happymom
New member
Ok, after about 6 months of research and debating among lots of seats, I chose the Britax Marathon for my son. We had tried it in the store a few times before eventually ordering it online.
We've been using the seat for about a month now. I had the install checked by a tech (who I felt knew a lot less about car seats than I do). She told me that the tether doesn't really do anything and when I asked about rebound she said that the tight install takes care of anything, but didn't tell me I should remove it. Britax manual recommends always tethering, even in rear facing mode.
I feel pretty confident about my knowledge and that the seat is installed correctly. The tech I had look at my seat just checked it and did not install it herself. I just know that every parent *thinks* they are using their car seat correctly and only 1 in 5 seats is actually used correctly. I want to make sure my son is strapped into one of those 20% that is actually correct.
FYI, my son is 14 months, 28" tall and weighs 17lbs.
I have a few concerns. The harness straps seem very wide to me. With our infant seat (Graco Snugride22) the straps came out of the seat a lot closer to his neck. With the new seat, there seems to be so much more space and the straps are closer to the edges of his shoulders....I dunno, maybe he has skinny shoulders? When I am putting him in and getting his straps tight, if he is leaning to one side, one of the straps slips off his shoulder (I always fix it, but it's annoying). He has never been able to wiggle out once the straps are tight....but does this sound right? I thought I would really like a seat with strap covers and HUGS cause it seemed to prevent twisting, etc, but everything just seems so bulky when I put him in and it takes twice as long because I pinch test every time I put him in the seat and working around the strap covers is difficult.
Also the lever to loosen the harness is REALLY hard to find sometimes. It doesn't line up with the hole/slot in the cover (it's about 2" closer to the front of the seat) -- I have to dig for it every time I need to loosen the harness. Is something wrong with my seat or are all Marathon's like this?
P.S. I am using the rubber Britax seat protector mat for under the car seat after watching the video's on the carseatblog and doing a lot of my own research. I know a lot of techs do not recommend them but I do not feel like it's compromised the install at all and the tech I saw did not mention that it could be a safety concern. One thing I keep seeing is that it can "mask a poor install" -- is there anything specific that I can check for to make sure the seat protector is not masking a poor install?
We've been using the seat for about a month now. I had the install checked by a tech (who I felt knew a lot less about car seats than I do). She told me that the tether doesn't really do anything and when I asked about rebound she said that the tight install takes care of anything, but didn't tell me I should remove it. Britax manual recommends always tethering, even in rear facing mode.
I feel pretty confident about my knowledge and that the seat is installed correctly. The tech I had look at my seat just checked it and did not install it herself. I just know that every parent *thinks* they are using their car seat correctly and only 1 in 5 seats is actually used correctly. I want to make sure my son is strapped into one of those 20% that is actually correct.
FYI, my son is 14 months, 28" tall and weighs 17lbs.
I have a few concerns. The harness straps seem very wide to me. With our infant seat (Graco Snugride22) the straps came out of the seat a lot closer to his neck. With the new seat, there seems to be so much more space and the straps are closer to the edges of his shoulders....I dunno, maybe he has skinny shoulders? When I am putting him in and getting his straps tight, if he is leaning to one side, one of the straps slips off his shoulder (I always fix it, but it's annoying). He has never been able to wiggle out once the straps are tight....but does this sound right? I thought I would really like a seat with strap covers and HUGS cause it seemed to prevent twisting, etc, but everything just seems so bulky when I put him in and it takes twice as long because I pinch test every time I put him in the seat and working around the strap covers is difficult.
Also the lever to loosen the harness is REALLY hard to find sometimes. It doesn't line up with the hole/slot in the cover (it's about 2" closer to the front of the seat) -- I have to dig for it every time I need to loosen the harness. Is something wrong with my seat or are all Marathon's like this?
P.S. I am using the rubber Britax seat protector mat for under the car seat after watching the video's on the carseatblog and doing a lot of my own research. I know a lot of techs do not recommend them but I do not feel like it's compromised the install at all and the tech I saw did not mention that it could be a safety concern. One thing I keep seeing is that it can "mask a poor install" -- is there anything specific that I can check for to make sure the seat protector is not masking a poor install?