snowbird25ca
Moderator - CPST Instructor
For those of you who haven't seen this thread yet or heard of the problem yet, I'm going to link you to a thread in the CDN forum that has a little more detail: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=55638
Last night at work I had opportunity to look closer at the splitter plate on the Frontier and look to see if there is a visual way to see why the strap could be coming off the splitter plate through repeated loosening and tightening. What I found, seriously shocked me and concerned me...
Imitating the movement of the splitter plate if you just pulled on one side of the harness to loosen the straps, I moved the strap and splitter plate. Over the period of maybe 10 or 12 movements, the harness strap folded over on itself - the edge closest to the outside of the splitter plate folded in, leaving a folded edge on the outer part of the splitter plate. Once the strap folded in, the strap came off the splitter plate on it's own very easily. It actually happened much more quickly than I expected it would, so I'm hoping that since it should be easy for Britax to replicate the problem, that they will have a fix quickly.
Having looked at it, I don't believe this is a case of where some seats will have the problem and some won't. It is dependent on the method of loosening the harness - so there is something that parents can do to ensure it won't happen with their seat, but this risk will be present until Britax comes up with a fix - either closing the gap on the splitter plate.. which honestly isn't that wide IMO, or sending people thicker harness straps so that they can't fold in on themselves the way these ones can.
I was pretty shocked, so wanted to let others know. Pulling evenly on both sides when loosening the harness should prevent the problem, or not loosening/tightening the harness regularly should also, but I would still strongly consider uninstalling the seat periodically and checking that the harness strap isn't folded on the splitter plate. Until Britax fixes this, there's just going to have to be more caution about adjusting the harness. :thumbsdown:
(I know not everyone adjusts their harness every time, but many parents do. And while it's fine to say on the board to just not adjust the harness then, this is Britax's problem that has to be fixed, parents shouldn't have to not use a feature of the seat that is designed to be used - or be told that if they don't loosen it exactly right that their seat could fail.)
Last night at work I had opportunity to look closer at the splitter plate on the Frontier and look to see if there is a visual way to see why the strap could be coming off the splitter plate through repeated loosening and tightening. What I found, seriously shocked me and concerned me...
Imitating the movement of the splitter plate if you just pulled on one side of the harness to loosen the straps, I moved the strap and splitter plate. Over the period of maybe 10 or 12 movements, the harness strap folded over on itself - the edge closest to the outside of the splitter plate folded in, leaving a folded edge on the outer part of the splitter plate. Once the strap folded in, the strap came off the splitter plate on it's own very easily. It actually happened much more quickly than I expected it would, so I'm hoping that since it should be easy for Britax to replicate the problem, that they will have a fix quickly.
Having looked at it, I don't believe this is a case of where some seats will have the problem and some won't. It is dependent on the method of loosening the harness - so there is something that parents can do to ensure it won't happen with their seat, but this risk will be present until Britax comes up with a fix - either closing the gap on the splitter plate.. which honestly isn't that wide IMO, or sending people thicker harness straps so that they can't fold in on themselves the way these ones can.
I was pretty shocked, so wanted to let others know. Pulling evenly on both sides when loosening the harness should prevent the problem, or not loosening/tightening the harness regularly should also, but I would still strongly consider uninstalling the seat periodically and checking that the harness strap isn't folded on the splitter plate. Until Britax fixes this, there's just going to have to be more caution about adjusting the harness. :thumbsdown:
(I know not everyone adjusts their harness every time, but many parents do. And while it's fine to say on the board to just not adjust the harness then, this is Britax's problem that has to be fixed, parents shouldn't have to not use a feature of the seat that is designed to be used - or be told that if they don't loosen it exactly right that their seat could fail.)