Easy to tighten straps - Canada

I need to buy a rear then forward facing carseat for my 12 month old and a forward facing/booster seat for my 3.5 yr old. My current rear/forward seats I hate because I cannot get the straps around my kids tight. They have some kind of a stop on the tightening strap and as hard as I try, I can't get them tight. My old Graco infant seat has a continuous pull and works so much better. I am looking for new seats that are easy to tighten.

Any suggetions? Any brands I should definately stay away from that have similar complaints?

Thanks for any help.

Welcome to car-seat.org - a little bit more info (okay, kind of a lot !) will help us answer your questions more fully.

What seats do you have now that you don't like?

What are the weights of both kids? What are your rear facing goals for your younger child? What is the seated (bum to shoulder) torso height of your older child? What car are you installing into? Budget?

Some of the seats have a harness adjuster that is a tug-tug-tug motion instead of a continuous pull, which could be the issue that you are having. What seats are you currently using?

I haven't played around with too too many seats but for the ones that I have, the Radian and True Fit have the tug-tug type harness. Some with a nice easy to pull harness adjuster that is smooth that I have tried are the Graco MyRide, Cosco Scenera, and Harmony V7.

Based on the size of your kids and the vehicle that you are putting the seats in, I'm sure that people here can offer some more concrete suggestions though.

My Peg Perego convertible is the easiest to tighten/loosen seat I've used. Britax seats are probably 2nd. But whether or not they'll suit what you need depend on answers to the questions the others have asked.

The Graco Nautilus harness is also very smooth. :thumbsup:

unityco said:

The Graco Nautilus harness is also very smooth. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Oh ya, missed that OP was looking for a FF seat too! I agree, the Nauti is easy to adjust. Our Frontier was really good too.

In response to the questions above:
-I currently have an Evenflo Titan and a Cosco Scenera.
-My daughter is 19 lbs and 12 months old.
-My son is 35 lbs and 3.5 yrs old.
-They are sleeping right now so I don't know the seated torso height but they are both small for their age.
-I will probably try to keep my daughter RF until she is 2 but I don't think leg room will be too much of an issue because she has been small all along.
-The seat are going into a Dodge Caravan so leg room for the driver may be an issue, I know some RF seat stick out to far in vans.
- Less expensive would be better. I'm not looking for high end but would pay more to get my kids tight and feel safer. Peg Perego is too high. I have seen the Britax Roundabout and Marathon on sale though. Does anyone know what they are like?
-Based on reviews I've read, I was leaning toward the Graco Nautilus for a FF seat.
-I've read too many reviews and can't remember why I scratched the Graco MyRide off my list if the straps are easy, does it push the child's head forward? It's hard to make a decision based on a few reviews because one person will say it is easy and the next will say it's hard.

Thanks for all your help?
Lori

Questions for TechnoGranola and Jacqui: who makes the Harmony and Frontier?

The Harmony seats are made by Harmony. The Frontier is made by Britax.

I know you excluded the Peg convertible based on price, but I thought I'd share that I had a 2013 Grand Caravan as a rental and the easiest install I've had for the Peg out of 4 different vehicles, was in the captain's chair of that van with LATCH. It went in so easy and so snugly and tons of room for the driver (my hubby is 6' with long legs and had lots of room). The captain's chairs did adjust forward and back in that model. But the seat sits upright enough that I think it even worked with the seat all the way forward.

The Graco MyRide definitely does not push kids heads forward. It's like a big recliner for the car, lol. The Britax seats also adjust smoothly.

Take a peak at the straps as well and make sure that they are nice and straight with no twists in it, as that can be making it harder to tighten. My sister recently was having that issue with her one car seat and it was because her husband twisted the strap and had it connected backwards so that twist was making it impossible to tighten the harness properly.

This is my little guy in the Scenera when he was 4 months old (and about the same weight as your daughter): http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n575/jacqui276/kalebscenera.jpg
The straps go tight enough that it should fit and I always found it to be a smooth pull to tighten them. If you can get the Scenera to function for you, it may get your daughter to 2 if she is small but it is often grown out of quickly both RFing and FFing. Height is a bigger issue than weight limits with this seat and the one that I had had a maximum of 32" for height for RFing, so my 11 month old would be extremely close to outgrowing it already (he is big though).


The only issue that I have heard with the Graco MyRide is that some people have been having problems with the Graco buckles. Some of them have been malfunctioning and making it very hard to undo them, which deters some from buying Graco seats. Others have used them with no issues but for those that have had issues, it is obviously frustrating. I had one briefly (returned it as it didn't work in my 3 across situation) and found it easy to install and the harness adjuster was super smooth. I didn't have any immediate issues with the buckles, but also didn't own it long enough to see if anything developed.

I have never owned a Britax seat but the general consensus seems to be that they are easy to install and use. Their only downfall is that they have a small shell so are outgrown sooner than some of the taller seats on the market and have less leg room than some others. If your daughter is small though, that should be much less of an issue for you.

The seats that I have heard of for having an issue with pushing the child's head forward is the Graco Nautilus, and Cosco Guide 65. Not everyone finds it to be a problem though.

The Harmony V7 is one of the most inexpensive ffing/booster seats that is available here (it is at Walmart). I found it very smooth to adjust but the assembly of the seat was a little bit annoying (it came in pieces in the box unlike any other car seat I have ever bought). I found it ok to install with LATCH and a little bit annoying to install with seat belt but with some help from here got the hang of it. I bought 2 of them because of it being cheap (on sale for $70, regular $99) and narrow so it worked well in tight spaces. I don't think that it will make a good high back booster because the belt guide isn't adjustable. It would be fine as a no back booster though. If you are wanting a seat that you can use as a high back booster too, you would be better off getting something like a Nautilus or Frontier.

What about the Evenflo Triumph LX with the knobs on the sides? It's easy to tighten (especially forward facing) and also easily adjusts between different sizes of kids. Decent capacity and reasonable price.

For the Radian and the Complete Air when rear facing I find it helpful to push down on the harness yoke at the back while pulling on the strap.