Question Which car seats to let insurance company buy for 2008 Toyota Sienna van?

goldentwig

New member
My husband was recently in a car accident and totaled his 4-month-owned sedan. (Yeah, ouch.) Luckily, it worked out in our favor since insurance basically gave us everything back we had paid on it in those 4 months and now we can upgrade to a minivan since Baby #3 is on the way in July 2015.

Since our kids' two car seats were in the back, unoccupied thankfully, insurance has still agreed to replace the cost of both car seats. (yay! One of them was about to expire in Feb. '15 anyway!) So now we are expecting to buy a used 2008 Toyota Sienna minivan which seats 8. Three in the middle and three in the back. My husband checked it and found 5 sets of LATCH and tethers, three in the middle row and 2 in the back. Here's our current setup and I need help deciding which two new seats to buy right now (as in probably this weekend or early next week) and let insurance pay for them, plus a new infant car seat (on our own dime) because we just checked the other day and our Chicco KeyFit 30 expires in Dec. 2015 and baby will only be 6 months old at that time. (I tend to use infant carriers for 16-20 months with my small babies.)

My daughter is 7 years old, around 65 lbs. and maybe 47-49" tall.
My son is 2.5 years old, around 27-28 lbs. and about 23" tall.

In our 2007 Toyota RAV4, we currently have a
FF Britax Frontier 90 Booster Car Seat with ClickTight (which is a feature I LOVE!) for my daughter and a RF Britax Boulevard G4 Convertible Car Seat for my son. I recently learned that it is IMPOSSIBLE to put 3 car seats in a 2007 RAV4 because the back seat belts overlap so no 3 car seats could ever be installed in there anyway. This means that the minivan will be the ONLY car that we can ever put all three kids in at the same time, HOWEVER any two kids may need to ride in the RAV4 at a given time. (Sounds like a math class brainteaser, right?) I can move these two current car seats over to the minivan if needed and put more narrow seats in the RAV4 (which might finally allow an adult to better squeeze in the middle between the two).

So again, my question is, what two seats, a booster and a convertible I'm assuming, should I buy this week for the new minivan? And then later in the Spring/early summer, what infant seat with base would you recommend for #3? I love :2thumbsup: the ClickTight installation of my daughter's booster and think that would allow even more flexibility in the van since there are only two sets of LATCH in the back row. (Not yet sure about rear tethers though.) I don't love how HEAVY the Britax seats are and would welcome having a seat that is a little more lightweight for potential airport travel with a Brica RollNGo. However we don't have anything planned, so that's just a side-thought.

Also suggestions on how to set up the configuration of the seats in the minivan are welcome. I believe the middle row, middle seat slides forward for easier access to the RF infant seat, so I'll probably put the baby there. However both older kids' schools have carpool dropoff/pickup which wants them to have easy access to the passenger side sliding door. (Remember my son is RF and can't yet unbuckle himself.)

Thanks in advance!
- Holly
 
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1mommy

New member
You may want to look into a Click Tight Boulevard, its personally not my favorite seat, but if you like your previous G4 Boulevard you'll probably like the click tight, especially if you plan on moving it from car to car a lot. But it is heavy and bulky so if you are looking for a narrow seat I wouldnt recommend it. For narrow convertibles there is the Foonf which is a narrow seat, and is a very nice one from what I've heard. It's also very expensive so you might need to check to see if insurance has a budget you need to stick to. If you need a travel seat I would just recommend buying another one when you travel- I would look into the Guide 65.

Sorry I don't know much about boosters because my oldest is only 2.5 but here is a good starting point.

http://carseatblog.com/carseatblogcoms-recommended-car-seats/

As for infant seats, I love my sons Chicco Keyfit 30, its narrow but not the narrowest, if you want the narrowest I think you would want the Cybex Aton 2 or Aton Q. The Graco Snugride 35 is also a good bet and you can find it on sale. If you liked your Keyfit personally I'd just stick with that. I also love my Chicco Literide plus which is a nice stroller that folds up almost as compact as an umbrella stroller, but can accept an infant seat or act as a regular stroller.
 

lgenne

New member
For the RAV4, I would try for 2 car seats that are easily adjustable so that your middle child can fit in either seat. The Frontier 90 in harness mode is probably reasonable for that, as long as you're ok with him riding FF occasionally. Then you'd need a RF car seat that can accommodate both a newborn and a 2 year old, which I think the G4 should work well for. (I don't have personal experience with it, so I could be wrong. Maybe you'd need a taller seat to make sure your son will still fit in it when the baby still needs to RF?) This is all contingent on you being ok with the flexibility to do a mix of FF and RF for your son for the longish term (even once you turn him FF in the minivan) and your daughter riding in a harness, also longish term.

So then you're just shopping for stuff for the minivan, and the sky is pretty much the limit with a minivan, aside from certain generally not recommended seats.

I believe you can't put an adult between 2 car seats in the back of a RAV4, regardless of width, again because of the overlapping belts.
 

goldentwig

New member
I'm totally fine with my daughter staying in a 5-pt harness for as long as possible and also switching my son back and forth b/w RF and FF for short trips. His preschool is only 6 minutes away from home, with no major roads between, so he could possibly ride FF in the booster those two mornings a week which would solve the carpool line dilemma. (He would be thrilled too!) Once he's FF for good though, I don't mind putting him back RF if he fits in the RF convertible in the RAV4 as needed. So would the Britax Boulevard with ClickTight (did I mention I love CT?!?) be a good choice to put in the RAV4 or would the Chicco NextFit be better b/c it rear-faces to a taller height?


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1mommy

New member
I'd go for the click tight if you love it, the rear-facing height is pretty similar to the Nextfit, either way your kid will hit 40 pounds before outgrowing it by height, so its really the same.
 

goldentwig

New member
So we went to BuyBuyBaby tonight to buy the seats but now my husband is intrigued by the Diono Radian seat b/c it can be a RF infant seat (technically, clearly not a bucket seat), RF/FF convertible seat AND a booster seat up to 120 lbs. Cons are that it's REALLY heavy (30 lbs) so LATCH wouldn't work for much longer on my 27 lb #2 child and it doesn't have ClickTight.

Any other thoughts? Otherwise he does have a decent point about it being a very versatile seat to have in our RAV4 and would guarantee we could always carry two out of the three kids in it. Thoughts?


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1mommy

New member
The radian does not make a good booster for the majority of kids because it has a 50lbs minimum weight limit, and the belt guides are non adjustable, meaning most children will outgrow it by height before hitting the weight minimum. Also it is known for being a PITA to install, and if you want to use it for a newborn it is very reclined and takes up a LOT of room so if you have tall parents who need leg room it's not a great seat. It is a narrow seat and is often recommended if you need 3 across, but keep in mind the cons.
 

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