Lots of questions!

Unregistered · Sep 11, 2007

I have a Buick Century. Currently I have 2 Boulevards in it, and will need to fit in another seat in March! Our infant seat is expired so I was thinking of skipping it altogether and just doing a convertable. A couple questions-

The handles on the doors hit the seats right at the side shell. How horrible would it be (and I realize it may be very horrible) to put something under the seats to raise them enough to clear the handles? The seats are VERY cushy and the Boulevard bases are a good 2-3 in below the normal seat height. We could probably put 3 Boulevards in this way.

How bad is it if, when the door is closed, it bumps the seat a minute amount? (Not enough to make the seat really move, you just see a vibration) We were able to fit the 2 Boulevards with a Roundabout in this way (Roundabout is missing some styrofoam, so we can't use it.

You can't buy more styrofoam can you? I'm guessing no.)

So my thought was to get ds (4.5 and 43? lbs) a Radian, and put him in the middle. My only concern with this is because the seat is so much lower and the Boulevard shells are HUGE, if we got in an accident and both Boulevards were ff, his head might get hurt on their shells. Also, I mentioned to him that we might get HIM a new seat and he almost cried. Maybe he'd change his mind if he saw a Radian, though.

Other thought- get the new baby a Diplomat. I'm not positive that it will fit, though, because it is .75 in wider than the RA (correct?). But maybe since it will be rf the widest parts will not match up. . . Also I'm not positive I COULD rf a Boulevard in the car, I haven't tried yet and they're so tall! I don't really want to get another RA because the baby will be behind the passenger's seat- there's no way I could reach over a Boulevard to put the baby in the center! I know ds would be able to climb in and buckle himself, and then I could check the tightness from the front. So I like the SIP since the baby will be on the outside. And I like the 35# rf limit, and since I have very chunky babies I think we'll reach the 35 lbs. I wish I'd had that option for dd.

So anyway, any thoughts will be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you so much, this has been driving me nuts, and I have to decide soon since Britaxes are on sale!

wendytthomas · Sep 11, 2007

Unregistered said:
The handles on the doors hit the seats right at the side shell. How horrible would it be (and I realize it may be very horrible) to put something under the seats to raise them enough to clear the handles? The seats are VERY cushy and the Boulevard bases are a good 2-3 in below the normal seat height. We could probably put 3 Boulevards in this way.

Very horrible. Bordering on possibly fatal. In a collision the padding you put down would compress. It would be like installing your seat and not tightening the seatbelt on it.

How bad is it if, when the door is closed, it bumps the seat a minute amount? (Not enough to make the seat really move, you just see a vibration) We were able to fit the 2 Boulevards with a Roundabout in this way (Roundabout is missing some styrofoam, so we can't use it. You can't buy more styrofoam can you? I'm guessing no.)

Yes, you can. Call Britax. And provided the seat is securely installed on its own, if you're not moving the seat, just having it touch, then that's fine.

As for the Roundabout versus Diplomat, since you have Boulevards to move up to I'd probably go for the Diplomat (though if your Roundabout problem is solved with $5 worth of foam it may be difficult to justify). The Diplomat has the 35 pound limit, but the same height restrictions of the Roundabout. Since you have one you can get an idea of how tall a baby will be when they outgrow it RFing.

You might want to get something else for a little while, though. The Diplomat/Roundabout/Boulevard has very high bottom slots for a newborn. Most don't fit well. The Radian fits newborns well, but a newborn would require a 45* angle in it, and it's a VERY large seat front to back.

HTH

Wendy