All new seats needed--what's awesome?

zeo2ski · Mar 30, 2015

I am basically starting from square one reseaching--I know nothing about seats releases/changed in the last 4 years, so I was hoping you all might have some suggestions on where to start!

DH got another old suburban to replace his truck so for the first time ever he has a back seat:dance: and we intend to take advantage of it! In addition, DS1 currently needs a new booster (outgrown height) and I have several seats expiring in the next year.

Current:
DS8: 78 lbs 55" recaro prosport as booster (shoulders toughing, needs something new)
DS7(next week): harnessed frontier top slot but room to grow. 64 lbs?
DD4y10m: 45 lbs 45". FF diono xtsl top slot with room, wants to RF
DD2y7m: 35 lbs 38". RF radian xtsl 4th slot, some room
DS 13 months:22lbs RF cocorro. Girls outgrew this at 15 months, but he's shorter so far.

Expiring are my infant bucket, the recaro, and the Socorro. The one radian will the following year also, but that's far enough out. The vehicle is a of situational challenges, primarily top tethers and narrow 3rd row. No latch. Top tethers in third row EITHER both outboard OR center only. Possibly a new baby in 8+ months. I've had six kiddos before, but a younger crew, more rear facers, no boosters. I'll have a lot of thinking to do to figure out how to fit six again, but for now I need to get started with the researching! Oh! Lap only belts in the center seats.

Dillipop · Mar 30, 2015

Any head restraints?

zeo2ski · Mar 30, 2015

Dillipop said:
Any head restraints?

Yes, all four outboard positions. No side curtain airbags.

lgenne · Mar 30, 2015

Are there tether anchors in the 2nd row?

zeo2ski · Mar 31, 2015

lgenne said:
Are there tether anchors in the 2nd row?

No. Just third row, either both outboard OR center only.

lgenne · Mar 31, 2015

Does the 7 year old need to stay harnessed?

I think the constraints here are:

1) Booster riders must be outboard.
2) FF harnessed riders must be in the 3rd row, max of 1 (center) or 2 (both outboard).
3) one second row outboard seat must be empty or have a backless booster for 3rd row access.
4) 2nd row center is only usable for RF.

Does that all sound right?

I think the problem is actually easier to solve with the top tether in the center. That way you can have good 3rd row access with a booster rider outboard, a harnessed seat center, and booster or rear facer outboard on the other side in the 3rd row.

So you could do:

1) 7 & 8 yo outboard 3rd row, both in boosters (assuming 7 yo is boosterable)
2) 4 yo center 3rd row, harnessed FF
3) RFers center 2nd row, outboard 2nd row

That leaves an outboard seat in the 2nd row open for 3rd row access.

If a new baby makes an appearance, the 8 yo moves to a backless booster outboard 2nd row, with the 7 yo behind him, 4 yo still center 3rd row, 3 RFers in the 3 remaining seats.

Your overall constraints with this setup are a minimum of one RFer and a max of one harnessed FFer.

zeo2ski · Mar 31, 2015

Thank you for thinking that all through

I should have explained better though... DH just got a suburban essentially identical to the one we already have, so we've had lots of practice with the restrictions of this particular vehicle, but in buying new seats, I'm not familiar with what the market offers nowadays that would fit our needs.

Don't worry about keeping the flip seat free, we've outgrown that luxury long ago

Right now third row kids go in through the back cargo doors, but we've tossed them over the middle row in the past too, no problem.

The 7 year old can booster short trips only, without any sibling interactions...so I'm looking to keep him harnessed. Which means two harnessed FFers. By the time we need six 7 yo will need to booster and should be okay to do so. The trouble is needing the FFers third row for TAs but the tall kids needing tall harnesses that come with wide seats. Any narrow seats with Frontier-esque harness height?
Which boosters offer the narrowest buckling area? Third row booster buckling doesn't seem possible, but with a good puzzle maybe? I can't fit three FF or 3 RF anything back there, but we haven't ventured into the world of backless yet. But right now it's needed for tethering anyway.

Eta my siggy is not current

lgenne · Mar 31, 2015

Ah, got it.

Check out the Evenflo Sureride for the 7 year old. It's a convertible, but has super high top slots.

brooksfamily · Apr 1, 2015

This is a lot to wrap my head around, but it seems like the only possible option for getting your 45lb., 4 year old rearfacing again would be the new safety first seat with the 50lb rf limit. I don't know if he'd fit harness limit, I'm not that familiar with the seat but here's the link:

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=276602

If you pass the radians to the 13 month old and 2 year old, you can put your 4 year old in rf in the new safety first seat, or if he can't rf in that, than maybe put both 4 year old and the 7 year old in ff Surerides. It seems as though aside from a Frontier the Sureride has some of the highest top harness slots on the market.

Evenflo secure skid, Graco Argos, and the Britax Boulevard/Adovcate all also have tallish slots but it looks like the Sureride buys you a bit more room even though it's still a convertible.

Can 8 year old move to a narrow LBB...i've seen the incognito suggested as a good LBB for tight spaces

Brigala · Apr 1, 2015

What model year is the Suburban?

zeo2ski · Apr 6, 2015

Brigala said:
What model year is the Suburban?

Current one I drive is 1998, DH's new one is 1996.

zeo2ski · Apr 6, 2015

brooksfamily said:
This is a lot to wrap my head around, but it seems like the only possible option for getting your 45lb., 4 year old rearfacing again would be the new safety first seat with the 50lb rf limit. I don't know if he'd fit harness limit, I'm not that familiar with the seat but here's the link:

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=276602

If you pass the radians to the 13 month old and 2 year old, you can put your 4 year old in rf in the new safety first seat, or if he can't rf in that, than maybe put both 4 year old and the 7 year old in ff Surerides. It seems as though aside from a Frontier the Sureride has some of the highest top harness slots on the market.

Evenflo secure skid, Graco Argos, and the Britax Boulevard/Adovcate all also have tallish slots but it looks like the Sureride buys you a bit more room even though it's still a convertible.

Can 8 year old move to a narrow LBB...i've seen the incognito suggested as a good LBB for tight spaces

Thanks, I'll check out the sureride--I honestly had not even thought about convertibles for a higher harness, that's definitely new since I last researched!

The radians will go to the 1 and 2 year olds, yes.

I've been mulling over the new safety first RF seat. Thus far all my RFers have had rebound control. I'd still like to hear profession opinions on such big kids rf without rebound control vs. same age/size child FF. The width of the seat means more limitations for my arrangement, but RFing the 4 y.o. means not needing that top TA spot.

Incognito might help when new baby comes, putting 8 yo in the third row with a RF and FF RN though it's not likely 4 yo would fit RN height b y then...maybe something else really narrow FF...can't get to RF RNs side by side back there. I did grab a Harmony backless this weekend, middle row use only lol.

brooksfamily · Apr 7, 2015

Clek Foonf/Floo also rfs to 50 lbs, is anti rebound (optional on Floo), and is narrow but csftl lists the max height as 43" or 1 inch from 26" inch shell, so if your 4 year old fits now, it may not be for long. Ffing the harness slots are 17" which is half in inch less than a Radian. At it's hefty price tag it would be a lot of seat for a 4 year old but knowing 1 radian is going to expire and your 2 year old could move into it next year may make the cost more justified.

Sorry I'm not much help with the boosters. When my niece and nephew were in boosters I didn't know much about car seats, I cringe that my sister allowed me to ride around with my 2 year old niece in a turbo booster. My own daughter is still in convertibles and it will be several years before we need to start looking for boosters.

Brigala · Apr 7, 2015

zeo2ski said:
Current one I drive is 1998, DH's new one is 1996.

Ok, then as long as you have empty seats in the 3rd row you can actually tether in the 2nd row.

Just to be super clear: You have to have an empty spot in the 3rd row behind the 2nd row seat you want to tether. Because you have to tether to a part installed in the seat belt.

See this post for reference: http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=535715&postcount=6

Here's the trick (besides having an empty spot): The part is no longer available from Chevy.

Here's the weird solution: The part is actually only a regular seat belt buckle which normally comes on the sewn-on latchplates. It's highly likely you could find an older Chevy at a junk yard and cut it off a seat belt.

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=942506&postcount=5

Cnidaria · Apr 7, 2015

Is there an advantage to that over conventional temporary top tethering (onto male buckle latchplate or seatbelt webbing)?

Brigala · Apr 8, 2015

Cnidaria said:
Is there an advantage to that over conventional temporary top tethering (onto male buckle latchplate or seatbelt webbing)?

The advantage is that Chevy allows use of the retrofit part, but does not allow tethering to the seat belt directly (unless the manual specifically says differently, which I can't be sure of in this case).

Whether there's an actual safety difference or not I honestly couldn't say.

zeo2ski · Apr 8, 2015

I actually did have 4yo FF RN in the 2nd row center, tethered to webbing of third row seat belt for a while. I know that's not ideal, but the alternative was a sibling battle hazard...they are now both outboard 3rd row and still kick and tease eachother but they're getting better. Slowly. The trouble is even if I obtained that part it won't help get six seats in. A couple of years ago I had six kids (2 foster) with 4 RF and 2 FF but I ended up just putting one FF 2nd row untethered.

I do feel better breaking a couple "minor" rules to extend our time in the suburban compared to going into a 12 pass van before necessary. Not sure if data would back me up on that or not, if it existed.

I was kinda hoping y'all would say " yeah there's a super narrow new seat out for tall kids RF or FF!". Looks like most of the new stuff is wide. Clek doesn't offer any advantage over radian, correct? Height wise. Anything FF with a radian.like narrowness at the base but taller top slots than radian? I'll go study the spreadsheet for a bit.

And DH has requested super deep shells so the little ones can't reach in and touch the one next to them

lgenne · Apr 8, 2015

The Harmony Defender is narrow like a Radian with taller top slots, FF only. The Evenflo Sureride is reasonably narrow with even taller top slots. Both are roughly $100.

zeo2ski · Apr 8, 2015

Okay well the spreadsheet only lists external width at the widest spot, but also it looks like there are still very few harnesses as high as my FR85...I really hesitate to go any shorter because DS2 has always been NY shortest of ornate child and even he outgrew the Prospirt harness long before being boosterable. I anticipate my 4 yo outgrowing the RN harness in 6-12 months max.

As long as I can booster 7 yo by the time new baby comes it's just a guessing game of when correct 2 yo has to FF. Following her older sister, she'd outgrow the RN height shortly before turning four RF. The new evenflo should buy another year beyond that at which time I would anticipate moving to a big van anyway. So really I DON'T necessarily need to have two FF in a third row three across! Phew. That changes everything!

So...third row with six seats could be one FF harness, and two RF or one RF one booster. Better. I know before I could not fit the FR with two RF RNs but perhaps one RN one CCO/clek? My CCO will be expired. Am I correct that the radian variations and cleks are still the only narrow, tall, high weight RF seats?

zeo2ski · Apr 8, 2015

lgenne said:
The Harmony Defender is narrow like a Radian with taller top slots, FF only. The Evenflo Sureride is reasonably narrow with even taller top slots. Both are roughly $100.

Hmm tge spreadsheet says 18" top slots on the defender. Sureride might cut it. In comparison pics I thought it was at least as wide as FR85(too wide) but the spreadsheet says 1/2" nfarrower. It might work, depending on the puzzling!

All new seats needed--what's awesome?

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