Hi, I have a Diono Radian RXT installed rearfacing. I'd like to use the top tethers but Diono says the only place to attach them is to the rail of the front seat. In our car (Audi S6 wagon) the rail is embedded so that there's no way to get a tether around to attach. In communication with Hakan at Carseat.se (I'm in the process of importing an additional seat through that site from Sweden) he explained that you can also tether to the front "seat bight" (i.e. threat tether around the hinge of the seat where the seat back and seat come together), and that this is standard in Europe. His opinion seemed to be that it would be safe to do with the Diono and it makes sense to me, I just wanted to check and see if anyone had experience doing that with US seats here, or whether anyone has suggestions of additional alternative points to tether to (they say any fixed point under the front seat - I don't see any such point, although maybe I'm missing something).
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Question tethering rear facing seat to front seat
- Thread starter Loony
- Start date
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No, this is not an approved method and is not safe with this seat.
Diono allows attaching to the front seat (not all cars allow this) or the seat it is on (often only practical in larger non sedan vehicles.) If you cannot tether rear facing per the instructions, you should not tether rear facing. The seat passes the standard without tethering. So skipping it is the way to go if you can't do it properly.
Diono allows attaching to the front seat (not all cars allow this) or the seat it is on (often only practical in larger non sedan vehicles.) If you cannot tether rear facing per the instructions, you should not tether rear facing. The seat passes the standard without tethering. So skipping it is the way to go if you can't do it properly.
Thanks! I believe The Diono customer care people were the ones who told me that tethers could be attached to any fixed point under the front seat. I've read this other places too (not specifically about diono but rearfacing seats in general) and am just wondering what kind of point this would be and if there might be something I'm missing in our car that could be used. The "seat bight" that was suggested by Hakan is part of the front seat (it IS the front seat) so it seemed to me that if attaching to the front seat is allowed this should work. But, I understand there may be reasons this works for European seats and not Amerucan. Do you know why it would be unsafe to tether the Diono to the seat bight? I'm not trying to be difficult - I'm new to the car seat world and just trying to learn so I can secure my kids as safely as possible. Thanks!
There are airbag components in the front seat that could be affected by the tether if it's attached to something in the bight (thankyouthankyouthankyou for spelling that correctly 
)--that's the first thing that immediately pops into my mind. Also, the reason carseat manufacturers specify tethering to non-moving rails and legs is because in a crash, front seats (and 2nd row seats, if tethering from the 3rd row), can and do move in a crash, which can jerk the rf carseat if its tether is attached to a rod on the seat itself.
)--that's the first thing that immediately pops into my mind. Also, the reason carseat manufacturers specify tethering to non-moving rails and legs is because in a crash, front seats (and 2nd row seats, if tethering from the 3rd row), can and do move in a crash, which can jerk the rf carseat if its tether is attached to a rod on the seat itself.
As for why it's different- the tether connectors used are actually designed differently and attach differently. I've had European seats and they are NOT the same.
Oh, good! This is really helpful too - that the tethers for European seats are different than American ones. As I mentioned as an aside above I'm in the process of choosing a seat from carseat.se to import from Sweden. I'd been zeroing in on the Axkid Minikid, which uses tethers and the manual instructs to attach to seat bight (or seat rail, but as I said that's not possible for our car). So, the minikid tethers should be okay to attach to seat bight, even though Diono tethers are not?
You should check if you have advanced airbags. Airbags are designed differently here because of our laws.
If you choose to tether like that, and have advanced airbags that could be affected by the pressure, I would tether to the passenger seat and make sure that you never, ever use it for an occupant, at least not without uninstalling the seat behind it. Too-forceful airbags can do a lot of harm, as can airbags that don't go off when they should.
What vehicle do you have? If you have advanced airbags I'd choose a seat that won't interfere instead.
If you choose to tether like that, and have advanced airbags that could be affected by the pressure, I would tether to the passenger seat and make sure that you never, ever use it for an occupant, at least not without uninstalling the seat behind it. Too-forceful airbags can do a lot of harm, as can airbags that don't go off when they should.
What vehicle do you have? If you have advanced airbags I'd choose a seat that won't interfere instead.
Ah! Thank you for alerting me to this!! We have an Audi S6 wagon. The carseat may also sometimes be installed in our Jaguar Sedan (will have to ask my husband the exact model - Vanden plas something). Does the issue with the air bag sensors still apply if the tethers are attached to the foot of the seat that goes into the rail (as opposed to the rail itself, since ours has no open path to thread around)? I'm so frustrated that there appear to be no tether spots in our cars! But so glad to find out about these issues before having shelled out the big bucks to import a seat we can't use! Are there also any issues to consider with European seats that use a support leg or that brace against the front seat? We will be using the front seat in front of the car seat. Thank you so much for your knowledge and help!
You shouldn't be wrapping around the foot of the seat, that's not a non moving part directly bolted to the frame. And yes, bracing is an even bigger problem with advanced airbags.
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