Best forward facing seat for tall, slim kids?

I need a forward facing seat for tall, slim children. My children are really tall, but we don't need a seat that harnesses to a really big weight because they'll all be too tall for whatever seat they have way before they get to the upper weight. I don't care whether it's a rear-facing or also a booster as I won't be using it for either of those. This is for my 3rd son, and I have 5, so I have a wide assortment of other seats.

My main priority is that the seat has really high harness slots. I'd also like it to be easy to buckle and easy to tighten and loosen. I have 3 in car seats right now (plus one in a booster and one in a regular seat belt), so I like to have one of my older sons buckle him into the carseat, and then I come behind and make sure everything is right. A narrow, lightweight seat would be nice, but it's not as important as the other things. I drive a 12 passenger van, so I do have extra seats, but it would be nice to actually be able to use them when we have guests.

My last big forward facing seat was a Britax Regent. I hated it. It was so big. We needed the height, but the width and weight were just crazy. My oldest is incredibly tall with most of his height in his torso and actually outgrew it before his 5th birthday. The seat I'm buying now is for my 5 year old right now and later my 2 year old. They're taller than average but not off-the-charts tall, so I don't need the absolute tallest carseat ever. In other words, if there's a spectacular seat that's .5" to 1" lower than the tallest one available, that's fine. My 3 month old may end up being crazy tall, since he is centimeters away from outgrowing his Chicco KeyFit30, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I have a Maestro that fits will of your wishes, but the new ones have more difficult buckles...they aren't *difficult* per se, but more difficult than the old. It is a great seat though. Loved it until my heavy guy hit 49 lbs a few weeks ago...he is 44ish inches tall, 16-17"ish torso and had 2ish inches of harness height left.

The Evenflo Secure Kid (and the Maestro) are much lighter than the Graco Nautilus, Britax Frontier, and Recaro ProSport. The top harness height is about the same as the GN and ProSport. The Frontier goes much taller than these seats and makes the tallest booster on the market.

My 4 yr old in on the top slots, but just over the second from top. He's almost 42" tall and 37-38 lbs maybe. He's a bit long torsoed. My 7 yr old could fit in this seat using the top slots, but it also looks like it would make a good fitting booster. The Maestro won't last as long as a booster, but since you don't need it for that anyways b/c of passing it down, you could buy a Maestro and save yourself $50-60.

The only downside is that you need to check how it installs in your van w/your seatbelts. The Nautilus has less compatability issues. If you have LATCH, you'll be in great shape!

I wanted to restart this thread from 5 years ago to see if folks have new recommendations?
I have the same issue -- a 4 yr old who isn't really ready for a booster yet, but who is too tall for her current carseat (Cosco Scenera Next). I'd love to find a forward facing or a seat that will convert to a booster that can handle height. (She's a lightweight and likely won't be 40 lbs for another year or two).

Thanks!

Unregistered said:

I wanted to restart this thread from 5 years ago to see if folks have new recommendations?
I have the same issue -- a 4 yr old who isn't really ready for a booster yet, but who is too tall for her current carseat (Cosco Scenera Next). I'd love to find a forward facing or a seat that will convert to a booster that can handle height. (She's a lightweight and likely won't be 40 lbs for another year or two).

Thanks!

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The Cosco Finale is an inexpensive forward facing only seat that is light weight though it doesn't make a very good booster.