Regent and several questions

ahgirls · Jul 17, 2012

I finally got my hands on my regent, I purchased this spring.

I had to wait for the transporting of it since I didn't want to pay for shipping. But now I have several questions on the whys of the manual.

1. Why doesn't the frontiers have a recline bar for better support as they are both high weight harness seats?

2. Also why can't you use the lbp on over 50 lbs? I

lbp on my frontier.

3. Why with a lap shoulder belt the seat belt need to be on the outside of the recline bar but for a lap belt on the inside?

4. I am sure this is part of #1 but how does the recline bar give better support for over 50 lbs?

5. Is it okay if the recline bar doesn't touch the bottom of the seat?

Thanks

joolsplus3 · Jul 17, 2012

1, because an extra add on piece with a bunch of odd rules is far inferior to the Frontier's recline block that can't be lost and has simple (and still unfollowed, sigh) instructions.
2, it tested better with SBP after 50lbs
3, it tested better that way.
4, IIRC, being more reclined decreases head excursion/HIC numbers (ie, it tested better that way).
5, yeah, you put it on, followed all the install rules, and if it doesn't touch, no worries.

I miss my old-school Huskies, they were pre-recline bar and weird rules and were so so so nice LBP to the top weight limit. But the Regent is worth it for all it's fabulous seat-a-liciousness once you get it in

Pixels · Jul 17, 2012

2. It failed testing the other way.
4. It failed testing without it.

safeinthecar · Jul 17, 2012

Pixels said:
2. It failed testing the other way.
4. It failed testing without it.

IIRC, it didn't FAIL, just didn't pass with a large enough margin to ensure great performance in all possible scenerios.

3. if you route a l/s belt inside the recline bar, it traps the shoulder belt under the bar. If you route a lap only belt outside the bar, it tends to pull the bar out of the holes in a lot of cars.

Pixels · Jul 17, 2012

Actually, it failed even with the recline bar. The Regent never passed compliance testing.

safeinthecar · Jul 17, 2012

Pixels said:
Actually, it failed even with the recline bar. The Regent never passed compliance testing.

Source please?

BookMama · Jul 17, 2012

Pixels said:
Actually, it failed even with the recline bar. The Regent never passed compliance testing.

Yes, please provide your source for this comment. You can't just tell someone their child's car seat never passed testing and not give any explanation.

danivdp · Jul 17, 2012

Pixels said:
Actually, it failed even with the recline bar. The Regent never passed compliance testing.

Huh? The Regent didn't pass which testing? I thought they all had to pass testing before they went on store shelves...

Pixels · Jul 17, 2012

It's all in the NHTSA compliance testing reports. You have to read the actual reports in most cases, not just look at the summary sheets. I'm on my way to bed so I won't dig through every year and point out each failure tonight. As an example, though, in 2008 (Jan 2009 report) the 3yo dummy had 869 mm of head excursion. The limit is 813 mm. http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/testing/comply/fmvss213/index.html

danivdp said:
Huh? The Regent didn't pass which testing? I thought they all had to pass testing before they went on store shelves...

Seats are self-certified, which means that the manufacturers do all the testing before seats are offered for sale. Once they are on the shelves, NHTSA can come along, buy them, and test them, and they had better pass. But NHTSA does not do any testing before seats are offered for sale.

LISmama810 · Jul 17, 2012

Yes, I believe Pixels is right. I don't remember which year I looked at the data, but I do recall being shocked that the Regent failed in at least one category. I have no idea what, if anything, NHTSA did in regard to that.

christineka · Jul 17, 2012

Here's the link to the testing results.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Cars/testing/comply/fmvss213/index.html

I know regents were really popular for awhile. I don't think there have been any issues with kids in regents in accidents, though.

ETA- I think I remember reading that there was an error when testing the regent that time it failed and so the results were thrown out.

ETA again! I found it. 2007 Chest gs were too high for the 3 yo and 12 month old, untethered. In 2009, 3 yo untethered head excursion is too much. Seeing as how I wouldn't use that beast for a kid under 4, nor untethered, I wouldn't worry about it.

danivdp · Jul 18, 2012

Pixels said:
Seats are self-certified, which means that the manufacturers do all the testing before seats are offered for sale. Once they are on the shelves, NHTSA can come along, buy them, and test them, and they had better pass. But NHTSA does not do any testing before seats are offered for sale.

So, NHTSA doesn't make them recall if the seats fail?

joolsplus3 · Jul 18, 2012

danivdp said:
So, NHTSA doesn't make them recall if the seats fail?

No, they can, but they don't have to. Some Dorel seats failed many years ago, and rather than recalling them, there was just some internal paperwork done that made them actually pass, and there was no recall, nor was the NHTSA list updated to show they passed. It could possibly be similar to the Regent issues, as the compliance testing doesn't specify if the seats were installed with all these different configurations for every dummy (ie, the rules for installation may have changed in response to the failures, it's possible the seats now DO pass, but compliance testing is so slow and limited that it wouldn't be updated to reflect that on the list).

Pixels · Jul 18, 2012

The installation configuration information is in the reports, so you can look it up if you are so inclined. Several of the years with failures were after the recline bar became mandatory, so obviously those failures weren't "fixed" by the advisory.

If you look at the model numbers, every year it is a different model number that failed. Britax just never got their act together with this seat.

Pixels · Jul 18, 2012

christineka said:
Here's the link to the testing results.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Cars/testing/comply/fmvss213/index.html

I know regents were really popular for awhile. I don't think there have been any issues with kids in regents in accidents, though.

ETA- I think I remember reading that there was an error when testing the regent that time it failed and so the results were thrown out.

ETA again! I found it. 2007 Chest gs were too high for the 3 yo and 12 month old, untethered. In 2009, 3 yo untethered head excursion is too much. Seeing as how I wouldn't use that beast for a kid under 4, nor untethered, I wouldn't worry about it.

I do worry about it. The seat is labeled for kids 1 and 20 so why shouldn't they be safe in the seat? Just because you wouldn't choose this seat for a 1 and 20 or a 5 year old 30 pound child doesn't mean those kids don't deserve a safe seat.

Just because we do not hear about a pattern of kids getting injured in a certain seat doesn't mean it doesn't happen. What percentage of crashes do we even hear about? Of those, how often do we know which seat they were in? On those rare occasions where we hear of a crash with injury or fatality, we typically chalk it up to improper use or unsurvivable crash. The reality is, even the authorities don't really know because that data isn't collected. When it's reported, information is gathered from first responders, who are asked if the child was in a seat or not. Not what type of seat, not which manufacturer, certainly not which model. In analyzing the data, the experts are forced to assume that kids under 1 are rear facing, kids 1-3 are forward facing in a harness and kids 4-8 are in a booster because the data either doesn't exist at all or is considered too unreliable.

Regent and several questions

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