07 Dodge Quad Cab & Marathon

So we ended up with a rental pickup today, and boy did I have a tough time getting DS's seat in. Tell me if you've heard of these weird things the vehicle's manual says:

The top tethers are attached to loops, and each carseat is required to use TWO of the tethers anchors at once. You're supposed to loop the tether through webbing of the tether immediately behind the seat, then hook into the tether position of the ADJACENT seat. Weird. It doesn't specify how many seats can share a tether. The V tether on the MA makes it more difficult.

It mentions if you're using LATCH you should buckle the seatbelt behind the carseat to keep it out of the way, but if that interferes with the installation, you should buckle the seatbelt through the carseat's belt path. I thought you were never supposed to use the belt and LATCH together.

This vehicle has brought up a question for me too... I always prefer to use the centre position, and in this truck the MA sits right next to the 60/40 split. Is it okay when the base doesn't make contact with the other side, and part of it is kind of hanging in midair (maybe about an inch?)

I can't wait 'til we have our own car back. It's no fun hauling my 38# DS in and out of this big truck with no running boards.

Oh... one more question... should I be using the built in lock-offs when the belts have cinching latch plates? (I used the belt for install.)

We had a thread about this kind of tether anchor a while back, and I did a lot of research for it. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

Yes, the tether anchors are meant to be "shared." You use the loop directly behind the child's seat as to route the tether, and then hook it to an adjacent seat's tether loop. This means if you have two outboard seats, BOTH are hooked to the center loop. This is the only case I have ever heard of where it is permissible (and required) to tether two seats to the same point. It is also permissible and required, when installing more than one seat, to use a loop as both a routing loop and a tether anchor.

I'm not sure about the issue of buckling the seat belt through the belt path when using LATCH at the same time. It seems like this is contrary to the carseat's instructions.

As for the 60/40 split issue, how much of the base is not contacting the seat (estimate percentage)? Less than 20% "hanging?"

As for the lock-offs and the cinching latchplate, technically you should use one or the other, but not both.

Thanks, Defrost Yes, it's way less than 20%, so it's probably okay then?

as for the seatbelt with latch, it probably won't interfere as long as you leave the seatbelt loose, though I'd probably just use the seatbelt install