I need some help before the morning, please.

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
I have here with me (with my niece, actually) a 1/14/2002 Cosco High Back Booster. Garage sale special. Is this supposed to be a front adjust seat? If so, does anyone know how to get the strap, the continuous loop, so that it goes through the front? To me it looks like a rear adjust, there's an adjuster back there, but it's impossible to tighten it, it just makes the crotch strap shorter.

Needless to say, I told the mom today that the seat was expired. "Oh, I'm sure it has been for a long time." *pause* "No, actually, just since January. She needs a new seat." "Oh, ok. We'll get one for her eventually."

What car will this new seat go in? A brand new Hummer H3. She did tell her husband that they needed a new seat, that this one wasn't good anymore. My stepbrother (her husband) is an ass and probably nothing would change. Because apparently garage sale expired is good enough for his 30 pound nearly 3 year old (yes, rear facing is a distinct possibility, but let's get the kid safe. I'm not even going to fight the rear facing battle, I'll lose it and the war). My mom is going to buy an Evenflo Chase (on my recommendation because over $100 and the seat either wouldn't be bought or the charity of it would be turned away. It's got high slots and the kid is a peanut, so the 40 pound limit is ok. Then, with care, it can be an ok booster) for her in the morning and meet me while I'm out during the day tomorrow to install it properly. I'll show my mom how to do it, and hopefully she'll show my sister in law how to do it in her car as well. I will say that when I gave the seat a tug in my SIL's car this afternoon it actually seemed ok. It wasn't tethered, but it had the old fashioned tether, so I can't say I blamed them for not wanting to mess with it. Especially as I assume this seat goes between their Camry and the H3. Not to mention whoever else is driving the kid around.

These are people who have had their kids out of seats forever (SIL was saying tonight how she was remembering the date of something because her son was still in a carseat. He was in one all the way to kindergarten!), that it was perfectly ok to put the seatbelt behind their back, that sort of thing. I was actually relieved today when the little one showed up NOT in a BPB. Seriously, I just want to scream at them and knock their heads together. My stepbrother could kick my butt, but my SIL probably couldn't figure out how to start trying, she's not exactly running on all cylinders. So she dropped off her daughter at my mom's tonight (where I am right now, in NY) and the expired seat, and she's getting a daughter and a new seat back tomorrow. She should be excited, she said she's never owned a new seat before (this is kid #3. The olders are now nearly 12 and 10 and actually fit in a seatbelt, thank goodness).

So anyway, back to my question. Before I install this monstrosity one last time before I take it away and destroy it, is it a front adjust, or do I have to tighten it behind her before I install it and just hope for the best? The splitter plate will end up underneath her bum at this rate, but if it works then I'm fine with that.

Wendy
 
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snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Does it have an actual true splitter plate, or is it one that has 3 slots in it?

I don't remember the exact model, but I recall doing a seat check with an older cosco combo seat and it was a rear adjust and the metal plate had 3 slots on it. The tail of the adjuster strap actually got weaved through it - think like a stroller clasp type thing - Slots a, b, c - I had to play with it to get it right... anyways, it sounds like that's the kind of seat that they have. The crotch strap itself is attached right to the harness adjustment strap, so it was really funny trying to figure out how it worked. (Never mind that there was a locking clip being used to hold the strap to the plate instead of it being wove through - and that dorel had mailed the wrong manual to the parents when they'd requested a replacement. :rolleyes: )

eta: technically, the seat doesn't expire til dec this year I'm guessing if you go by the seat shell expiry. But given that it's old and decrepit and she needs another seat anyways, no need to tell her that. ;)
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
It's got a real splitter plate, but yes, the strap comes in and loops back on itself and is connected to the crotch strap. The tether has the same sort of adjustment. I hope whoever designed that was shot.

It doesn't have a "Do not use after December 20XX" on it, so I'm going by the date. Which, even though it's a garage sale six year old seat, the stickers are all still there. The cover stinks of cigarette smoke, but it's intact, though the elastic is stretched out down to the foot of the seat, rather than just over the plastic by the elbow, which I don't think is the way it's supposed to go. But that's just the cover, so no big deal. You wouldn't know it to look at it how old it is. Though the lack of a LATCH strap is a bit of a dead giveaway. :)

Thanks! I'll just muddle through with it tomorrow morning best I can.

Wendy
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
I should add, that if it's like the seat I saw, that when the harness is buckled and tightened the tension from the harness straps/buckles keeps the buckle pulled up at the same height. With the seat I had, it was essentially take kiddo completely out of seat, lengthen/shorten the harness, then put her back in and buckle her in. You couldn't really adjust with her in the seat because of the way it pulled on the crotch strap. It was a really strange design, made much harder to figure out by the locking clip misuse and the fact I'd never seen it before.

But once the harness was the right length (took a few tries,) the buckle and everything did lay properly.

Is there an adjustment lever on the front of the seat? If it's supposed to be front adjust there'll be one. If there is a lever there and the strap has been pulled out somehow, then the seat is garbage - you can't rethread the strap through by itself.

Your description of the crotch strap problem makes it sound like it's the same type of seat as I saw though.

(For threading the tip of the adjuster strap onto the splitter plate if it has the 3 holes, I believe it's up through bottom slot, down through middle slot, up through top slot, then fold back towards you and down through bottom slot. I'd have to have it in front of me to know for sure though. Once it's threaded right you can tell though. :))
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Just read your reply - so the splitter plate is normal, doesn't have funky metal slots on the bottom of it that the adjuster strap attaches too?
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
There's a hole for a strap through the front, but no adjuster lever or anything. It may have broken off somewhere, it may not have. Who knows? But it has the threaded splitter plate, like you said. I think that's actually done properly (I wouldn't give the mom enough credit to know how to undo it, and I wouldn't give the dad enough credit to assume he ever looked at it). It'll just be trial and error. I'm going to tighten it as much as possible since the little one is so little. I'm sure she'll think it's too tight as I doubt she's ever been in a seat that's actually tight enough. Oh, and with the chest clip used properly. It's a paperclip chest clip and the mom was using it wrong tonight. And I spent a happy 5 or 10 minutes straightening the harnesses and flattening it out.

Wendy
 

christineka

New member
Hmm, I have a Cosco high back booster that expires next June. It adjusts in the front and has latch. I have my 26 pound 3 year old in it. I would love to rear-face her, but the funds for a new seat are just not there. Of course, I drive an 11 year old van bought from the in-laws, certainly nothing new....

Anyway, today I had to do a three across situation in my dh's even older car, so I got out the Graco Treasured Cargo's harness. (The seat is normally used as the spare booster.) That thing adjusts in the back with this bar thing. It took me some time and a bit of crying from 3 year old to get it tight and adjusted. It expires this December and does not have latch.

Christine
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Just read your reply - so the splitter plate is normal, doesn't have funky metal slots on the bottom of it that the adjuster strap attaches too?

It's got the adjuster through it, though it's properly through it and I can't count the slots, though three seems to be right. Plus the usually notches for the harness ends to go on, like any other splitter plate.

Seriously, this seat was obviously designed by an engineer, not a parent.

Wendy
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
There's a hole for a strap through the front, but no adjuster lever or anything. It may have broken off somewhere, it may not have. Who knows? But it has the threaded splitter plate, like you said. I think that's actually done properly (I wouldn't give the mom enough credit to know how to undo it, and I wouldn't give the dad enough credit to assume he ever looked at it). It'll just be trial and error. I'm going to tighten it as much as possible since the little one is so little. I'm sure she'll think it's too tight as I doubt she's ever been in a seat that's actually tight enough. Oh, and with the chest clip used properly. It's a paperclip chest clip and the mom was using it wrong tonight. And I spent a happy 5 or 10 minutes straightening the harnesses and flattening it out.

Wendy

Sounds exactly like the same seat then. Yeah, the crotch strap just stays up with the pressure from the seat being buckled up then. It's a poor design. I pretty much removed the harness completely to figure out what the heck was going on with the seat I had - although that was also partly due to having a manual that didn't address the slots on the splitter plate. :rolleyes: That particular seat expires this year too, so they're probably the same one.

So yeah, it's just trial and error. I think we got lucky with about 3 or 4 trial and error before getting the harness properly tightened. Thankfully the kiddo was patient enough to be in and out and buckled up over and over that many times. :thumbsup:
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
I just wanted to give an update today. I installed the POS in my stepdad's car this morning. The harness needed to be about as tight as it went, and as it turns out my guess last night was smack on and my niece fit in it perfectly without any more adjustment. I put it in the car, and I even fought with that horrible tether to get it tethered properly. As I put my knee in it (it wasn't quite tight enough just buckled in, so I unbuckled and twisted the stalk) to get it buckled again I could hear the plastic starting to give way. It very nearly came down to allowing just over an inch of lateral movement, or risk putting my knee through it getting it to be tight enough.

My mom went and bought her a Chase today (she called me from the carseat aisle. She's a good mom and grandma) and she installed it. She's pretty decent with installations, normally. She can't be worse than my sister in law. She and my stepdad said that my nephew took a baseball bat to the old seat and immediately a piece of plastic completely came off. He kept at it until there were pieces of carseat all over the lawn. That's a brittle seat to fall apart for a baseball bat!!! I'm SO glad she's in something safe. And new. And just for her. :) She's so tiny the 40 pound limit of the Chase will be ok, and while the booster is icky they'll at least use it because it means not buying something new. The top slots will get her to 40 pounds, and I don't expect them to go a pound above that in a harness. :(

Wendy
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Hmm, I have a Cosco high back booster that expires next June. It adjusts in the front and has latch.
Christine

This seat has been around for more than 10 years now, with half a dozen harness situations... sounds like you got a good one!
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Wow, too bad there wasn't video of that seat breaking so easily considering it was JUST 6yrs old.

That's scary... I hope the parents are grateful they got a new seat after realizing how easily that old one broke. :whistle:
 

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