snowbird25ca
Moderator - CPST Instructor
The costco my dh works at has some safety 1st seats in right now, and one of them is the travel system with the designer 22 seat. Of course I had to take a look, and lo & behold it was a front adjust - first one I've seen.
So of course I had to read the manual and play with the seat.
And I just have to say, what a dumb set up they have for adjusting the harness height in that thing. Most front adjust seats have a splitter plate - take the straps off, pull through the front of the seat, re-thread through the right slots and hook back on to the splitter plate, right?
Well not the front adjust designer 22. It has what they call "S" clips on the bottom of the shell - the hip straps attach to them... The harness straps where they attach to the adjuster strap are sewn on - the attachment looks rather flimsy IMO, and those of you who know me know I don't critique seats this way very often...
Anyways, to change harness height you unhook the "S" clips from the bottom of the shell. (The manual actually calls them "S" clips.) Then you slide the loop off of the clip, pull the strap up out of the bottom of the seat, then you pull the whole strap - chest clip & buckle included, through the back of the shell. Then re-thread to the correct slot, buckle to make sure you don't twist the straps, then push the bottom of the hip strap through the shell. Then you thread it back on to the "S" clip, and hook the "S" clip back on to the shell.
I was so excited to see a front adjust cosco seat at first, then I saw the dumb way the harness height is adjusted. It is just ripe for misuse. :thumbsdown: I don't know why on earth they had to do it that way.
The only good thing is they've updated the manual so that if you're installing the seat without the base, and the shoulder belt isn't long enough to go around the back of the seat, they've ok'ed not looping the shoulder portion behind.
I guess at least it's a front adjust, so more likely to be used right when the harness is the right height... but less likely the harness will be the right height with the way it's set up.
So of course I had to read the manual and play with the seat.
And I just have to say, what a dumb set up they have for adjusting the harness height in that thing. Most front adjust seats have a splitter plate - take the straps off, pull through the front of the seat, re-thread through the right slots and hook back on to the splitter plate, right?
Well not the front adjust designer 22. It has what they call "S" clips on the bottom of the shell - the hip straps attach to them... The harness straps where they attach to the adjuster strap are sewn on - the attachment looks rather flimsy IMO, and those of you who know me know I don't critique seats this way very often...
Anyways, to change harness height you unhook the "S" clips from the bottom of the shell. (The manual actually calls them "S" clips.) Then you slide the loop off of the clip, pull the strap up out of the bottom of the seat, then you pull the whole strap - chest clip & buckle included, through the back of the shell. Then re-thread to the correct slot, buckle to make sure you don't twist the straps, then push the bottom of the hip strap through the shell. Then you thread it back on to the "S" clip, and hook the "S" clip back on to the shell.
I was so excited to see a front adjust cosco seat at first, then I saw the dumb way the harness height is adjusted. It is just ripe for misuse. :thumbsdown: I don't know why on earth they had to do it that way.
The only good thing is they've updated the manual so that if you're installing the seat without the base, and the shoulder belt isn't long enough to go around the back of the seat, they've ok'ed not looping the shoulder portion behind.
I guess at least it's a front adjust, so more likely to be used right when the harness is the right height... but less likely the harness will be the right height with the way it's set up.