HELP! Britax Marathon and Subaru Outback Wagon

Ok, so after much searching my husband and I bought a 2004 Outback Wagon because we liked the safety features of AWD, Onstar, etc. MUCH to our dismay, we discovered that we could not install our Snug Ride in the center seat. So we put our son in the outboard position and ordered the Britax Marathon, which we tried installing today.

After an hour of attempts, (and much swearing) my husband got it installed in the center seat, but it cleary is not right -- the shoulderbelt tilts the seat to the side, its not secure at all.

So we put it in the passenger side via LATCH, and it installed fine, but it is VERY vertical, and really hard to get my son in and out of because of clearance.

We really need this to be in the center seat. I'm going to take it in to a CPS Technician ASAP, but having called the fire and police station, of course the inspectors are off or at a conference. Murphy's law.

So I thought I'd see if any of you had any suggestions, or have dealt with this before. Nothing I could find suggested that it couldn't be done (no glaring compatability problems, that I could find)

Any help is much appreciated.

By the way

This is rear-facing and my son is 6 months old, and just over 26".

To help with the tipping of the seat due to the shoulder belt pulling one side up, you can keep the seatbelt in ELR mode (meaning, don't pull it all the way out so it ratchets back in). Then, since it won't be tightening up by itself, you'll need to install with a locking clip. Tighten the seatbelt manually while kneeling on the base, or however you need to do it to get it tight. Then, holding the shoulder portion and the lap portion together behind the latch plate (so it stays the proper length and doesn't continue to retract) & unbuckle the seatbelt. Then put the locking clip on the seatbelt (see your manual), and re-latch the seatbelt. It should be installed tight enough, but if not, you can unbuckle it again and tighten the lap part slightly, replace the locking clip and try again. This way of installing keeps the shoulder belt from pulling up on the carseat since it will not be the part that is tight. Does that make sense? It's hard to explain online.

In order to get the proper recline, you may need to place a tightly rolled towel under the foot end of the carseat. Make sure you still tighten the seat enough - less than one inch of movement at the beltpath, front to back or side to side.

Hope that helps. Let me know if this is unclear or if you need more help. And make sure you do have a technician check the seat as soon as possible.

Raechel
tech and mom of two

Sorry, just re-read your post (I swear I double checked before I posted the first time, but my brain must not be working this morning). I thought you were still trying to get the Snugride installed & waiting on the Marathon to arrive. So, my suggestions will only work with the Snugride.

I'm not too certain about the Marathon since I haven't worked with one yet. Hopefully someone else can jump in with that info for you.

Sorry about my confusion.

Raechel

I thought with the built in lockoffs on MAs, traditional locking clips weren't needed?

Yep, sorry, see my edit to my post above.

With the Marathon you should not use a locking clip - the lock-offs replace this.

Also, for the Marathon I think tethering RF would solve the issue of it being too upright, but hopefully someone experienced with Britax seats can help.

Raechel
tech and mom of two

Right, no locking clip is needed (or even allowed) with the Marathon (It IS of course allowed, and Rachael described perfectly how to use it with the snugride base!)...you can just not pull the shoulderbelt out all the way, and then lock the lap and shoulderbelt into the built in lockoffs.

As for the recline, you may follow the rearfacing tethering instructions in the Marathon manual, and here's a page with great examples how to do it. http://www.angelfire.com/wa3/isakswings/ratetherrf.html Once you find a place to tether, then you can tighten the tether down and get the recline to a maximum of a 45 degree diagonal.