Forward facing seat for Odyssey middle middle position

baj · Jun 8, 2015

I am looking for a forward-facing harness seat for the middle second row position in a 2012 Odyssey. This is for a 4 year old who is about 42" and 40 lbs. and of course I don't want her to outgrow it right away. A front-facing convertible is ok if that's the best choice. This seat will be replacing an accident-damaged Frontier 85, which I strongly dislike in this position because of the narrow seat and V-shaped versatether (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=246002).

I want the seat:

1. To have seat belt lock offs

2. To be narrow enough to allow the captain's chairs to slide forward

3. (of course) To install well in this somewhat tricky position

I have a feeling that a Clek Foonf is the best answer (rigid latch + seat belt could be great for that super narrow seat), except for the price. I was wondering about the Graco Argos 80, which I suspect would be good except for the width -- anybody like or dislike how that seat installs in this position? Any other suggestions? Thanks!

MotoMommaNH · Jun 8, 2015

My Nautilius doesn't fit their so I'm saying no on the Argos.
The Defender does work with LATCH, no lockoffs though. Any reason why you have to have those?

This is G...40lbs and 43" (ish)

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baj · Jun 9, 2015

MotoMommaNH said:
The Defender does work with LATCH, no lockoffs though. Any reason why you have to have those?

One minor issue I have with the Frontier 85 (minor compared to the tether) is that it's hard to get it to sit perfectly straight on the narrow seat. I think the lack of a lockoff contributes to that. My theory: without a lockoff, there is tension on the part of the shoulder belt that goes up to the roof of the van, which basically counteracts the tension in the part of the belt going downward from that same side of the Frontier, so there isn't much force pulling the Frontier down into the van's seat on that side. Compare that to the other side of the Frontier (where the seat belt buckle is), with two layers of seat belt both pulling the Frontier down into the van seat with that same tension. So no wonder the van seat compresses more on that side and the Frontier leans. With the lockoff there would be almost no tension on that up-to-the-roof part of the seatbelt, so hopefully the car seat would lean less. Does that make sense?

But the lockoff isn't an absolute requirement. Are you happy with the installation of the Defender in that position? Is it narrow enough to move the captain's chairs forward?

Thanks!

bnsnyde · Jun 9, 2015

I will be following this thread.

Before, I had my daughter in a Radian FF there. It was awesome with latch! But then she hit 40 lbs...and she turned 5. So I put in a Kiddyworld Cruiserfix booster and it too was great! (Not sure about seat moving forward as we didn't try that, but I know Maxi-Cosi Rodifix ought to). I love rigid latch for that seat. So sturdy.

I'd like to know which current harnessed seats fit there, too.

We got the 4 YO a Sure Ride since he's so tall. I doubt he'd fit or have any room to grow in the Foonf. My daughter has the Fllo though, and is 2.
Too bad Sure Ride does not fit there! So we have him in back.

MotoMommaNH · Jun 9, 2015

It is narrow enough to move the captains chair forward. It rubs slightly but nothing terrible.
Installed with LATCH it works great. I had to use a few tricks like playing with recline on the seat after tightening , putting a knee in seat etc. It was tough but doable. I'm happy with it!

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baj · Jun 9, 2015

I just realized that the Defender has a split tether, like the Britax seats. Do you have any problem with it going around the seat back rather than staying on top like it's supposed to? I realize the spacing matters, and maybe the strap spacing is narrower than on the Frontier.

safeinthecar · Jun 9, 2015

Maybe I'm overlooking it, but what year Oddy?

Cnidaria · Jun 9, 2015

MotoMommaNH · Jun 10, 2015

baj said:
I just realized that the Defender has a split tether, like the Britax seats. Do you have any problem with it going around the seat back rather than staying on top like it's supposed to? I realize the spacing matters, and maybe the strap spacing is narrower than on the Frontier.

It's kind of two pieces...not a V shape like Britax so it goes straight down. I can take a pic later to show you

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baj · Jun 22, 2015

MotoMommaNH said:
It's kind of two pieces...not a V shape like Britax so it goes straight down. I can take a pic later to show you

If your offer of a picture still stands I would love to see what the tether looks like. Also, have you tried a seat belt installation in this position? My daughter is over Honda's 40 lb latch limit.

MotoMommaNH · Jun 22, 2015

Oh I forgot! I will tomorrow

Honda now defers to the seat manufacturer for weight limit. (Harmony says 46 lbs)

If I get a chance tomorrow I can try seatbelt install and check back.

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baj · Jun 22, 2015

I forgot to mention I tried a Foonf in this location and liked it except for how much it blocks the view out the back. The Defender looks like it doesn't have an especially thick base so hoping it would be better in that regard. The Foonf isn't as tall when using recline position 2 but I was able to get a more solid installation in position 1.

MotoMommaNH · Jun 22, 2015

Oh yeah the defender definitely blocks some view but it doesn't bother me too much as I use the camera and mirrors instead.

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MotoMommaNH · Jun 23, 2015

Not sure if this shows it well

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MotoMommaNH · Jun 24, 2015

It's pretty tall and does block view a little bit.
Disclaimer: we weren't moving

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baj · Jun 24, 2015

Thank you for the pictures! I am still a little confused about how the tether works, since the drawings in the manual look pretty much just like the Britax versa tether.

The base certainly looks lower profile than the Foonf, but the headrest part also looks pretty large, so I wonder how much less it blocks visibility overall than a Foonf for the same size kid.

If you have a chance to try the seatbelt install, or even any intuition on how that would work based on your experience, I would love to hear about it.

I played around a little more with a Foonf in recline position #2 and got a nice solid install by having the Odyssey seat back in the most upright position. This means that the Foonf and Odyssey seat touch near the top of each seat and there is a gap at the bottom, but the Foonf manual says that is ok. If I recline the Odyssey seat one notch the two seats are pretty much parallel, but the real contact happens near the Odyssey seat bight and that doesn't do much for side-to-side stability for the upper part of the Foonf.

Thanks again for all the help.

MotoMommaNH · Jun 25, 2015

The tether is two pieces...one that goes across the top and secures to the seat, and the other is stitched in the around the middle and goes down.

I ran out of time yesterday but I'll definitely install with seatbelt at some point soon here. I probably will need to eventually since DS is having a growth spurt now and is around 40+lbs.

Here's another showing its height compared to a pretty upright Foonf install (recline 2).

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baj · Jun 25, 2015

MotoMommaNH said:
The tether is two pieces...one that goes across the top and secures to the seat, and the other is stitched in the around the middle and goes down.

That makes sense based on your photos, it just doesn't match the manual I downloaded from the Harmony website. I wonder if the design has changed or if the manual is just poorly illustrated.

Thanks again for all the help.

baj · Jul 1, 2015

I decided to go with the Foonf for this position in the end. While the Defender looks like an interesting option, the very tall headrest (extending well above child's head in harness mode) seems to negate any height advantage over the foonf that its lower base would otherwise give in terms of rearview mirror visibililty. And this position can be tricky for seat belt installs, and my daughter is just under the LATCH weight limit (she's 45 lbs., took her to ped for a weight check on an accurate scale). Of course there is a big cost advantage, and if I had a local store where I could try one out with a seat belt install I would have, but I dont.

But I did want to share that I contacted Harmony about the tether. I wanted to know if the manual (which shows something looking exactly like a Britax VersaTether) was accurate and the design had been changed. The design has not been changed, and in reality the tether still looks exactly like MotoMammaNH's photo.

Thanks again for all the help!

MotoMommaNH · Jul 1, 2015

Remember for forward facing you can use rigid LATCH and seatbelt together with the Foonf as long as it doesn't overlap, which it wouldn't in that spot or the captains chairs for that matter!

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Forward facing seat for Odyssey middle middle position

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