Rfing in PT Cruiser--seats??

My friend is looking to get a convertible soon for her DD who is 5.5 mos. Genetics suggest she'll be tall! So today she tried the Radian, Truefit, and Marathon in her car, and it was a big disappointment--the Marathon fits RFing (barely) but the other two were completely jammed into the front seats. They were resting on top of the shoulder area of the front seat so much that the radian base was not even touching the back seat in the butt area.

Any suggestions for what will fit in a PT Cruiser? She currently has a Baby trend Flex-Loc which fits fine and just touches the front seats. The Marathon also just touches. She was looking to get something to RF as long as possible with a tall child.

i have a family member that fit an evenflo triumph advance rf in a pt cruiser. :thumbsup:

This thread may help...
http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=47113&highlight=cruiser

We got a PT Cruiser as a loaner and fit our Truefit with no problem. It can be installed at less than a 45* angle (35-45)...she probably followed the red line which can over-recline the seat in some vehicles. Here's a pic of our Truefit in a PT Cruiser:

As an owner of a PT Cruiser Convertible, I can attest to the issues of getting a tall shelled RF convertible car seat into the back seat while still allowing the front seat to be used for passengers. The Britax BV (Boulevard) and the Radian both "fit" in the back seat, but required so much room that in my convertible, I was forced to push the front seat so far forward that the front seat was literaly 1-2 inches from the front dash. So I went with a Britax RA (Roundabout) which has a shorter shell. Now I have full functionality of my front seat, and can keep him harnessed RF to 35 lbs, plus use a RF top tether!

You may not experience the same issues that I did with the 2-door convertible in the 4-door model, but I did want to make sure you know that there ARE options. So what you are looking for is both a short shell and a high RF harness weight.

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions.

Well the thing is the RA will be outgrown in height long before 35 lbs for most kids, I expect this child will be too tall to RF in a RA around 18 mos.

I'm not sure how she would feel about the ETA (as in the 50 lb limit) but it's something to keep in mind. How does the shell on that compare to others for RFing height? Isn't it just a bit taller than the RA?

Solmama--Is that truefit using seat belt or latch? Sorry I have to go back and look closer at the pic. Are the front seats pushed up, or are they where you'd have them to drive? We didn't actually install the seats, just set them in because we didn't have time to really get into it--3 babies needing naps...We'll definitely have to try that again! Any tips for installing, or is it just like any other car?

I'll have to have her check the manual too to find out about air bag sensors. Thanks for the input everyone, keep it coming!

I have a pretty long torsoed kid, and he hasn't gone beyond the lowest slots in his RA at ~15 months. Try installing an RA and put your kiddo in the seat and see where you are really at. At first I was certain that my DS would outgrow the RA by height pretty early on, but I just weighed him tonight after his bath and he's at 25 lbs right now, so I'm pretty certain I'm going to get him to at least 2 in his RA.

I had no problem installing a RF Marathon in the center of a PT Cruiser (four-door). The front vehicle seats did not have to be pushed especially far forward.

Yeah, we got the MA to go in the middle too. She was just hoping to get one of the bigger seats in to last longer. But we will try that truefit again!

I was speaking from personal experience with the Roundabout--My DS outgrew it RFing by height at 18 months. He was about 24 lbs at the time, and he was not on the top slots, but that's because he was RFing so they had to be below. But his head was LESS than an inch from the top. He was 80th percentile for height, but also long torso-ed with a big head. 18 months is way too young to turn FFing, so we moved up to the MA, and now the RN to keep him RFing. This little girl has tall parents--very tall, and so far she's 5.5 mos and getting close to outgrowing (height) her infant seat. The roundabout is out for this child unless they want to buy a new seat in another year or so. I do love the RA, don't get me wrong, it's a very nice seat, but not practical in terms of longevity. You're lucky to be one of the ones it will last for! I wish my kids were smaller!

My DS isn't small, and both my wife and I are over 6' tall.

The 4dr PT Cruiser is the same space wise as the Neon isn't it? I know another tech on this board has had her TF in the center position of her Neon just fine - and both her and her dh are tall.

I haven't tried ds in a roundabout recently, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's outgrown the seat already. He was above the 2nd from bottom slots in the MA last time I sat him in it & back around 14 mos only had about 1.5" growing room in the floor model RA I tried him in.

I'm in agreement that with a tall child the RA is hardly worth considering. The PT Cruiser has pretty flat back seats from what I recall, so the EFTA would probably install very nicely back there. It fits height wise in rf'ing in terms of shell height as long as the MA, and ff'ing it will last about 1" longer in the torso than the MA. So no less rf'ing room, and more ff'ing room - it would actually be a good option and would likely be easy to install in there. :thumbsup:

We got it to fit, woohoo!!

The first time we tried it, we were trying several seats and did not actually install the truefit. So after seeing the picture of it in the rental car, we tried again, this time actually installing. I didn't snap any pics but here's the stats:

RFing the headrest made no difference--it fit the same whether it was in or out, it was the actual back of the truefit that had been hitting the front seats.

This time the dad was there and he put the driver's seat all the way back and we got about 30 degrees, and when he put it one click forward, we were able to get 35! yay

The RFing install was LATCH, and FFing we only tried the seat belt even though they could not find anything in the manual saying there was a weight limit for LATCH.

FFing it came up about the same height as the headrests (in their lowest position), and in the rearview mirror, the dad said he could actually see more with it RFing than FFing. So all in all, it was a pretty great fit! Oh, and this was all in the center seat.

Thanks all, for the advice! It really helped to know it IS possible. I know we should have actually installed it before deciding it did not fit, but now I can see what a difference it really does make!