Trying this again: Car seat help needed

Not quite sure what happened to my original post, but here I go again.

I am currently in the hunt for another car seat. DS is 4 y.o. 38" and 32 lbs. He is going to outgrow his current seat (AOE) way before he hit the weight requirement to move to the booster. Heck this kid only gained 1 lb from his 3rd birthday to his 4th. At this rate he'll be 12 before he can go to a booster. LOL

I am getting extremely frustrated trying to find a seat that I like. I have checked out the Radian and the marathon and personally I like the Marathon better, but I hate the price. This seat will be able to be passed down to my younger DD, so overall I guess the cost will be worth it in the end.

I need recommendations/advice. I did really like the Evenflo Triumph Advance, but it is not available in Canada yet. I found this seat to be the most plush/luxurious for it's buck.

What do you all think?

The Radian will gain you an extra 1.5 - 2" of torso growth over the Marathon. It also allows more head room in vehicles because it has no base. For an older child, I almost always vote Radian between the two... this does however, depend on what vehicle you want to put it in and whether it gets moved around a lot.

If you can provide the vehicle make/model/year that would help out a lot.

Also if you can provide your's son's torso measurement, we can recommend the seats that would work best for him. Sit him against a wall and measure from the floor up to the top of his shoulder.

Depending on his torso measurement, there are other combo seats that may work well for him and can cost as little as $130.

If he's truly just outgrowing the AOE by height now, then he has quite a few cheaper options for you to consider. The AOE does not allow the top most headrest position to be used with the harness... it's for booster mode only.

Your posts are also not showing up right away because they are moderated... happens to all new users to prevent spam. They go into a queue and as soon as a mod can get to it, they will post it to the boards for you.

My three and half year old has generally the same stats as your son. We replaced his Eddie Bauer and Touriva in the spring with Radian's.
The Radian has slightly higher slots over the Marathon making it ideal for an older/taller child.

He's so small still that an Graco or Evenflo combination harness/booster (CarGo, Chase, Traditions, Generations) will have tall enough top slots to get him to an acceptable age/weight for a booster. The Graco seats harness to 48 pounds in Canada, the Evenflo seats to 47.

The Radian does have taller top slots than those seats, though, and a higher weight limit if you get a newer one certified to 65 pounds.

For an older child, I don't think I'd go with a Marathon. It's pricey for the length of time you'll likely get out of it (top slot height is shorter than the Radian; most kids outgrow the Marathon by 50ish pounds; my daughter was too tall for the Marathon 18 months ago, and she will still probably fit a Radian for another year).

As for why it took a while for your post to appear, new members and unregistered posters are moderated to reduce SPAM attacks. We've had a few bad ones over the years.

aidensmom02 said:

If you can provide the vehicle make/model/year that would help out a lot.

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2004 Montana Van

Also if you can provide your's son's torso measurement, we can recommend the seats that would work best for him. Sit him against a wall and measure from the floor up to the top of his shoulder.

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He measures 13" He is quite short in the torso. Also sorry I lied about his overall height, I just remeasured him and he is 39". Honest he must have grown overnight. LOL

If he's truly just outgrowing the AOE by height now, then he has quite a few cheaper options for you to consider. The AOE does not allow the top most headrest position to be used with the harness... it's for booster mode only.

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Yes, I do know that the top slot is for booster mode only, that's why I said he is outgrowing it. Thanks for the help.

scatterbunny said:

For an older child, I don't think I'd go with a Marathon. It's pricey for the length of time you'll likely get out of it (top slot height is shorter than the Radian; most kids outgrow the Marathon by 50ish pounds; my daughter was too tall for the Marathon 18 months ago, and she will still probably fit a Radian for another year).

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I understand what you're saying. I would be able to pass a marathon down to dd though, since she too is in an Eddie Bauer AOE and will probably have the same issue we are having with DS now.

Thanks everyone for your help. I really appreciate this. Looking and getting a new seat has literally given me a headache.

My reason for not liking the Radian as much is because it doesn't seem as comfy as the Marathon. We travel a lot on long distances and am wondering if it would become uncomfortable for DS. Also the Radian does not have shoulder strap covers. I know this doesn't seem like a valid point, but I was in a car accident with DS (age 2) when I was 7 months pregnant. Luckily he was restrained properly, because it saved his life. Mine as well as my DD's. The seat that he was in, did not have harness strap covers. The force of the crash brought his head forward (he was FF) with such force that it caused lacerations on his neck. My seat belt did the same thing, leaving extremely bruising. I can't help but feel that if his seat had had the covers he would not have gotten those lacerations/bruises or they would have been greatly minimized.

So that is one of my concerns. Also this is why my DD is still RF. Amazing what one learns. LOL

With a 13" torso at 39", I think he'll have quite a bit of room in a Marathon. It took my dd over 2 years to get from a 14.5-15 inch torso to being too big for a Marathon. Since you have a younger dd to pass the seat down to, it does make more sense to go for the Marathon. Comfort-wise, I see pluses and minuses to both seats. The Radian offers a longer seat depth; some kids find the Marathon too short. Even though my daughter still technically fits the Radian, she even finds THAT seat too short. But it's something to consider, anyway. I just personally steer away from convertibles if the seat won't ever be used rear-facing, but that's a personal preference. You might find that no FF-only seat fits your needs, and that's fine.

Maggs said:

Thanks everyone for your help. I really appreciate this. Looking and getting a new seat has literally given me a headache.

My reason for not liking the Radian as much is because it doesn't seem as comfy as the Marathon. We travel a lot on long distances and am wondering if it would become uncomfortable for DS. Also the Radian does not have shoulder strap covers. I know this doesn't seem like a valid point, but I was in a car accident with DS (age 2) when I was 7 months pregnant. Luckily he was restrained properly, because it saved his life. Mine as well as my DD's. The seat that he was in, did not have harness strap covers. The force of the crash brought his head forward (he was FF) with such force that it caused lacerations on his neck. My seat belt did the same thing, leaving extremely bruising. I can't help but feel that if his seat had had the covers he would not have gotten those lacerations/bruises or they would have been greatly minimized.

So that is one of my concerns. Also this is why my DD is still RF. Amazing what one learns. LOL

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Actually the radian does come with the shoulder strap covers.
As for long car rides, we made 2 trips to manitoba last month, 12hrs each way, and both times, DS was fine, he slept the full 12hrs one way (night) and 6-7 hrs the other way, perfectly happy for most of the rest of the time, he was sick of the carseat for a couple weeks after, but he still seemed perfectly comfortable in it, just bored (why he was upset for part of the trip).

The Radian does come with strap covers. It will install well in your van with LATCH, but will be a more difficult install with the seatbelt.

Since your ds only has a 13" torso height, you have a LOT of budget friendly options.

Evenflo Bolero/Generations... harnesses to 47lbs, then makes a decent booster. The Bolero is at Walmart for $130. The Generations is the more padded version and is at Toys R Us for $140.

Evenflo Chase/Traditions... harnesses to 47lbs, then makes an okay booster. The Chase is at Walmart for $110. The Traditions is the more padded version and is at Toys R Us for $120. This seat has an on-harness adjuster. The adjuster is right below the chest clip and the harness is one continuous loop that goes from the adjuster down through the hip slot, under the bum, up through the second hip slot and up to the shoulder slot. People either love it or hate it, so I'd recommend going to Walmart/ToysRUs and playing with it first. I personally loved it because the harness just slides back and forth under the bum. I can put kiddo in the seat without actually having to adjust the harness every time since it slides back and forth.

Graco Platinum Cargo... harnesses to 48lbs, then makes crappy booster (you will not want to use this in booster mode, but you can pass it down and get a dedicated booster for him at that time). This one is at Sears for $160... be careful that you do NOT get the Treasured Cargo, that one does not have a front adjuster.

Cosco/Safety 1st Apex... harnesses to 48lbs, then makes decent booster. I've seen this one at Sears in the stores (can't find it online) and it's in their catalogue for $180. This one requires full vehicle head rest support... which means that you must have a vehicle headrest/seatback behind the carseat at all times to use this one.

All of these have nice tall top slots to get your son to 40lbs (legal weight to use a booster). Hope that helps.

Thank you all so much for your continued help. I have been out all morning looking at car seats. After all by moaning about the Radian, I did indeed purchase that one. It is still in the box and glad to see that it does come with shoulder pads.

I am going to install this seat later and see how DS fits in it. Give it a whirl for a few days and see how he likes it and if I do as well. I asked the sales lady and she said that I could return it no problem if it didn't fit our needs.

Thanks again for the help and I will let everyone know how it goes. I am so used to installing my other seats, that I am a bit nervous about installing this one. I hope it's not too bad. Then I will be finding a car seat check to get it inspected.

Also one last thing. How is the booster mode on the AEO's? I was planning on using it for DS when he does finally meet the requirements. Or am I going to have to purchase yet another seat (booster)?

Maggs said:

Thank you all so much for your continued help. I have been out all morning looking at car seats. After all by moaning about the Radian, I did indeed purchase that one. It is still in the box and glad to see that it does come with shoulder pads.

I am going to install this seat later and see how DS fits in it. Give it a whirl for a few days and see how he likes it and if I do as well. I asked the sales lady and she said that I could return it no problem if it didn't fit our needs.

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We've had our Radian for about 10 months now, and I really like it with one exception. I can only get a good FF install w/Latch. Our van (06 Toyota) seatbelts aren't compatable FF, although they do work fine RF. I was wanting a second one for ds2, and was waiting to get one with the higher weight limit until I discovered that after 48lbs you have to use the vehicle belts, not Latch. I'm still glad I have one, but even though we plan more babies, I don't think I'll get another Radian for this reason. The Marathon is the only other option up to 65lbs, but ds1 is even more likely to outgrow its height before weight, which is very frustrating to me!

UPDATE:
I got a possibly acceptable install w/SB in the middle of the 3rd row, it's solid, just a gap btwn the seatbacks b/c I tightened the belt and then pulled the seatback fwd (last 2 pics) Besides that, I found out I have a short-strapped one, so I'll be getting a replacement/second seat soon, should be 65lb stickers

The Alpha Omega Elite isn't a wonderful booster, no. You'll probably want a dedicated booster.