Brigala
CPST Instructor
Bear with my rambling here for a minute. I'm looking for input.
So, it happened. Mere weeks after earning his driver's license, my 19 year old got in an accident on his way home from work this morning. The street was wet and slick and he slid into the car in front of him. Nobody is hurt, by all accounts a "minor" accident, but my CA 65 SE was in the car.
The damage is enough that we're making an insurance claim, so USAA is apparently going to refund me the original purchase price, which is nice. I may just recycle it and not bother replacing it right now. The money can go toward the deductible. I don't really need that seat now that my little one is at its rear-facing limits. I can use my FR85 as the "spare" seat instead. She fits the CA more comfortably (her legs are short but the rest of her is giant) but she doesn't really ride in that car much and for anything short of an emergency I can move one of her RF Radians over.
OR, since I have a free CA70 on the way which I won from Weeviews, I could use that as the replacement instead of selling it or something, which is what I'd originally planned.
Any idea whether my CA65's cover will fit the CA70? I really love the O2 pattern and I'm going to miss it. My step-daughter also really loves the O2, and one of the things I was thinking about doing with the CA70 was to give it to her to use for her 1 y.o. son. He's going to need a 3rd car seat pretty soon, although so far I've bought every car seat he's had (RXT, RA55, OB35A) so I was going to just let her buy the seat for the 3rd vehicle herself when the Onboard is finally outgrown. Whether I keep it or give it to her, it would be nice if the cover would transfer over.
Will I miss the reclining base at all? Has anybody owned both a CA LX and a non-LX version? I've only installed the non-reclining version once or twice. So far I've never used the reclined-FF position on the seat I've had; when I've installed it FF I've always had it fully upright. How hard is it to recline the CA for RF without the use of pool noodles? On the one I have, I *need* pool noodles to get it to stay reclined because the base just won't stay stable without them. I was thinking the baseless one might actually be easier to install without noodles, but if not then it's going to take like half a dozen noodles to use RF and I don't want that. Then again it may be a moot point since I'm not sure I'll really ever need to use it RF again. Though I might, for my step-daughter's toddler.
OR, I could use the money towards a Radian R120 or another Radian off the swap so I could put a RF seat in that vehicle and not have to use a FF spare seat for my roughly 40#, 40" 3 year old.
*sigh* I just don't know what to do next.
So, it happened. Mere weeks after earning his driver's license, my 19 year old got in an accident on his way home from work this morning. The street was wet and slick and he slid into the car in front of him. Nobody is hurt, by all accounts a "minor" accident, but my CA 65 SE was in the car.
The damage is enough that we're making an insurance claim, so USAA is apparently going to refund me the original purchase price, which is nice. I may just recycle it and not bother replacing it right now. The money can go toward the deductible. I don't really need that seat now that my little one is at its rear-facing limits. I can use my FR85 as the "spare" seat instead. She fits the CA more comfortably (her legs are short but the rest of her is giant) but she doesn't really ride in that car much and for anything short of an emergency I can move one of her RF Radians over.
OR, since I have a free CA70 on the way which I won from Weeviews, I could use that as the replacement instead of selling it or something, which is what I'd originally planned.
Any idea whether my CA65's cover will fit the CA70? I really love the O2 pattern and I'm going to miss it. My step-daughter also really loves the O2, and one of the things I was thinking about doing with the CA70 was to give it to her to use for her 1 y.o. son. He's going to need a 3rd car seat pretty soon, although so far I've bought every car seat he's had (RXT, RA55, OB35A) so I was going to just let her buy the seat for the 3rd vehicle herself when the Onboard is finally outgrown. Whether I keep it or give it to her, it would be nice if the cover would transfer over.
Will I miss the reclining base at all? Has anybody owned both a CA LX and a non-LX version? I've only installed the non-reclining version once or twice. So far I've never used the reclined-FF position on the seat I've had; when I've installed it FF I've always had it fully upright. How hard is it to recline the CA for RF without the use of pool noodles? On the one I have, I *need* pool noodles to get it to stay reclined because the base just won't stay stable without them. I was thinking the baseless one might actually be easier to install without noodles, but if not then it's going to take like half a dozen noodles to use RF and I don't want that. Then again it may be a moot point since I'm not sure I'll really ever need to use it RF again. Though I might, for my step-daughter's toddler.
OR, I could use the money towards a Radian R120 or another Radian off the swap so I could put a RF seat in that vehicle and not have to use a FF spare seat for my roughly 40#, 40" 3 year old.
*sigh* I just don't know what to do next.