Key tidbit about changing/replacing a Radian harness

I'm posting this because I had a heck of a time trying to change my Radian harness in the past week and a half and I searched all over looking for info and never found anything about the problem I was actually having. I also posted looking for help and got no directly helpful responses. Long story short, there are several versions of Radian buckle tongues out there, and some of them can NOT be removed or put on the harness by a human. There are a couple of threads on here about how to change the harness on a Radian, both of which make it sound very easy - which it is if you have the correct buckle tongues.

- My XTSL has a DOM of Oct 2009; the harness straps on it have a DOM of June 2009. I had to cut off the straps to get the buckle tongues off, which was fine, because I was tossing them anyway.
- The first replacement set of straps had a DOM of April 2010. It was not possible to get my original buckle tongues onto this harness.
- The second replacement set of straps had tongues already on the straps; DOM of Oct 2009. These tongues would not come off, and you can't put the harness on the seat with the buckle tongues on.
- The third replacement set with buckle tongues included was the one that worked. DOM of Dec 2010. The opening in the tongue for the harness to get through is larger and this was super easy (and such a relief).

All that to say that if you need to replace the harness on your Radian, please do not feel that you are inept or losing your mind if you are having trouble doing something that should be very easy. If you can't get the buckle tongues on or off the harness, it's because you need a different set of tongues.

I took a picture to show the difference but for some reason it won't load. I'll try again later if I get a chance.

Side note about the SK customer service on this: I'm in Canada and dealt with the Canadian office. While they clearly messed up with the things they sent me, they were very prompt and helpful when I called and each time they sent something (other than my initial order from the website) it was here the next day. They had also sent me a free replacement buckle strap (out of pure sympathy for the grossness of the situation I was dealing with, I think) before any of this other silliness happened. They clearly had some kind of problem with their inventory, but weren't aware of it because apparently they rarely send out replacement harnesses. So despite the craziness, I'm quite pleased with the service I've received.

ETA: Figures, I just stumbled across a thread from a month ago where someone had the same problem and had to order new buckle tongues. Wish I had seen that last week. Shows what a difference a word makes - I spent ages searching using "change harness"; that thread came up when I tried "replace harness"

Thank you! That explains why Russ sent me a set of new tongues when I asked him for one of the updated harness with the larger loops at the splitter plate. I've not replaced it yet and would not have thought about that.

I want to see pics.

Thank you for posting about this. I tried to rep you but I've reached my limit for today already.

I just went through this last month. I ordered replacement harness (pineapple juice incident) and could not get the buckle tongs off the harness of the old straps. Called SK after I saw online that they had wider tong holes for the "new" tongs and talked with Kristen....she ended up sending another new harness with the updated buckle tongs on it....

I also had to cut the old straps to get the old style tongs off, there is no way they would come off that harness without cutting it. I posted a quicky post about not being able to get the tongs off up in the above forums (tech questions I think)....it was a easy resolve once I spent a good hour fighting the old tongs....

ETA: found it
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=172350&highlight=Radian+Harness

babygirlsmom1005 said:

I just went through this last month.

Click to expand...

It was your thread I found last night after I posted. I searched "replace" instead of "change" out of curiosity and it came up. Would have saved me a fair bit of confusion if I had found it when I first searched.

Here is the picture of the buckle tongues. Guess which one works...

Tracey (it's Jen from Ottawa now in BC - hi!)

I could have written your exact post (except I didn't take note of the DOMs on the harness). A mouse chewed the strap on my Radian last fall so I ordered new ones. And was extremely perplexed as to what I was doing wrong. I called and asked how to force the webbing through the slit in the tongue...and was advised (humourously) to cross my eyes and swear. Once I explained the problem, the rep said he thought he had a set with a wider slit and would dig them out and send them...and he did, and they arrived the next day. And then they worked exactly as described and I swapped out the harness in about 2 minutes.