Question Chrysler Town and Country (2006)

We are a family with 4 young children (5, 4, 34mo, 11 mo.) I would like to keep my three oldest in 5-point harnesses and am contemplating getting 3 Recaro car seats for our backseat. Has anyone tried to install three Radians across the back seat. Currently all three of our boys are in Graco Natilus car seats and our youngest daughter is in a Graco Safeseat. Our children are small my 5.5 year old is just not 42lbs and only 42". He is great with being in the five point harness, we would just like to be able to have the three of them across the back seat, so we would have room for a passenger in our van from time to time.

Our car has only one set of anchors in the back seat, it is the delux stow-and-go model, so the seat splits 2/3 and 1/3 in the back. All three would have to be installed using seat belts.

Any suggestions?

I think you mean Diono Radians, right?

What are your thoughts on top tethering your forward facing seats? I assume you're in the US where it's not mandatory, but strongly recommended, of course.

Your vehicle has a tether anchor in the 3rd row for a seatbelt middle install OR a [off-set drivers side] LATCH install, and then each captains chairs have one tether anchor.

Your forward facing kids could all be top tethered if you did:

3rd row middle: Radian forward facing, tethered.
3rd row passenger: Radian rear facing for the baby.

2nd row: Nautilus, tethered.
2nd row: Nautilus, tethered.

You'd have the 3rd row drivers side seat available for an extra passenger.

Thoughts?

My only problem would be getting my rear facing infant in the back seat. She has developmental delays, and is super tiny. It would be hard to climb to get her in the back seat.

Right now we have:

3rd row passenger side: Britax Marathon (36 month old)
**I would like him to have a cup holder...but it is not totally necessary
3rd row off-set anchors: Natilus (5.5 year old)
There is really not room for someone on the drivers side of the 3rd row when you use the Natilus, it is really wide and the anchors are not really in the middle of the seat. They are in the middle of the wider seat.

Captain Seat passenger side: Natilus (4 year old)
Captain seat driver side: Graco Safe seat (11 mo.)
** This seat expires in 1 month, which is promoting us to decide what seat we will buy to replace or move kids around.

We have a long driving trip coming up in May, where we are suppose to take my mother-in-law. She would need to sit in the captains seat and I would have to sit 3 kids across the back.

I am in the US, but I have never tethered my car seats. I will go and look tomorrow and see what I can find in the car

You can physically fit three Radians across your 3rd row. It's not the easiest set-up, but doable.

Only the child in the middle seating position would have a tethered seat. I would put the tallest child in the middle, and tether it. If your youngest boy was younger than 3 I might get into the whole 'least protected in most protected spot' debate with regards to side impacts, but I don't think it's relevant in your case. So anyway, I'm in the camp that taller heavier children tend to travel further forward, and while in a van like yours he's less likely to strike something in front of him (because there isn't a seat directly in front of him) I still think that his head kept further back (because of top tethering) is a good idea.

Please note that you will NOT use the SafeStop on any of your three forward facing Radians because you only use it for kids between 22-40lbs and when the seat is top tethered. In your case, your 42lb child IS tethered but exceeds 40lbs, and in the case of your other boys who may not be 40lbs yet, their seats won't be top tethered. Translation: you won't add the SafeStop feature to any of their seats. <------- that will all make much more sense when you read the manual, but for now just tuck the info in the back of your brain.

For the baby girl you could do just about any seat. I like my life simple and so I would probably do 4 Radians total. Get her a pink one. She can rear face in the captains chair for a good long time, which is important always, but especially if she's low tone or otherwise milestone delayed. Protect her head, neck and spine for as long as you can.

Radians have a learning curve to install. Be sure to use us as a resource.

Hope that helps.

Using a tether reduces head excursion. I personally wouldn't ff a child without one unless I had no choice.

How big is your 3rd? Is he small enough to rf? If so I would do, rf, ff tethered, rf in the 3rd row for the trip.

I can't link on my phone, but search for you tube videos on tethering crash tests.

You could definitely got 3 radians across the back.

I want to just let you know that most of my kids' seats aren't top tethered. I understand it can reduce head excursion, but sometimes it's not feasible. If you can do it, great, but if you can't, don't feel guilty about it.

CrozierMama said:

My only problem would be getting my rear facing infant in the back seat. She has developmental delays, and is super tiny. It would be hard to climb to get her in the back seat.

Right now we have:

3rd row passenger side: Britax Marathon (36 month old)
**I would like him to have a cup holder...but it is not totally necessary
3rd row off-set anchors: Natilus (5.5 year old)
There is really not room for someone on the drivers side of the 3rd row when you use the Natilus, it is really wide and the anchors are not really in the middle of the seat. They are in the middle of the wider seat.

Captain Seat passenger side: Natilus (4 year old)
Captain seat driver side: Graco Safe seat (11 mo.)
** This seat expires in 1 month, which is promoting us to decide what seat we will buy to replace or move kids around.

We have a long driving trip coming up in May, where we are suppose to take my mother-in-law. She would need to sit in the captains seat and I would have to sit 3 kids across the back.

I am in the US, but I have never tethered my car seats. I will go and look tomorrow and see what I can find in the car

Click to expand...

If I am reading this correctly, I am seeing that you are installing the Nat. with the lower anchors but not the tether. I just wanted to let you know that if you use the anchors you must use the tether.

I have a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan so it is the same body style but I do not have stow and go. Mine is a 50/50 split. I can easily fit three radians back there. I have even done a ff radian, frontier, ff radian. It has to be done in a certain order but it can be done and yes they were all independently tight (installed next to each other, uninstalled to check for tightness of neighboring seat, reinstalled). With the age of your oldest I would consider a frontier. You would get more mileage out of it

Also, you can add tethers to the T&C. Here is a post that has links to more information http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1659659&postcount=13 .

I added tethers the old fashioned way. I drilled through the floor of the van. Once you remove the spare tire it is really easy to access that area from above and below.

I have a 2005 T&C with stow-n-go, and I believe you could keep one of your Nauti's on the 30 side of the split and still fit 2 Radians on the 60 side. You can't get the middle seat any further over anyway because of the buckle placement. I have installed a Nauti passenger side and ff radian center, they fit well together. No point buying 3 pricey new seats when 2 will do. I plan on doing the retrofit pp mentioned when the time comes that I need it. Seems like less of a pain than getting a rf'er in and out of the back every day. And RF Radians don't play very nice with the hinges on the seat anyway, you end up with a lot of wasted space.

Thank you all so much!

I went to the store and bought a RF Graco Snug Ride Click 40 for my 10.5 month old I think it will last us the longest with all her tone and muscle issues and even if we do not carrier her in it, the fact the the seat easily "removes" means we have better access to the back seat.

I ordered two rear tethers that are coming from Chrysler. When they get in the dealership will install them. I feel so guilty that I have not been using them. I went out last night and tethered the two Natulius seats (one in the captain passenger side Anchor, one in the rear Anchor) right after I read the post.

I ordered on Radian RXT for my 5 year old. I think that I will be able to fit the Radian in the middle with the two Natulius on either side of the back seat. I will see when it gets here and I will take pictures. After I have it checked out by the tech at the fire station. We may still have to get another Radian, but I wanted to check before spending that much money.

Just for note, all of my boys (5,4, and almost 3) weight within 5 pounds (42, 38, 40 ...A bit more height difference, but not much (48, 46, 43).

Thanks for all the help...I will let you know how it all works

I am very sorry to say it, but there is no way 2 Nauti's are going to fit in any 3 across in that van. One, yes, but not two. Attaching a pic of a Nauti and Radian in mine - remaining space should fit a Radian, CCO, or narrow based bucket, anything else would need to puzzle really well, and the Nauti doesn't.

And just to give you a heads up, since it doesn't sound like you've used it before, that center lap belt is a pain to install with, but it is doable. If you put a Radian center you will have to push it right up to the buckle stalk & twist the buckle stalk down- I think it took 2 full turns. You might try the Nauti center with a Radian on each side too, that way the middle kid has a cupholder, and I think they might fit together a bit better that way. If you do that you will need to flip the latchplate over to keep it from loosening.

Hi, I know this post is old however I seem to be in the same position regarding my 2006 chrysler town and country. I see that you wrote you were able to order tethers and your dealership would install them. Would you be able to give me more information regarding the tethers you ordered. I my dealership today and I was told that they could not add tethers to the 3rd row. (It is Sunday so going to try again tomorrow.) Thank you.

What about two Surerides. one on either side of the radian. They are narrow inexpensive, and have really tall top slots.