CCO LATCH Oddity

My LATCH belt is odd. I am very used to the push on connectors (Britax and Chicco). Usually, the little print writing is towards the car seat and the word Safeguard faces out towards the vehicle. With the LATCH strap completely untwisted, one Safeguard is in and one is out. So on the left side of the seat, the hook is down and Safeguard is out but on the right side, the hook is down but Safeguard points to the inside. Is that correct?

No, that's not normal. If it's sewn that way, not twisted (and fixable), call and tell them you have a defect.

It's not a matter of it being non-handed LATCH? I haven't seen the new CCO straps, so I don't know. It doesn't necessarily sound odd, but I don't envision things well.

Without seeing it that would sound right to me. I can't imagine that they would specifically put the wording on different sides (essentially making 2 of the same thing with the wording being the only difference) when they could just use the same part for both sides.

LISmama810 said:

It's not a matter of it being non-handed LATCH? I haven't seen the new CCO straps, so I don't know. It doesn't necessarily sound odd, but I don't envision things well.

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Oh, I forgot about non-handed. Yeah, it could be non-handed, that's probably it.

Also, I was reading it as the other one was sewn upside down, which it's clearly not... I need to get more sleep.

LISmama810 said:

It's not a matter of it being non-handed LATCH? I haven't seen the new CCO straps, so I don't know. It doesn't necessarily sound odd, but I don't envision things well.

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You mean non handed as in the same strap can be converted for rear and forward facing?

If so, my Decathlon is non handed too but the small print faces the car seat on BOTH sides and the smooth non labeled side faces out.

Thank you Anne. I was really leading towards a defect because even the CCO manual seems to indicate that the small print should be facing IN.

ETA: Let me see if I can snap a picture of my DC and the CCO.

You know, even the non-handed LATCH I've encountered, I seem to remember being labeled on both sides... You might just call and check if the manual seems to indicate that's not normal.

If it is correct then I guess I am just confused by the wording in the manual on page 24.

"Position red release button of Push-On Connector facing away from car seat and wording on back side of connector facing car seat..."

I have two problems with that. The first is that the LATCH strap is sewn to the bottom of the connector and not the side. There is no way to put the red release button away from the seat. The second issue is that the wording on the back only faces towards the seat on one side.

If it is correct then I really don't like their LATCH strap. It is so awkward to click in and tighten with the strap sewn to the bottom of the connector. It is probably hard to envision that awkward geometry and I don't have a photo of that.

The first photo is the DC connectors. The strap is sewn to the side so putting the red release button away from the car seat makes total sense. I am holding them like they would be clicked into the car. My finger would be the car seat. The words are in on both sides and the smooth side faces out.

The second photo is the CCO. If my finger is where the car seat would be, you can see that the Safeguard (which is the smooth side on the DC connectors) faces out on the one side and in on the other. That means that the wording (on the other side) only faces in on one side. Also, notice that the strap is sewn to the bottom and not to the side. Someone tell me how I would face the red release button away from the seat?

Sorry to be so wordy. It would be a lot easier to explain in person.

Ok, yeah. Those are non-handed connectors; the problem is with the manual, which is still referring to the old connectors.

I think a call in to Combi is still in order, for them to add it to the list of corrections that need to be made to the manual...

What is the point on non-handed? I must be missing something because the only thing I can think of it making it easier for the workers building the seat.

cso1997 said:

What is the point on non-handed? I must be missing something because the only thing I can think of it making it easier for the workers building the seat.

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My guess would be to reduce the amount of misuse. The older premium connectors had " THIS SIDE UP" then below that "THIS SIDE FACING CHILD SEAT" moulded into the plastic, it is pretty difficult to see and most people would never notice that if they hadn't read the manual, which we know most don't.

The new ones just have "THIS SIDE UP" on them, no specific side needs to face the seat, which is one less thing that can be done incorrectly.

Well, you learn something new every day. I learned about non handed connectors and I learned that I don't like it. I can't believe that I haven't heard of this issue before. I can't be the only one that prefers the nice flat, non awkward good old fashioned there is a right side and a left side LATCH. Now, I look at my Britax seats and my Foonf with MORE admiration.

I prefer the handed as well for working with, but non-handed do have an advantage for most users. I usually end up with a seatbelt install anyway, especially on the CCO, so it's not as frequent an annoyance for me.

The new britaxes are non handed, because the straps don't have to be re-routed from RF to FF, you just swing them forward and back on the side bars now. Nice though, because there's really nothing to mess up or be confused about.