Narrow Booster Seat for Captain Seat in Buick Enclave

Alabamamom

New member
My daughter is about to turn 7 and I just switched her Britax Frontier 85 from 5 point harness to booster. The seat belt stalk in our 2011 Buick Enclave 2nd row captain chair turns in too much to allow it be buckled! When it was in 5 point I attached using the seat belt but the belt came in at a lower point and I only had to buckle it once and done! In Booster mode the seat is simply too wide for either of us (my daughter or me) to get it buckled! I am attempting to find another seat that is just as safe but narrower. I'd like it to be a high back booster that she can click into herself! I like the idea of a seat with latch but I don't think its absolutely necessary. I looked into doing a seat belt extender such as the Booster Buckle but got nervous about its safety?? I'd appreciate any recommendations or help anyone can provide!
 
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bree

Car-Seat.Org Ambassador
Some narrow boosters include the Graco Turbobooster, the Britax Parkway (that one has a 40 pound minimum), and the Clek Oobr, and I'm sure there are others. The Oobr has LATCH, the Parkway has an SGL model with LATCH, and I can't remember if the Turbobooster has LATCH options, but there are several Graco boosters that do that I believe are relatively narrow. I think the Harmony Dreamtime is another narrow booster; I don't know if it has LATCH. Hopefully someone will be along with a better response soon!

You're right to be nervous about a seatbelt extender; in general, I believe seatbelt extenders are meant to extend the buckle to fit around an adult who otherwise couldn't buckle the seatbelt and aren't for use with children in boosters. I'm not familiar with the Booster Buckle other than a quick glance at their website, and I'm be uncomfortable with that as well. :)
 

aeormsby

New member
The Frontier is about as wide as you can get so anything will fit better! We have a Saturn Outlook ( Enclave twin, I have the 2nd row bench, but I think the outboard seats are pretty much the same as the buckets) and I recently had our Frontier80 in there for one trip - I was amazed at how much harder it was to buckle than the (otherwise widest booster I've used) Recaro Performance Booster. The Recaro occasionally needs to be nudged to access the buckle better, but no where near as bad as the Frontier. We never had any space issues with the Parkway either.

Ironically, it was easier to buckle the Frontier (as a booster) in the 3rd row, driver's side than it was in the 2nd row :rolleyes:

Another thing that helps is rotating the buckle forward so it's not pressed so tight against the booster.
 

Jackie010307

New member
We have an 11 traverse, yet another enclave twin, and buckling the frontier 90 as a booster was impossible! Dd switched to our parkway sgl and I found I couldn't tighten the latch all the way or it too was pulled right up on the buckle. She's recently moved to the parkway backless and though it is latched it is not pulled very tight. I made the parental decision to use it this way knowing that the latch is only for the purpose of the seat not being a projectile if it is unoccupied.
 

aeormsby

New member
We have an 11 traverse, yet another enclave twin, and buckling the frontier 90 as a booster was impossible! Dd switched to our parkway sgl and I found I couldn't tighten the latch all the way or it too was pulled right up on the buckle. She's recently moved to the parkway backless and though it is latched it is not pulled very tight. I made the parental decision to use it this way knowing that the latch is only for the purpose of the seat not being a projectile if it is unoccupied.

I forgot about that - we never tightened the latch all the way on our Parkway either. I don't think it's an issue at all since the latch isn't required. And on the Performance booster it's not possible to tighten it.
 

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