What age/size to move to a backless?

I am looking to the future and wondering at what age/size do I allow my kids to go into backless boosters. I am looking seriously at purchasing a chevy astro (2004 or 05) with headrests and shoulder belts in the outer positions. My oldest is now almost 9 with a 16.75 inch torso. She is in a newer turbobooster. My next younger child is also in a turbobooster (age 7). Her booster expires in 2 years. Originally I thought of moving the oldest two to backless boosters in 2 years, but now I'm not so sure. I don't know that I want my kids sitting in outside positions with no sip.

But, would like the opinions of more knowledgeable people. I don't want to keep my kids in hbb until age 20, but not sure when to switch.

Well, you don't HAVE to switch. A backless booster is not always a necesary "step". Sometimes, given the size and age of the children involved, and the seating situation (what kind of seats, headrests, how tall they are, where the belts fall, etc) you might never use a backless booster. You can go from hbb right to car seat belt. I know that I do not plan to use a backless, at least not as a primary seat. DD will probably go from the HHB nauti into a regular car seat belt around age 10 or so. Like you, i want the side impact protection and other featues (the nauti LATCHes, for example) of our seat. But that works for my child and my vehicle. I think you need to take a look at what is functionally going to work best in your particular vehicle with your children..it seems like they are VERY short-torsoed..i mean, at 16.75 inches, there are tons of harnessed seats they could fit into, if they are below the weight limits....my 4 yr old's torso is only and inch and a half smaller than that!LOL!

Anyway...just wanted to put it out there that you do not "have" to switch, necesarily.
Maybe once you take that feeling like you "have" to out of the equation, the answer will become clearer to you?

I agree with the previous poster and wouldn't switch if they still fit in a HBB due to the side impact protection of a HBB vs. a backless booster, even for older kiddos. It's the whole step down in safety with each step in the progression of carseats thing, and ideally you could postpone it as long as it's not necessary to move to that next step.

Your almost-9yo has a torso that's two inches shorter than my 7yo. I estimate that my 7yo has 6 months to a year left in the Turbo highback, at least two years, possibly three years, in our Britax boosters. I plan on keeping her in the tallest highback as long as possible. I'm not doing that only because my vehicle lacks headrests, I'm doing it for the added side impact protection, and I'd have her in a highback as a primary seat until she outgrew it even if we still had our Windstar, with headrests on four of the five rear seating positions. I look at backless boosters as a spare for friends, nice for fitting three-across in some cases where a highback won't work, nice for travel, and essential for a child too tall for a highback but who does not pass the five step test. I don't consider a backless unless other options aren't feasible. :twocents: IIRC, the Astro is built on a truck frame, and therefore rollover-prone. I also believe it has fairly low side impact crash test scores, so all of that would cause me to use a highback as long as possible.

Okay, thanks. I'll plan to save up for a better booster when the oldest one expires. We can keep around some backless boosters when the kids start getting ride with other people whose kids have been out of car seats for years.

for the record, sometimes backless boosters ARE a necessary step after the highback portion is outgrown in vehicles with tall seats, tall headrests, and seatbelts that start high up.

Of course, that was before the Monterey, but Damian outgrew the Parkway before he passed the 5 step test... he outgrew the Parkway when he was still 7... then outgrew boosters at 8 (he was literally AT the limit... I waited to move him until he was officially 8)

The only highback booster I've yet to meet that would not require a backless after it is the Monterey... I'm sure the Frontier, that goes higher, would work, though.

But I would not move a child to a backless unless the vehicle was not compatible with the headrest or the child had gotten too big for the back.