"Britax, Cosco, and Harmony car seats Break in CR's Tests" ?

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abigaylebelle

Active member
Wow. I guess I am not surprised by this, given the testing a few years ago that had harnesses ripping through with the larger dummies. I think it was the regent and some of the higher weight convertibles that time.

I have a larger four year old in a frontier. Fortunately I think he will be booster ready by five, and hopefully he won’t gain a ton of weight in the next few months. I probably won’t use the harness above 50lbs for sure though.
 

jjordan

Moderator
At this point we have incomplete information. My advice is to wait and see what shakes out over the next couple of weeks.

Are you currently using one of the seats mentioned?
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
I am freaking out about this a little. I currently have two Frontiers for my 5 and 8 year old. I am moving my 8 year old to a backless booster but I was planning to move the second seat into my husbands car so I wouldn't have to transfer seats for the 5 year old. One of the reasons I got these seats is because they were supposed to be able to stay harnessed longer. Ugh...very frustrated. I just bought the second seat last year because my daughters Boulevard had reached the expiration date. I was going to move my son to the backless then and give my daughter the Frontier but read all this stuff saying you should keep them harnessed until they outgrow it so I bought a second one.
 

jjordan

Moderator
just read the Carseat blog article. thank you.
are we expecting recalls on those seats?

They still meet the federal standards for crash test performance, so I don't expect that they will be recalled. I suppose it is possible that manufacturers may issue some sort of "fix" to help with the observed problems, but I would be surprised if that happened.
 

jjordan

Moderator
I am freaking out about this a little. I currently have two Frontiers for my 5 and 8 year old. I am moving my 8 year old to a backless booster but I was planning to move the second seat into my husbands car so I wouldn't have to transfer seats for the 5 year old. One of the reasons I got these seats is because they were supposed to be able to stay harnessed longer. Ugh...very frustrated. I just bought the second seat last year because my daughters Boulevard had reached the expiration date. I was going to move my son to the backless then and give my daughter the Frontier but read all this stuff saying you should keep them harnessed until they outgrow it so I bought a second one.

I would most definitely move the 8 year old to a booster unless there are specific circumstances that make you think a harness is safer. Honestly I am a bit fed up with the "harness as long as possible" message because the truth is that we do NOT have any information telling us that harnesses are safer for older (6+ years old) children.

On the other hand, my 5 year old, 45-40 pound child rides in a harnessed Frontier because he's not ready to booster 100% of the time, and I am completely comfortable leaving him there. The worst failures did not happen until they used the 10 year old dummy, and even there we haven't seen the injury reports for the dummies yet. I am fine with my light-ish child riding in a Frontier. But as the blog article says, this will be a decision that each parent makes for their own kids based on their understanding of the situation.
 

Barbara

New member
I would most definitely move the 8 year old to a booster unless there are specific circumstances that make you think a harness is safer. Honestly I am a bit fed up with the "harness as long as possible" message because the truth is that we do NOT have any information telling us that harnesses are safer for older (6+ years old) children.

On the other hand, my 5 year old, 45-40 pound child rides in a harnessed Frontier because he's not ready to booster 100% of the time, and I am completely comfortable leaving him there. The worst failures did not happen until they used the 10 year old dummy, and even there we haven't seen the injury reports for the dummies yet. I am fine with my light-ish child riding in a Frontier. But as the blog article says, this will be a decision that each parent makes for their own kids based on their understanding of the situation.


But what about a 40-45 lbs child in a Pioneer or Defender? It broke with a 52 lbs dummy but not a 35 lbs dummy but where in the middle does it start breaking?
 

jjordan

Moderator
But what about a 40-45 lbs child in a Pioneer or Defender? It broke with a 52 lbs dummy but not a 35 lbs dummy but where in the middle does it start breaking?

Obviously parents make the call they feel comfortable with. I’d definitely want to see the dummy injury reports, but assuming the Pioneer 52# dummy didn’t have higher injuries, then I’d personally be comfortable using one for my 45-50# child. On the other hand, the harness on the Defender pulled through the seat, so personally I’d replace that (or use in booster mode if the child was ready) before using it (harnessed) for my own 45-50# child.
 

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