Friday, I attended a training with Sarah Tilton from Britax. Melinda (mommyto4) and Jen (jenmann21) were there, as well as a few other people from over on the Delphi board. It was really fun... and informative.
Anyway, I thought I'd post with what she talked about. Some if it may be old news to a lot of you, but I'm going to post it anyway just in case it helps someone. If you read on Delphi, you may have seen some of this info already...............
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HUGS: Harness Ultra-Guard System
The HUGS help reduce head excursion on their 65 and 80 lb products. The nylon of the straps can slip against children's clothes in a crash, but the rubber of the HUGS is intended to grip the child's clothes during a crash and provide resistance to forward movement.
HUGS are optional RF (mandatory FF). Britax strongly discourages parents from removing the HUGS because of the likelihood that they will get lost or forgotten about when it comes time for the child to face forward. She did say in some cases, though, that they are hard to use RF because of their size which causes digging into the child's chin or prevents harness tightness.
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Sarah really stuck by the company line on any of the Regent discussion.
Here's the reason for the advisory. Earlier this year they could not keep up with the demand of the Regent, so they actually had to make a new mold. When they do that, they have to recertify the seat. In that process, they discovered the new, better installation methods. It was never a question that the existing ways didn't pass FMVSS 213. It was that their testing showed this new way was better.
So that's how the new mold was certified. The new mold is not certified to the old instructions. So that is why they can't technically allow people to use seats made after 6/19 with the old instructions.
Because none of this was part of an official recall, they did not have to go back to recertify the older Regent mold or the Husky mold (especially since it's not being made anymore). So that's why they did not recommend that the Husky be installed with the new instructions.
She said
parents need to follow the manual that came with their seat, except that parents with seats made prior to June 19, 2007 have the choice to install using their original instructions or the advisory instructions. But, she also said that if you add the new 'enhancements' to an advisory period seat, that you're required to follow the new instructions. If you want to continue using the original instructions for your seat, don't add the new 'enhancements'.
We asked about seats made after 6/19 that can't be installed according to the new instructions... like, if a parent can't get an acceptable install using LBP for an under 40 lb child, is it ok to use the SBP since that's ok for a heavier child. She said no, it would be considered an incompatibility between the restraint and the vehicle seat. We also said that it doesn't make sense to use SBP for a heavier child and LBP for a lighter child... that intuitively, it should be the other way. She said that she wasn't allowed to talk about test results, but that she would try to find out if there was a better explanation that she COULD give us so that we could understand the reasoning behind the whole thing.
Recline bar is now required with all installations regardless of child's weight or tether use. I asked why they're not installing the recline bar in production now since it's always required. Her answer was that it falls out
. The tether is required with children above 50 lbs. Tether is required with lap/shoulder belt, short route, regardless of child's weight.
They test the Regent with LATCH up to the weight limit of the seat, but that you should still go by the weight limit stated in your vehicle instructions. I just thought it was an interesting tidbit of info.
I asked Sarah about routing the harness under the cover to install. She said it's fine as far as she knows. She's never been asked the question before and told me she'd confirm and get back to me (I gave her my email), but that she couldn't think of any reason it wouldn't be ok.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZephyrBlue
The info. on the Regent's new mold was the type of information we've been trying to get for months! Thank you very much for taking the time to type all of that out.
Yeah, I was happy to hear about that, too! But, it did make me wonder why they just didn't cough up that info in the first place. I mean, how hard would that have been? Sarah did say they took a lot of flack for the Regent advisory, but that they felt it was the right thing to do even though they weren't required to because the old install methods pass FMVSS 213 also. I think they would have had less flack if they had just explained about the new mold in the first place... and it wasn't like they'd be giving up any proprietary info by doing so.
Originally Posted by safeinthecar@mac.com
I was talking on the phone to Heather at Britax on Friday about the Regent. She said that the old Regent passed certification with a final score of 7.5 ( out of a possible 10 ) and that the new Regent passed with a score of 8. Not that big of a difference actually.
It's funny you should mention that. Sarah said that it wasn't that the old Regent didn't pass FMVSS 213... because it does... but that the new Regent had slightly better results and they felt obligated to let people know. She used almost those exact same numbers, but made it sound like they were just a 'for instance'. She said something to the effect of "it was only a difference of a point or so... like if the old Regent passed with a 7 or 7.5 and the new one passed with an 8... but I don't know the exact numbers." She told us at one point during the day that she thinks they don't always give her all the specifics on some things because they're afraid she'll tell people.
