morgaine108
New member
OK, let me start off by saying I used to be a cpst but my certification expired this summer. A long story but just to let you know I am somewhat knowledgeable as far as a parent with a carseat question goes but I am having a hard time deciding what to do.
We live in TX and are planning a LONG car ride over the holidays to travel to IN and IL. For some reason, I am certain I remember learning in my training class that Britax seats had a longer expiration date on them.....11 years is what I thought. So, I had a Britax Marathon I had originally bought for my 7 year old that I was now using for my 3 1/2 year old. I was thinking about if I needed to buy a new seat for him and went to do some research and realized that my Marathon expired in April (manufacture was in April 05).
I actually have two other seats. Prior to using the Marathon I had been using a MyRide65, but noticed that the plastic at the buckle tongues had developed a crack, so I discontinued using it. At one time we had two cars and now just have one so that really is the reason for having so many similar seats. The third seat I have is a Apex 65. It is still in good shape, not expired as I bought it as the seat for my 2nd car when my older son was too big for a seat with a 40lb only harness. However, since I have put it in my car I have noticed a couple things that makes me not comfortable with it. The clip on the harness seemed to not stay buckled very well the first couple times I used it. Now I can get it to click closed and it seems pretty solid when I pull on it but I still have that thought in the back of my mind and don't understand why it wouldn't work very well at first but now seem ok...makes me distrust it. Also, yesterday when I got him out of his seat I noticed the seat moved so I checked it cause I had had a very solid install and it shouldn't have been moving like that. I have it installed with the lap/shoulder belt combination on the rear drivers' side because he is just 40 lbs so I figured it would be safer that doing LATCH and not realizing when he may go past the LATCH limit. The belt has the type of retractor that you have to pull out first to get it to lock with the child seat (sorry not remembering the name off the top of my head).
To my horror, I found the belt was not buckled, the kids deny messing with it (not that they couldn't be lying, but still, they know I don't kid around with this stuff). So now I am double doubting the seat.
I wrote to Graco about the MyRide and they are offering to replace it because the problem is not fixable. They said they will send me a shipping label to send mine back to them, they can't say which pattern it will be but I don't think they could possibly get it to me before we have to leave on Dec 16th. It's going to be incredibly difficult for me to scrape the money together for a new seat, and I don't feel he is by any means ready for a booster. I responded to their offer but expressed my concern about the timing and asked if there could be a voucher or something so I could pick one up myself, but waiting to hear back. I'm gonna have to find a box somehow to ship the seat in too, but that is a separate problem.
What would be your suggestions? Do I really have any choice? I plan on thoroughly restudying the Apex manual but I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong with installing it.
Thanks for reading all that
We live in TX and are planning a LONG car ride over the holidays to travel to IN and IL. For some reason, I am certain I remember learning in my training class that Britax seats had a longer expiration date on them.....11 years is what I thought. So, I had a Britax Marathon I had originally bought for my 7 year old that I was now using for my 3 1/2 year old. I was thinking about if I needed to buy a new seat for him and went to do some research and realized that my Marathon expired in April (manufacture was in April 05).
I actually have two other seats. Prior to using the Marathon I had been using a MyRide65, but noticed that the plastic at the buckle tongues had developed a crack, so I discontinued using it. At one time we had two cars and now just have one so that really is the reason for having so many similar seats. The third seat I have is a Apex 65. It is still in good shape, not expired as I bought it as the seat for my 2nd car when my older son was too big for a seat with a 40lb only harness. However, since I have put it in my car I have noticed a couple things that makes me not comfortable with it. The clip on the harness seemed to not stay buckled very well the first couple times I used it. Now I can get it to click closed and it seems pretty solid when I pull on it but I still have that thought in the back of my mind and don't understand why it wouldn't work very well at first but now seem ok...makes me distrust it. Also, yesterday when I got him out of his seat I noticed the seat moved so I checked it cause I had had a very solid install and it shouldn't have been moving like that. I have it installed with the lap/shoulder belt combination on the rear drivers' side because he is just 40 lbs so I figured it would be safer that doing LATCH and not realizing when he may go past the LATCH limit. The belt has the type of retractor that you have to pull out first to get it to lock with the child seat (sorry not remembering the name off the top of my head).
To my horror, I found the belt was not buckled, the kids deny messing with it (not that they couldn't be lying, but still, they know I don't kid around with this stuff). So now I am double doubting the seat.
I wrote to Graco about the MyRide and they are offering to replace it because the problem is not fixable. They said they will send me a shipping label to send mine back to them, they can't say which pattern it will be but I don't think they could possibly get it to me before we have to leave on Dec 16th. It's going to be incredibly difficult for me to scrape the money together for a new seat, and I don't feel he is by any means ready for a booster. I responded to their offer but expressed my concern about the timing and asked if there could be a voucher or something so I could pick one up myself, but waiting to hear back. I'm gonna have to find a box somehow to ship the seat in too, but that is a separate problem.
What would be your suggestions? Do I really have any choice? I plan on thoroughly restudying the Apex manual but I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong with installing it.
Thanks for reading all that