southpawboston
New member
we gave MIL our spare como and RYS for her 2005 CRV. neither seat installed well without using the ability of the back seat recline to apply tension on the carseats.
we installed the como RF for DD2. if i tried to install it with LATCH without fiddling with the vehicle's seatback recline, it installed horribly. way too much sideways movement-- several inches. in order to get it acceptably tight, i had to first recline the vehicle's seatback pretty far, then LATCH in the como as tight as possible, then crank the vehicle seatback upright again, pushing against the como. after that, it was acceptable. not immobile, but less than about 1/4" of movement. that's good enough for me.
for DD1's YS, it wasn't as simple. i had to apply the same technique with the vehicle's seatback, but starting off with a looser LATCH strap. at first, the movement was horrible. not only was there sideways movement, but you could even rotate the YS left and right! then, even when cranking the vehicle's seatback upright against the YS, the front of the YS was slightly lifted off the front of the seat. there was zero movement sideways, but the YS could still rotate slightly. so then i tried the recline feature of the YS. this causes the base to rotate at the rear, pushing the seat up in front. that made the seat rock-the-car-solid, but unfortunately i didn't like how reclined it was. so then, i put it back into regular mode, and loosened the LATCH strap. then i pushed the vehicle's seatback even more upright. NOW it was nice and tight... no movement whatsoever.
if it wasn't for the recline feature of the back seat, there's no way either of these seats would have installed in the CRV. simply no way. but with the seat recline feature, it worked out well.
i never tried using the seatbelts. that may have worked better, but i didn't bother since it worked out okay in the end with LATCH.
we installed the como RF for DD2. if i tried to install it with LATCH without fiddling with the vehicle's seatback recline, it installed horribly. way too much sideways movement-- several inches. in order to get it acceptably tight, i had to first recline the vehicle's seatback pretty far, then LATCH in the como as tight as possible, then crank the vehicle seatback upright again, pushing against the como. after that, it was acceptable. not immobile, but less than about 1/4" of movement. that's good enough for me.
for DD1's YS, it wasn't as simple. i had to apply the same technique with the vehicle's seatback, but starting off with a looser LATCH strap. at first, the movement was horrible. not only was there sideways movement, but you could even rotate the YS left and right! then, even when cranking the vehicle's seatback upright against the YS, the front of the YS was slightly lifted off the front of the seat. there was zero movement sideways, but the YS could still rotate slightly. so then i tried the recline feature of the YS. this causes the base to rotate at the rear, pushing the seat up in front. that made the seat rock-the-car-solid, but unfortunately i didn't like how reclined it was. so then, i put it back into regular mode, and loosened the LATCH strap. then i pushed the vehicle's seatback even more upright. NOW it was nice and tight... no movement whatsoever.
if it wasn't for the recline feature of the back seat, there's no way either of these seats would have installed in the CRV. simply no way. but with the seat recline feature, it worked out well.
i never tried using the seatbelts. that may have worked better, but i didn't bother since it worked out okay in the end with LATCH.