One new car seat or two?

I have a friend who is looking for a new seat for her 26 mth old boy who is outgrowing his scenera. He weighs 26lbs and is roughly 39 in tall. She doesn't own her own car so she moves the seat around almost daily and switches between rf and ff. The seat is used rf in a ford ranger, passenger front, airbag off, seat moved all the way back. It is used ffing middle rear seat of a Chevy Tahoe. These are cars it is in the most. It also goes into a Kia spectra and another small suv once or twice a week (he rfs in one car and ffs in the other, but I am not sure which is which).

She needs something that will last him a good long time (to booster age would be awesome) is easy to install and move around, will not be humongous rfing (keeping him rf in the truck is a priority because he is in the front seat), and ideally she would come in under $200 price wise. Since the bru trade in is going on, it would be awesome if it was something she can get there to help with price, but not absolutely necessary if something else would work.

My first thoughts were something like a truefit with no-retread adjust that would be easy to switch back and forth ff to rf, or getting two seats like a maestro for when he ffs and a myride for when he rfs. I have no hands on experience with the myride or truefit so I have no idea how much space they really take up front to back or how long they would last height wise rf. Any suggestions?

Well I have never had a truefit but I do have a myride for my son...it really doesn't take up as much space as I thought it would front to back...I have a CR-V...small SUV. Not much space between the back and front seats and it fits there with the passenger seat still being extremely comfortable for me and my husband ( 5'5 and 5'11). How long it will last depends on the child's torso height though, not their overall height. 39 inches sounds a bit tall for a 2 yo and I've heard the MR isn't great for tall kids. You could look at the MySize 70 instead of the MR...it takes up even less room front to back and is much taller but I'm not sure how much space she would have to lift up the headrest in the truck, it is on the trade in event for $135 so about the same price as the myride after trade in for a seat that will last much longer than the MR.

Can anybody tell me how long a myride usually lasts rfing?

Also, how hard would it be to switch a truefit back and forth from RF to FF? Do the latch connecters need to be moved or do they slide on a rail like the britax ones?

Should she be looking at a mysize?

My answer would almost always two. That seems like a lot of switching! I think the My Ride usually lasts most kids to between 3-4 RF. My 3yo is short overall (36 or 37") but long torsoed, and outgrew it 1-2 months after turning 3 (one inch from top of shell), I forget exactly. She's 3y,4m now and it was just a couple months ago. 39" does seem tall for 2yo, though. The S4M is taller, but more expensive. How long does she plan to rear face? What is the overall budget?

I think if she wasn't having to put him in the front seat of that truck she would probably lean towards ffing him full time. She hates having him in the front seat, but there is no other option as it is the vehicle her employer has provided for her and I think her child travels to and from work with her. That is the car that she really wants to keep him rfing in, but also doesn't have a ton of room for it. Her max budget is $200. I was thinking that with the Bru trade in she might be able to pull off a maestro and some other relatively inexpensive seat, but I am not sure what other good budget options exist for ERF beyond the myride. It sounds like the myride won't buy her much time rf though. Even if the height she gave me is wrong she did say that his head is starting to peak above the shell of his scenera and that it is getting hard to cram him into the harness, so he is definitely long in the torso/big head.
She did say that two seats and not as much switching around would be nice, so if there is another great inexpensive rf seat that would be awesome.

Why does it need to be FF in one vehicle?

J's mom had no car so installed in several vehicles and she had no problems installing the MyRide in any of them. It has separate LATCH straps for RF and FF but would need to be retreaded. If she can RF in all vehicles that would be best.

What about looking at the Safety First Complete Air?

Jan06twinmom said:

What about looking at the Safety First Complete Air?

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It has a 40" rf limit and requires the 45* angle that makes it take up a lot of space unless the brand new ones have changed. The True Fit would be good for rf height. The 35lb limit will still last him awhile. I've never installed it ff and it is a bulky seat to move around. The lockoffs might be a big plus in some other vehicles. If cost allows it might be nice to have a maestro or other combo seat like you mentioned. It'd be easier to take in and out. With just one seat, she could install with LATCH one direction and seatbelt the other instead of switching around.

I ended up just recommending that she try out the Graco mysize 70 and getting that if it was a good fit. It has separate RF and FF latch connectors, and a no rethread harness, so switching back and forth will be a bit easier. It should give her 1-2 more yrs rfing if she sticks to it. They also have them in store at BRU (I have never found a tru fit in store at BRU) so it would qualify for the trade in. The trade in would bring the price so low that she could also get a maestro (also with a trade in coupon) and still come in under her budget so that is what I suggested (after trying both out in the two cars that they are most often in if possible).

I did warn her about the sticky harness and difficult buckles that some people are reporting, but after a scenera, I doubt the harness will bother her and it seems like the buckle issues are more of a learning curve of how to find the sweet spot in the buckle than anything else (I could be wrong, just what I have gleaned from all the posts I have been reading). Hopefully this works out for her.

Thanks everyone for your help!