Question Is a UAS anchor good enough?

U

Unregistered

Guest
Hi,
I have four sons. Two of whom are 18 month old twins. Recently my Daycare provider questioned me regarding their car seats, which happen to be hand-me-downs from their older brother. In the past, their father use to be in charge of installing their seats, but he recently moved to another province.
Anyhow it was up to me to install these ones into my minivan. Unfortunately I did not find the straps that anchor to the back center of the seat buying did find the UAS that anchors to each side of the vehicles seat. My daycare provider told me that she thought that the tether strap would also be required even if you used the UAS strap. Is she correct?
If so, is there a way to get low cost replacement tethers? Now that I am a single mom of 4 without any help at all from their father, I cannot afford to buy one new car seat?, let alone two.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Lori Gauthier
 
ADS

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Re: Is a UAS achor good enough?

Hi Lori,

What van do you have? If you have UAS you have top tethers, and they are required forward facing by law in Canada.

However, if your twins are in convertibles, it is far best to abide the AAP (and TC says to abide the AAP) and NHTSA and leave them rear facing until at least two, but ideally much longer. That will allow you to not worry about the top tethers right now.

Wendy
 

Cnidaria

New member
Lori,

Are you saying the top tether *straps* themselves are missing from the car seats?

Indeed, some more information would be helpful. Are the twins rear-facing or forward-facing? Some convertible seats *allow* the top tether to be used in the rear-facing position but none *require* it as far as I know.

What car seats are they in?
 

cso1997

Active member
Re: Is a UAS achor good enough?

Only on their new seats. OPs seats are not new, so she does not have to use the TA for RFg. It is optional.

Thanks so much for the clarification. I was actually only replying to the PP and not the OP but I am glad you chimed in to make things more clear.
 

Keeanh

Well-known member
Re: Is a UAS achor good enough?

Hi Lori!! Welcome :)

I hope you'll come back and update us with more details. Generally speaking, the UAS anchors alone are all that are needed for rear-facing, provided you're using them properly. The top tether is also required for forward-facing.

You're an awesome mom for taking on the car seat challenge ;) Don't worry, it might be confusing at first, but we'll help you sort everything out for all 4 of your boys!! Sounds like you have a great daycare provider, btw :)
 

Cnidaria

New member
Thank you for the info about Britax RF tethering in Canada, cso1997 and bubbaray!

(What are you supposed to do if there is just no suitable RF tether point?)
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
You mentioned that the carseats are hand-me-downs. How old are they? If they are old enough not to have top tether straps, they are long since expired.
 

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