Do we tether a RF Britax Marathon or not???

Hi,
We have a rear-facing Britax Marathon car seat for our 9 month old daughter. Last Saturday, we went to a car seat clinic in Ottawa ON (sponsored by A-Channel, CFRA) staffed by an organization called S.E.A.T.S as well as a rep from Transport Canada.

We had tethered the seat to the floor, connecting it to a seat leg using the D-ring however the technicians advised us this was not correct. They went on to say that Britax was wrong to advise people to rear-tether at all and that in the event of an accident, the seat should be able to move and create a cocoon if it hits the back seat. They removed our tether and re-installed the seat. I asked to talk to the Transport Canada rep and she agreed with their view, adding that Britax should not advise people to use anything as an anchor without testing it on our vehicle first (2004 Subaru Forester).

So what are we supposed to do??
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Heather

ps: I will also post on the general issues board as I am curious whether this opinion also exists in the US?

I guess my first question, is if it was an actual Transport Canada official, or someone who instructs CRST courses and considers themselves a representative for TC.

Our instructor in our class is 100% in favor of rf tethering any seat that allows it - britax and radian being the only ones right now... She has a lot of contact with Transport Canada, and indicated that TC doesn't have a stance against rf tethering, although some provinces are teaching not to tether rf'ing seats.

From what I gathered, these same provinces aren't usually doing the same training as St John's Ambulance provides, and SJA is the approved national instructing/certifying agency. Some provinces have other programs that give certification, but from what I'm gathering the training isn't necessarily 100% the same as the national curriculum. Apparently some provinces have primarily another agency & training system and haven't switched over to the one developed by SJA in conjunction with TC. SJA is training with the national course information, which may or may not be the same as what other organizations are doing. (Was this what you gathered as well Jen?)

Anyways, I did tether my MA when it was rf'ing, and will continue to rf tether any seat that allows it - both personally, and at seat clinics (provided the parent wants it.)

What the debate really comes down to, is is coccooning a desirable thing, or just an affect of having a rf'ing car seat? The rf tether is useful to increase stability and very useful to adjust the recline - Britax manuals state that whenever possible recline angle should be adjusted using the tether and they prefer that rolled towels or pool noodles aren't used. However, that being said, they don't function exactly the same as a ff'ing tether, and if they happened to fail in a collision, it would not affect the integrity of the seat. The reason for dedicated ff'ing anchors, is because of the forces placed on the seat/tether anchor - and you want the tether to stay attached. The way rf'ing tethers work, the strength is coming from a strong vehicle part and the webbing of the actual tether anchor. Britax has tested their seats this way and they meet standards. If there was a risk to rf tethering a seat, they would not instruct us to do it.

Rf tethering is still new enough that most vehicle manufacturers aren't considering it when designing vehicles - hence the instructions to use a fixed immovable part that's anchored to the vehicle frame. Some new vehicle manuals address different types of tethers and how to route them, some still don't even do that - and a V shape vs. a straight line does sit differently when you have a headrest involved...

No technician should be telling a parent that a car seat manual is wrong and that certain instructions shouldn't be included. We can advise that personally we wouldn't "x, y or z," but we should be educating the parent and then allowing them to decide what they're more comfortable with. Rf tethering does not pose a safety threat or there would be data showing it, as well as a notice issued by transport canada. And we haven't seen that. That's enough for me - if transport canada was concerned, we would be hearing specific information directly from them. :twocents:

eta: If there's been a recall or safety advisory on the instructions for a specific carseat, then it would be appropriate for a tech to tell parents a car seat manual has wrong info & to provide the correct info along with the recall or information notice. This isn't the case here though.

This is a view held by a number of techs in the eastern part of Canada. We strongly encourage parents to follow manufacturer's instructions which include RF tethering Britax seats over here on the west coast (I'm in Alberta).

Cocooning is not what is 'supposed' to happen, it's what 'did' happen when seats were first tested... so they came up with a name for it.

If you are planning on leaving your daughter RF to the limits of the seat, I would re-install that RF tether. A RF tether improves the stability of the carseat and helps especially, in side impact collisions - which are the most deadly type of collision.

I would attach the RF tether and also brace the carseat with the vehicle seat in front of it... push the vehicle seat back until it's touching the back of the carseat.

Ontario seems to have a number of different programs that do not fall under SJA's authority. Buckle up Bears is another program run by the Co-operators and while their curriculum (I've taken this course as well as the SJA training) is very similar to SJA's, it is not identical.

Trudy is right, SJA is the only nationally recognized CRS Training for Canada. All other programs or technicians are NOT Certified technicians and should not be calling themselves "Certified".

Some new vehicles are actually providing RF tether points now and I believe as the years go on, we will see more and more of this.

The laws of physics do not change and over in Sweden, where they routinely RF their children to the age of 5, they require the use of RF tethers. I think that alone speaks volumes to why a RF tether is both important and beneficial.

Thank you Trudy and Jen for your excellent explanations! To be truthful, I haven't had our RFing tethered MAs checked by a tech - partly because I don't have any questions regarding installation and partly because I "don't want to go there" regarding the fact that they are MAs and tethered RFing... I have only seen two other MAs in this town and lots of AOEs and OHSs. Thank you again for you explanations. I have done a lot of research regarding the decision to keep my kiddos RFing and their seats tethered RFing...