Question about installing a bucket w/a seatbelt

This is just hypothetical since I haven't installed a bucket w/a seatbelt (w/o a base) forever. There was a thread in the News section that got me thinking.

When installing an infant bucket (w/o the base) and using a lap/shoulder belt, do you route the lap and shoulder belt under both belt guides? Or do you only route the lap portion through and pull the shoulder belt tight and leave it in the position it would be in if there were an adult using it (running at a diagonal)? Does that make sense?

Whenever I've done it in the past, I've always put both portions of the belt through the belt guides. Now I'm wondering if that was right or not. I don't recall the manual saying anything about it.

Most it's just the lap section through the guides with the shoulder on a diagonal. The Cosco designer 22 seats have you route the shoulder belt behind the shell of the seat. It was mandatory in the older ones, the more recent manual does allow it to not be routed behind if the seatbelt isn't long enough.

It definitely does create a solid install, and I think it makes it easier to install without a base too. If those seats just had EPS foam & all had front adjusters, they would really be a good seat because the bottom slot is pretty low too.

Yeah, it pretty much depends on the carseat in question. I don't recall ever seeing one where you routed the shoulder-portion the same as the lap-portion, but it's entirely possible there's one out there that installs that way.

Here's a pic of the Flex-Loc with the way it's required to be routed:

Interesting. So it looks like I did it wrong all along. I had a snugride and I know I read the manual, but either it wasn't clear about that part or I just didn't understand it.

Of course, I haven't installed one since I found you guys, so I'm sure that if I had to do it again I probably would've thought to ask first or double-checked the manual.

Good to know, though!

The thread that got me thinking about it was the one in the NEWS section about the new RF-ing study. It seemed like they were talking about in one part about an infant seat being installed and how the crash would've been different had they used the shoulder portion of the seatbelt along w/the lap portion for the install. Or am I just not understanding that part right?

Chex said:

The thread that got me thinking about it was the one in the NEWS section about the new RF-ing study. It seemed like they were talking about in one part about an infant seat being installed and how the crash would've been different had they used the shoulder portion of the seatbelt along w/the lap portion for the install. Or am I just not understanding that part right?

Click to expand...

I'm downloading the study now, so I'm not really sure yet what you're referring to, but I would think that having the shoulder belt routed behind the infant would provide additional protection. I remember doing it on the old infant seats my kids and my nieces rode in; now that I think on it, it's how both Fighter's and my friend's dd's seats were installed when we got in that side-impact crash.

ETA: Okay, read the study. Um, YIKES. Anyway, it looks like they found that threading the shoulder belt around the seat caused the belt guide to actually break in one case - that was one where it was incorrectly routed around the seat, against the instructions. Seems to me the biggest thing to learn from all that was to follow the instructions!

Chex said:

This is just hypothetical since I haven't installed a bucket w/a seatbelt (w/o a base) forever. There was a thread in the News section that got me thinking.

When installing an infant bucket (w/o the base) and using a lap/shoulder belt, do you route the lap and shoulder belt under both belt guides? Or do you only route the lap portion through and pull the shoulder belt tight and leave it in the position it would be in if there were an adult using it (running at a diagonal)? Does that make sense?

Whenever I've done it in the past, I've always put both portions of the belt through the belt guides. Now I'm wondering if that was right or not. I don't recall the manual saying anything about it.

Click to expand...

If you have a Companion, you route both the lap and shoulder belts through the guides. I just rewatched the video to make sure because I was terrfied we'd done it wrong.

ksera05 said:

If you have a Companion, you route both the lap and shoulder belts through the guides. I just rewatched the video to make sure because I was terrfied we'd done it wrong.

Click to expand...

Well, that's interesting. I guess it's like Debbie said, we just need to make sure we follow each carseat's specific instructions.

I never did route the shoulder belt behind the carseat, but I routed it through the belt guides along w/the lap belt.