Rear facing tether question

rdmsgirl · Jul 10, 2014

Hi - I haven't been following current car seat regulations but I thought I read somewhere that when rear facing it's not ok to anchor the tether to the seat track on the floor. I swear that when I bought and installed my car seat a year ago it was ok to do. Should I be removing the tether now? It's a Marathon G3. Thanks.

Pixelated · Jul 10, 2014

There are no vehicle manufacturers who expressly permit tethering Swedish-style, using the included D-ring. Although the G3 seat permits it, both the vehicle and the seat must agree in order to do something.

Some parents choose to ignore the vehicle manufacturer, and do it anyway.

If you want to tether rear-facing, the Canadian curriculum indicates you must do it Australian-style (if your seat so permits - yours does) or not at all.

rdmsgirl · Jul 12, 2014

Thanks for the prompt reply. So do vehicles not permit Swedish style tethering because of the advanced airbags? Is it safer for the child to have the seat tethered Swedish style with no front seat passenger versus untethered competely? (95 percent of my driving is without a front seat passenger. )

Pixelated · Jul 12, 2014

rdmsgirl said:
Thanks for the prompt reply. So do vehicles not permit Swedish style tethering because of the advanced airbags? Is it safer for the child to have the seat tethered Swedish style with no front seat passenger versus untethered competely? (95 percent of my driving is without a front seat passenger. )

Vehicle manufacturers generally don't permit Swedish-style because it's an untested point. It might be fine in some vehicles in some crashes for some kids...but who knows. There is no standard in Canada for such a point, and so it doesn't have to be tested in any way. Some will undoubtedly interfere with advanced air bags, and then in cars too old to have advanced air bags I start to wonder about the integrity of the car's structure and what tension on a part might do in a crash.

I'm not keen on doing untested things when it comes to car seats and so I have never rear-face tethered mine, opting instead for leaving the tether stowed, or using a seat with an anti-rebound bar. I'm not sure I could say which is safer really, but I'd vastly prefer -- because it is tested - to not rear-face tether a seat, unless you're doing it Aussie-style using the designated forward-facing anchor point (which is a highly regulated and tested anchor point).

Rear facing tether question

rdmsgirl

New member

Pixelated

Moderator - CPST Instructor

rdmsgirl

New member

Pixelated

Moderator - CPST Instructor

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics