Can I safely use U.S. carseats in Ireland?

Loony

New member
Hi Everyone

We are planning a trip to Ireland (from the US) with our 4 and 6 year old kids in June. We plan to rent a car there and I need advice on carseats. At home our 4 yo rides RF; 6 yo is in harnessed booster or FF convertible. We have a variety of seats we could bring on the trip, although I'm not sure any will work - e.g., our FF seats require a top tether and from some quick reading it seems there are not tether points in European cars?

I know that technically it's probably not legal to bring a US seat there. What I'm concerned about is safety, and what I'm hoping is that there's a way we could safely use two of our existing seats for this trip.

Although, looking for any and all advice.

The seats we own which we could bring are:

Graco Extend2Fit (my 6 yo still fits in this FF; we own 2 of these seats)
Clek Fllo
Britax Advocate (click tight convertible)
Diono Radian
Britax Pinnacle (click tight Harness to booster)
Britax Frontier (click tight Harness to booster)

Thank you!
 
Last edited:
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wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Hi.

Since 2014, European cars have been required to have top tethers as part of the iSize regulations. So you should be ok there.

The Britax Advocate and Britax Frontier would be easiest. You then don't need to worry about locking the belt.

And yes, they'd be safe. :)

Wendy
 

Loony

New member
one question related to your recommendation here for the advocate - realized that my 4 yo is over the 40 lb limit for RF (we are currently not using that seat). From what you say, and the little I've read, it seems that having a seat with lock-offs would be a good idea - would the Clek Fllo work? (RF limit is 50 lbs on that one, and it has lock-offs).



Hi.

Since 2014, European cars have been required to have top tethers as part of the iSize regulations. So you should be ok there.

The Britax Advocate and Britax Frontier would be easiest. You then don't need to worry about locking the belt.

And yes, they'd be safe. :)

Wendy
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Yup!

Just a touch heavier to carry around. I'd get wheels for them all. Some sort of folding luggage cart or collapsable wagon.

Wendy
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Don't mean to scare you, but EU regulations are quite strict on child seats and rules are enforced quite hard.
If cops check your seats and find that they don't feature the ECE R44/04, you could find yourself in trouble. Besides the fines, this may include prohibiting to continue your travel right there right now, until you have appropriate CSR with EU homologation. (no matter where and what time it is)

Also, in case of an accident (God forbid) you can be pretty sure, that every insurance will refuse coverage...

But it's your decision...
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
The EU has side impact testing, which I wish we had.

I've lived in Europe for six months. I brought my American seats. I went in and out of all sort of "official" places (border crossings, waved to cops), and not a one cared. No crashes, thank goodness.

Conversely, people say the same about European seats in the US. The few people I know who have been in crashes with European seats have had them covered, and everyone's medical has been covered.

Legally, they're not allowed. But that seemed to have been known going into it, and so the safety aspect was being asked about.

Wendy
 

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