this change was/is, and if your seat has the newest lockoffs or not.

Click to expand...

I got a new Marathon and the rear facing lock offs are flipped. I have no idea why this makes a difference but I can now close my lock offs and I couldn't on my other seat.

My sil got a BLVD from Britax that has a DOM that was either the same week as my MA or newer and her lock offs aren't flipped.

Cindy, that's weird. I'd have your SIL call and complain.

OK guys. I finally registered so that I could post pics on this. This was my thread originally.

I found on this site some great advice on pushing the base of the seat hard and getting a very upright install and then adjusting the recline with the rf tether. It worked really well I think. It moves very little, and both of the locking clips are locked.

Since I am using the locking clips I do NOT use the locking mechanism on the seat belt, correct? The lean is much less now than it was. It still leans a LITTLE but I think that is from where the seat was pushed in.

Someone said that you could figure out what the recline of my seat is with pictures? Would anyone PLEASE do that for me?

cindy1 said:

I got a new Marathon and the rear facing lock offs are flipped. I have no idea why this makes a difference but I can now close my lock offs and I couldn't on my other seat.

My sil got a BLVD from Britax that has a DOM that was either the same week as my MA or newer and her lock offs aren't flipped.

Click to expand...

Britax is flipping the lockoffs on the newer seats. They discovered that they stay closed that way.
I believe that they rolled it out on the MA first. It's possible they haven't made the change on the other seats yet.

Previous poster, your seat install looks good to me, but you might want to start a new thread asking for help on the recline angle.

If you post the picture in this thread SPB has an awesome way to estimate the angle. There's directions for how to take the right kind of pic too.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=16425

Everything looks fine as far as the belts and the seat angle, but it doesn't look like a very tight install to me. Anyone else seeing it? I'm not used to checking these things by photo! It just doesn't look like it's pushed as far into the seat as it could be.

OP, you said it moves "very little." Can you get it any tighter by putting your weight on the seat when you tighten the belt? IME these seats rock the entire car and don't move at all when they're tight enough.

I agree that it looks like the base of the seat could be pushed toward the back of the vehicle seat more.

It is possible that some of the lean is from the tether, since it is attached on the passenger side of the vehicle, some lean is avoidable.

Defrost said:

Everything looks fine as far as the belts and the seat angle, but it doesn't look like a very tight install to me. Anyone else seeing it? I'm not used to checking these things by photo! It just doesn't look like it's pushed as far into the seat as it could be.

OP, you said it moves "very little." Can you get it any tighter by putting your weight on the seat when you tighten the belt? IME these seats rock the entire car and don't move at all when they're tight enough.

Click to expand...

Looking at the picture, I can definitely see what you're asking about.

To the OP - I'd try using only the lock-off furthest from the belt buckle and not using the one closest to the buckle. Britax does ok using either one or both, but I'm wondering if it has affected how tight the seatbelt was able to be tightened depending on how tight it was before closing the lock-offs.

It's acceptable to put a knee into the seat to push it in while you tighten the seatbelt. You'll often see the vehicle seat compress after you've done that. Was the seat installed tightly with less than 1" of wiggle room prior to attaching the rear tether?

Britax's usually do install rock-the-car solid, but as long as you have less than 1" of wiggle room prior to attaching the tether, then you're ok.

Overall it looks good, I'd just check to see if you can get the seatbelt tighter and try just the one lock-off. That may improve the tightness of your installation. The angle looks good to me though. :thumbsup:

I think I missed something... can somebody clarify about the rf'ing tether? It's allowed (per the manual) with the Britax, yes? Is it allowed with other seats? Are there two schools of thought regarding rebound? Last I heard, this was not allowed, but I'm getting the impression that thinking has changed.

Thanks

mackjaz said:

I think I missed something... can somebody clarify about the rf'ing tether? It's allowed (per the manual) with the Britax, yes? Is it allowed with other seats? Are there two schools of thought regarding rebound? Last I heard, this was not allowed, but I'm getting the impression that thinking has changed.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Only Britax and Sunshine Kids allow rearfacing tethering, you cannot use the tether rearfacing on any other seats.

It is only allowed on Britax and Sunshine kids radian's. No other seat allows you to do it.

Defrost said:

Everything looks fine as far as the belts and the seat angle, but it doesn't look like a very tight install to me. Anyone else seeing it? I'm not used to checking these things by photo! It just doesn't look like it's pushed as far into the seat as it could be.

OP, you said it moves "very little." Can you get it any tighter by putting your weight on the seat when you tighten the belt? IME these seats rock the entire car and don't move at all when they're tight enough.

Click to expand...

Not a tech, but I was thinking the same thing.

WOW! This is my OLDDDD thread! Ha.

No, it was not tight. I tried so many different ways to get it tight in the middle. After about a zillion tries, I moved him to behind the driver's seat. Rock solid there.