Need a seat/booster for my 3.5 yo to use in friends' van...

Just 2 days a week to and from school. Lightweight and easy to move, since they won't want it to stay in their car when she isn't with them. She is 3.5, about 38" and maybe 35 lbs.? Is she too small for a highback booster?

any opinions on the evenflo Chase Harnessed booster?

She is too small and too young to safely use a high back booster at this point. She is under the weight limit for the evenflo chase (which has a 40lb limit on the harness) so that could work. It is quite lightweight. Another good option could be the Evenflo Maestro.

Yes she is to small. I would try the Evenflo Maestro.

The Chase is outgrown fairly quickly by height. If she is of average height for her weight, it's probably OK. It has a maximum weight limit of 40 lbs in harness mode. It makes a crappy booster seat.

The Maestro costs a little more, but has a 50 lb weight limit in harness mode and it makes a better booster than the Chase. So in the long run it's more economical. But if you just need something to get you by for a few months, for example, the Chase will do the job.

^ the new Chase is Maestro-style, just with the 40lb harness... but if she's already 35lbs, it's probably not worth it if you want to get some use out of the seat. I echo the Maestro recs.

Thanks for the advice, ladies!

Brigala said:

The Chase is outgrown fairly quickly by height. If she is of average height for her weight, it's probably OK. It has a maximum weight limit of 40 lbs in harness mode. It makes a crappy booster seat.

The Maestro costs a little more, but has a 50 lb weight limit in harness mode and it makes a better booster than the Chase. So in the long run it's more economical. But if you just need something to get you by for a few months, for example, the Chase will do the job.

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This was never true. Even before the switch to the "maestro" shell, the chase was one of the tallest combo seats on the market until the nauti/Frontier seats came along. It's still a decent contender, even today. Top slots are at like 17 inches. The carseat database says 16 but that's inaccurate, IMO.

I agree that a 40 lb limit seat for a child who needs the harness at least another full year if not 2 or even 3, is a bad choice. I'd go with the maestro.

Also, just to clarify. What you are looking for is a combination seat, which is forward facing only, and has an internal harness and then converts into a booster. Some people call those 'booster" seats and then don't understand why techs freak out!!!! because a booster seat is one that only positions the vehicle seat belt, and a 3.5 yo is way too young for that.

Weren't there two Chases? One with low top slots another with higher ones, but still the low weight limit? I seem to recall that there were two versions.

I haven't actually had much experience with the Chase since I became a Tech. In fact, last time I touched one was at my very first car seat clinic at the end of my training class. That was for a 3 year old who was very close to outgrowing the Chase by height. Was that kid super tall for his age? Possibly. But I was going by the numbers in the database here, and it says 16" and that's a lot better than some seats (like the Cosco HBB) but it's a LOT shorter than the Maestro.

It's all relative, of course. Some kids will make it to booster age in the Chase, and some won't. By the standards of 4 or 5 years ago, sure, maybe it could have been considered one of the taller seats. But by today's standards, with the Maestro, the SecureKid, the SureRide, the Frontier, and the Nautilus all coming in at 18" or higher, and more convertibles than I can count that can be measured to 17"... I would stand by my statement that the old-style Chase, in relative terms, is outgrown "fairly quickly."

I didn't know the old-style Chase had gone away completely. I knew there was a new Chase LX which was basically a Maestro with a lower weight limit, but the OP didn't say Chase LX, she just said Chase. So I was assuming, probably incorrectly I now realize, that she meant the plain old Chase. I apologize for that.