scatterbunny
New member
Yesterday Hayley and I went to the zoo (on our hottest day of the year, 102 degrees!) and stopped at the high-end baby store to check out some seats.
I tried her in the Safeguard child seat, Sunshine Kids Radian, Safety 1st Apex, Graco TurboBooster, Graco Airbooster and Britax Monarch. They also had the Compass B510 and Parkway but we own(ed) those and have pics of those already, so I didn't try her in them. They didn't have the new Evenflo Triumph Advance, though.
So there's 23 pics total, I'm going to only post clickable thumbnails so hopefully it won't slow down the board. I'll break them up in a few different posts in this same thread.
First up is the Apex. I tried Hayley in this same exact seat (Safety 1st version, Modern Blue cover) almost four months ago and swore she was too tall by just a smidge, but I didn't remove the extra seat pad. This time I did, and here are the results:
At 4'1" and 51 pounds (about 97th percentile for height and about 80th-85th for weight), she looks to be dead-even with the Apex top slots, with extra padding removed.
She found the short crotch strap very uncomfortable (evidenced by the photo of her grabbing the buckle). I could have moved it out one slot, which would have given her more "wiggle room", however that would have made the sharp buckle fit even lower on her thighs and dig in. Thank goodness Dorel has newer, longer crotch straps available for this seat! Also, notice that the harness is loosened about as much as possible for my 51 pound child; there's hardly any "tail" at all left to tighten the seat. I can't imagine a 65 pound child as tall as my daughter actually fitting in the harness on this; there isn't enough harness. Seat depth/leg support was great, and Hayley was comfortable, minus the crotch strap issue, in this seat.
Next is the Sunshine Kids Radian. I only tried the 65 pound version because the design is the same, Hayley would have fit the same, and I didn't want to irritate her too much, LOL.
She has some growing room, about an inch until she's over the top slots, I'd guess (forgot my tape measure, darn it!). If I felt okay with shoulders over top slots, she'd have loads of height room going by the tips of the ears/top of seat shell rule. BUT the seat was too narrow at the hips and way too short in seating depth. There is no way on earth Hayley would be comfortable in this seat for any length of time. Her hips were so squished, and the seating area stopped in the middle of her thighs. She also immediately complained about the harness hurting her neck. And to be clear, I did not put any ideas into her head about what ANY of these seats would be like, or what any of the quirks of these seats were. I completely let her tell me what she liked and didn't like.
I tried her in the Safeguard child seat, Sunshine Kids Radian, Safety 1st Apex, Graco TurboBooster, Graco Airbooster and Britax Monarch. They also had the Compass B510 and Parkway but we own(ed) those and have pics of those already, so I didn't try her in them. They didn't have the new Evenflo Triumph Advance, though.
So there's 23 pics total, I'm going to only post clickable thumbnails so hopefully it won't slow down the board. I'll break them up in a few different posts in this same thread.
First up is the Apex. I tried Hayley in this same exact seat (Safety 1st version, Modern Blue cover) almost four months ago and swore she was too tall by just a smidge, but I didn't remove the extra seat pad. This time I did, and here are the results:
At 4'1" and 51 pounds (about 97th percentile for height and about 80th-85th for weight), she looks to be dead-even with the Apex top slots, with extra padding removed.
She found the short crotch strap very uncomfortable (evidenced by the photo of her grabbing the buckle). I could have moved it out one slot, which would have given her more "wiggle room", however that would have made the sharp buckle fit even lower on her thighs and dig in. Thank goodness Dorel has newer, longer crotch straps available for this seat! Also, notice that the harness is loosened about as much as possible for my 51 pound child; there's hardly any "tail" at all left to tighten the seat. I can't imagine a 65 pound child as tall as my daughter actually fitting in the harness on this; there isn't enough harness. Seat depth/leg support was great, and Hayley was comfortable, minus the crotch strap issue, in this seat.
Next is the Sunshine Kids Radian. I only tried the 65 pound version because the design is the same, Hayley would have fit the same, and I didn't want to irritate her too much, LOL.
She has some growing room, about an inch until she's over the top slots, I'd guess (forgot my tape measure, darn it!). If I felt okay with shoulders over top slots, she'd have loads of height room going by the tips of the ears/top of seat shell rule. BUT the seat was too narrow at the hips and way too short in seating depth. There is no way on earth Hayley would be comfortable in this seat for any length of time. Her hips were so squished, and the seating area stopped in the middle of her thighs. She also immediately complained about the harness hurting her neck. And to be clear, I did not put any ideas into her head about what ANY of these seats would be like, or what any of the quirks of these seats were. I completely let her tell me what she liked and didn't like.