msuarez919
New member
So I have gone through 2 Advocate 70 CS's, 2 Frontier 85's and now a Frontier 85 SICT. They all have the same issue. I purchased the first Advocate 70 back in November 2010 and the Frontier 85 in January 2011. Early March I noticed significant fraying on the F85's harness tightening strap and decided to check the Advocate (which is rear facing so I never really looked at it). Significant fraying as well. I called up Britax and they asked me to email pics which I did. I returned the seats and they sent out new ones. Last month I look at the F85 strap and it's seriously frayed, again. I call up Britax, they have me send pics and they determine, again, that the seat is not safe and want to send me another. A third F85. I figure that a third will have the same issues and know that they are going to release the F85 SICT. I get refunded for the original F85 and purchase a SICT hoping that the issue (which btw are metal edges rubbing against the strap) will be resolved on the newer "edition" of the F85. I've had the SICT for 2 weeks and yes, there is significant fraying already. I've emailed pics and a new SICT arrived yesterday. I should also mention that I've just looked at the Advocate's strap and it's fraying as well. I've googled this and nothing comes up. After a while I started to think it might be something I was doing wrong. But I've been using car seats for almost 4 1/2 years and I've never had this problem. I could even see this happening if I had one seat in the middle of my back seat and I was tightening the strap from the outside of the car. I assure you this is not the situation. I have the 2 seats riding outboard which means I'm on top of them when I tighten them. Sometimes my son does strap himself in and "tighten" the strap himself but I always have to tighten him much more than he's able to do by himself. Not to mention that BOTH seat's straps are frayed and my 17 month old daughter is not pulling her own strap, me and my husband are. So that ruled out human error. Does anyone else out there have this problem? Anyone have some insight? What would you do? Oh, and you might be asking why I'm sticking it out with Britax after my experience. My son is 4 years old with a 17.5" torso and weighs 38 lbs. The F85 is simply the best fitting seat that will keep him harnessed the longest. Not to mention that I'm familiar with Britax (we've been using them since he was 18 months old -- no fraying on our old Marathon) and so far their customer service has been incredible.