back-up seat for tall 4yo and 3yo to share...

...one at a time, of course! I'm interested in a not-too-spendy seat for papa's car. Something they could both use. The 4yo is 42", and on the top slots of his MA, still has growing room, but will move up to a Regent as soon as we get it. The 3yo is on the top slots of his RA, and will move up to the MA.

I was wondering about an Apex? Because it could transition into a booster? I know it has to have headrests...but the seatback is fairly tall in the vehicle, I think (I can check).

But would it be silly to use this type of seat? One child would eventually be using it in booster mode, then it would have to be installed to use the harness mode for the other child. Does the harness actually have to come out, or can I switch back and forth between children/modes and leave the harness in place?

Any other ideas? The grandparents just bought a FPSV for their vehicle, but that will only work for a yearish, and I was hoping for something that would last longer than that.

Maybe I should just purchase an excellent booster? Then we could use it when we travel instead of trying to haul a Regent around.

Looking for ideas...

i was just having this same dileama (sp?) i have a 5 yr old (43" 38 lbs and 15" torso )and a 3yr old (37" 34 lbs and 13 3/4" torso). i found the apex local and got to get a hands on feel for it. we have an old plymouth grand voyager with captains chairs that i would put it in and then a 91 honda accord with built in headrests, it would primarily go in the honda but also be used for carpooling 5 yr old friends. i don't think it would be a bad choice. even in the honda with the built in head rests my oldest dd had 6" of growing room until her ears would ahve been midlevel to the headrest. the one i was measuring did have 18" top slots (well 17 1/2 but the slot is like 1/2" wide so i think it could convievabley go to 18" so that gave us like 3" and 4" of torso room. i have lightweight children so it would last us a while harnessed. it is a wide seat and i have skinny kids. i was able to buckle it in booster mode with my 5 yr old although she looked like she could swim in it.

i did read in the manual that to use it in booster mode that you have to remove the harness which would be a pain in you were switching back and forth but it would seem to me that you could just set buckles aside and not use them but that's not how it says to use the booster so i don't know.

the other thing i'm running into is that my dh would like to have his seats availalbe to transport other people in the honda and we have to use locking clips and having to reinstall every time would get old so i'm leaning on getting a FPSV booster. we still have an older AO RF for the baby and my 3 year old can still RF in that. so for now i think my 5 year old will use a booster for the occasional times she rides in that car and then switch harness heights between the 3yr old and the baby (you don't have to rethread just use the harness adjust bar on our seat).

i thought about maybe trying the 3 year old in the booster but i am goign to put that on hold until he's definetly over 35 lbs. he's got a small torso so he still has harness room to grow.

long answer but hope you can find something that works.

also, i thought about maybe putting a regent there that both kids could use but as soon as the 5 yr old goes over 40 lbs then the belt paths would have to be different according the to the manual and i don't want to change it every time a different kid gets int he car, at least i assume that's what i'd have to do per manual instructions . that's kind of a pain. there isn't enough seat belt to install LBP without a seat belt extender and money were other reasons i decided against that one.

we also have a radian that is ds primary seat which would also work as we have harness height for a few more years for both kids but money to spend was another reason i didn't go with it. we just spent almost $600 on primary seats for the van and i couldn't ask dh to fork more over for the spare seat (at least not right now )

What about a Evenflo Triumph Advance. You wouldn't have to bother with the harness adjusting. Esp. with a 15" torso. Lots of growth room!