High weight limit rear facing Canadian car seat

My DS 7 months, is very close to outgrowing his infant carrier seat. I would like to purchase a rear facing model that goes to 35 pounds and forward facing to 47lbs if possible and fairly easy to adjust. I live in a rural area, my local Wal-mart carries only the Alpha Omega models-Safety 1st and Cosco labels and the Scenera. I thought from reading these boards and the toysrus.ca website that the Evenflo Triump Advance fit that criteria, however the Toys r Us store states the box only says 30lbs rear facing. I have spoken to Wal-mart, Toys R Us and Sears in Fredericton and have been unable to find any other models. Any other suggestions? I'm sure I'll need a new carseat within the next few weeks, never dreamed it would be so challenging. We drive a 2004 Toyota Sienna.
Thank you! This is a great resource, wish I had stumbled upon it long ago.

Car seats in Canada, according to Transport Canada, can only go to 30 pounds rear facing, max.

They, from what I understand, take the description of the car seats from the US sites and copy and paste them onto the Canadian sites, and don't change them to reflect the laws here in Canada.

The EFTA weight limits are 30# RR, and 47# FF.

All convertable seats in Canada rearface to 30lbs. There are some seats out there with older DOM's that do have a 35lb rf limit but they are already several years old now and you likely won't be able to find one new. Often sites will just take the info from the manufacturers site which is often a US site and has the US weight limits which is sometimes different then the limits in Canada due to Canadian regulations.

Here is a list of convertable seats available in Canada that rf to 30lbs and have a higher FF weight limit:

*Britax Marathon (65lbs)
*Sunshine Kids Radian (65lbs)
*Evenflo EFTA (47lbs)

Unregistered said:

I would like to purchase a rear facing model that goes to 35 pounds and forward facing to 47lbs if possible and fairly easy to adjust. ... I thought from reading these boards and the toysrus.ca website that the Evenflo Triumph Advance fit that criteria, however the Toys r Us store states the box only says 30lbs rear facing.

Click to expand...

Please see this thread (http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=36527) for a full explanation as to why the Evenflo Triumph Advance does not have a 35 lb RF weight limit in Canada.

Unregistered said:

My DS 7 months, is very close to outgrowing his infant carrier seat. I would like to purchase a rear facing model that goes to 35 pounds and forward facing to 47lbs if possible and fairly easy to adjust. I live in a rural area, my local Wal-mart carries only the Alpha Omega models-Safety 1st and Cosco labels and the Scenera. I thought from reading these boards and the toysrus.ca website that the Evenflo Triump Advance fit that criteria, however the Toys r Us store states the box only says 30lbs rear facing. I have spoken to Wal-mart, Toys R Us and Sears in Fredericton and have been unable to find any other models. Any other suggestions? I'm sure I'll need a new carseat within the next few weeks, never dreamed it would be so challenging. We drive a 2004 Toyota Sienna.
Thank you! This is a great resource, wish I had stumbled upon it long ago.

Click to expand...

I noticed that your are close to Fredericton, I just wanted to let you know if you're ever in the Saint John area, there is now two stores that carry Britax seats and one that is carrying the Radian. PM me if you'd like more info, and I'd be happy to help out, I'm in SJ!

After seeing this thread I e-mailed & called Toys R Us about the error on their Canadian web-site. They have now updated it to say "Rear-facing for infants 5-30 lbs" :thumbsup: - http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=2855533&cp=2582973&parentPage=family

shauburg said:

After seeing this thread I e-mailed & called Toys R Us about the error on their Canadian web-site. They have now updated it to say "Rear-facing for infants 5-30 lbs" :thumbsup: - http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=2855533&cp=2582973&parentPage=family

Click to expand...

Cool! If they would have been proactive and checked their other seats for errors at the same time, that would have even been better! (Britax seats still say 33 pounds for RF).

I realize this is an old thread but I'm not really sure where to post my question. This seems the most relevant.
I'm in Canada. I have an old Sunshine Radian 65 (came with the old style foot but they sent me a new style when I complained it didn't fit between the latch points). No SuperLatch obviously. Not sure what the date on my seat is. I could go find it if it would help.
My manual says RF to only 30lbs... likely because of what was discussed earlier in this thread. So... do I listen to the manual and switch to FF at 30lbs (which I did) or do I go against these potentially outdated rules and RF longer? They say extended RF is safer... and I believe my seat can RF to 40lbs if I lived over an invisible line a ways south of here. Not sure what the ramifications are if I RF longer than what the Canadian rules say... and if it is worth the possible increase in safety?
I don't think I'm prepared to buy a new seat at this point, but I'm also curious if the 30lb limit applies to ALL RF seats in Canada still? Who do I call to see what the rules are on my specific old seat. I emailed them right when they were having all their superlatch issues and didn't get a real response... after numerous attempts. Try again?!
Thanks for any and all thoughts!

Hi and welcome. Your are welcome to post a new thread in the Canadian and International forum. If not, a moderator may split this into a new thread.

As to your question, a lot has changed in the last three years! #1, no, you can absolutely not use your seat beyond the stated weight limit for rear facing. However, the good news is, there are LOTS of convertable seats on the Canadian market now that RF to higher weights. In fact, almost all of them do.

What is your budget, vehicle, age and weight of the child, and are there any other kids in the car, if so, what are their stats and current seats?
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Hi and welcome. Your are welcome to post a new thread in the Canadian and International forum. If not, a moderator may split this into a new thread.

As to your question, a lot has changed in the last three years! #1, no, you can absolutely not use your seat beyond the stated weight limit for rear facing. However, the good news is, there are LOTS of convertable seats on the Canadian market now that RF to higher weights. In fact, almost all of them do.

What is your budget, vehicle, age and weight of the child, and are there any other kids in the car, if so, what are their stats and current seats?
Posted via Mobile Device

Welcome!

The seat that you bought was tested and certified to RF to 30lbs. The limits are in the manual and on the stickers on the seat and don't change. Using it past that is not safe because it either wasn't tested that way or it was tested for higher limits and failed. Since we don't know which case it was you shouldn't use it RF past 30lbs.

Newer Radians (and now Diono) do RF to 40 or 45lbs even in Canada. I believe they did do some changes before getting them certified to the higher weights (someone can correct me if I'm wrong). I don't believe they made the weight limits retroactive to older seats in Canada.

Since then many seats have hit the market that do have higher RF limits. Depending on the age of the child and your budget you might consider looking into them to continue RFing.

Thanks for the welcome, and your assistance!
[Chay wrote]: "I don't believe they made the weight limits retroactive to older seats in Canada."
This is the thing I was questioning. I know they did make it retroactive in the states... but couldn't find clarification on what they did here. Frustrating!
My daughter is 38 months, 36.5" and close to 30lbs but likely not quite. I don't have a scale and was stressing over it so switched her FF this fall. I drive a 2005 Subaru Outback. RF only really feasible center... unless the front passenger doesn't mind kissing the dashboard. :/
I don't have any other kids of my own but do drive other kids around a lot (dayhome). Some days I have two other FF Radian 65s in the back (which was super easy when she was RF center - not so easy now since I can't seem to get a rock solid FF install on the raised leather center seat without seats on either side). Some days I have an Eddie Bauer (Alpha Omega?) 3in1 convertible to put in the back with her instead (EB solid just a bit crooked due to the bases when Radian RF center). Some days I have all 3 extra kids and put the EB in the front with my daughter in it and the airbags disarmed. I dislike the daily carseat shuffle game. :/
So, I'd like to stay with Radian to ease the fitting of things I think? She's three, so FF is likely not the end of the world, but she is light and could potentially be RF awhile yet? ...and we'll be needing a booster type thingy eventually anyways, so...
Thanks again for any suggestions!!!

First off I mean all of this in the best possible way so hopefully nothing comes across harshly. I applaud you for seeking information to keep your DD and day home kids safe. I'm assuming you want to know everything possible to keep them as safe as possible.

Unless you have a key that can disable your airbags which as far as I know only exists in trucks it is EXTREMELY dangerous to have any child sit in the front seat. I know they have sensors built in that are supposed to disable the airbags but these have been known to not work. Airbags deploy with such force that it could be deadly to a small person. There is also the problem that your front seat doesn't have an approved tether anchor to anchor the seat to. All FF seats in Canada have to be tethered so having her ride in an untethered seat is illegal.

For the 3 across seats. Each seat must be independently tight for it to be safe. Having seats that are only tight when there are seats beside them isn't a good install.

At 38 months she is fine FF. At barely 30lbs she could benefit from RF but it would mean buying another seat and for a 3 year old I wouldn't freak out over FF. Note that all boosters in Canada start at 40lbs so she will likely be in a harnessed seat quite sometime if that helps you make any decisions (my DS was 30lbs at 3 and at his current rate he'll be 5.5-6 for 40lbs).

For the retroactive thing. If my memory is correct Sunshine Kids never made the 40/45lbs limits retroactive to any of their seats. I do recall them making the 35lbs RF limit on some of their RadianXTs retroactive in the States but not Canada. Either way your Radian65 would not have been in that on either side of the border.

One thing to check with your Alpha Omega is that some of them don't allow the harness to be used with the headrest in the highest position. You can look at the back of the seat and there are words stamped into a black plastic thing that goes across the back and says something like "Don't use harness above this". If it is one of the ones that can't use the top slot then it isn't the longest lasting seat. I own one myself and DS outgrew it at 2.5 or so but my DD still has a good inch to go so it really depends on torso height. Just something to be aware of.

Anyways, sorry for the novel. If you do wish to go with a new seat, post back (feel free to make a new thread) and we can hopefully figure out something to keep everyone safe. Depending on where you live we might even be able to get a tech to help you with the 3 across install issues in person.