CDNTech
Senior Community Member
Another tech and I went out with a mission today. To install a TruFit in her vehicle so that we could better help a far away friend with her install (same vehicle and seat). We discovered some things that really concern us...
1. Difficulty tightening the harness properly...
I've talked about this before, but it really scares me. The Trufit's straps are quite folded over in the buckle tongues (about 1/4 of them on the seat we saw today). This causes the buckle tongues to not move up/down the strap which is a nice feature for parents (no more digging by the hips trying to find the buckle tongue). However it also causes an issue when tightening the harness properly.
The buckle tongues do *not* move without force applied to them. We installed the seat, put a 12 month old child in it and proceeded to tighten the harness. We pulled all the slack out of the harness using the adjuster strap between the legs. The shoulders passed the one finger test *and* the pinch test.
Then we checked by the hips. There was still a good inch of slack down by the hips and even hard tugging on the adjuster strap will *not* allow this slack to come loose.
You *must* pull on the harness directly above the buckle tongues to remove the slack from the hips and then pull on the adjuster strap to remove the remaining slack.
Due to all the extra infant padding that comes with the seat, that extra slack is often hidden and you don't even know it's there.
The Radian (older models that have the narrow buckle tongues) used to have this issue to a degree, but not to this severity. SKJP has also since switched to wider buckle tongues and this is no longer an issue on the new model Radians.
Other than that, I have never seen this issue with any other seat. The manuals all tell us to make sure the slack is pulled from the hips, but how many parents read their manuals and *no* other seat requires the amount of force the TruFit requires to remove this excess slack from the hip area.
2. Install issues caused by the rear facing lock-offs...
We attempted to install the seat at a 40 - 45 degree recline acceptable for a younger infant. It was not possible.
The lock-offs are positioned in such a manner as to cause the seatbelt to cover the lock-offs and they are not able to be closed. We have read about this before and decided to allow a slight slack in the seatbelt to get them closed properly and then test for movement.
The seat moved less than one inch from side to side, however the rebound was absolutely *not* acceptable. The seat literally flipped backwards over the entire vehicle seat and could easily move all over the place once flipped.
We went back to installing it at a 30 - 35 degree angle. The seatbelt lines up perfectly at this angle and the lock-offs closed. The seat was rock solid and barely rebounded back at all... much better. The only issue is that we are not allowed to install this seat at a 30 degree angle. It must be between 35 - 45 degrees. The other issue is that this angle is *not* suitable for a young infant.
3. Forward facing recline issue...
This seat is rather reclined when forward facing. In some vehicles it is very reclined (40 degree angle) and as a tech I'm just not comfortable with that.
As with all seats, this one does have it's issues and I think we need to be careful when offering blanket statements/recommendations for seats.
I realize that this is a new seat and parents/techs are excited about it, but we all need to be careful with these issues. I think as time goes on, we will see these issues crop up... or worse, we won't see them crop up... as parents won't even be aware that this is something they need to be careful with.
1. Difficulty tightening the harness properly...
I've talked about this before, but it really scares me. The Trufit's straps are quite folded over in the buckle tongues (about 1/4 of them on the seat we saw today). This causes the buckle tongues to not move up/down the strap which is a nice feature for parents (no more digging by the hips trying to find the buckle tongue). However it also causes an issue when tightening the harness properly.
The buckle tongues do *not* move without force applied to them. We installed the seat, put a 12 month old child in it and proceeded to tighten the harness. We pulled all the slack out of the harness using the adjuster strap between the legs. The shoulders passed the one finger test *and* the pinch test.
Then we checked by the hips. There was still a good inch of slack down by the hips and even hard tugging on the adjuster strap will *not* allow this slack to come loose.
You *must* pull on the harness directly above the buckle tongues to remove the slack from the hips and then pull on the adjuster strap to remove the remaining slack.
Due to all the extra infant padding that comes with the seat, that extra slack is often hidden and you don't even know it's there.
The Radian (older models that have the narrow buckle tongues) used to have this issue to a degree, but not to this severity. SKJP has also since switched to wider buckle tongues and this is no longer an issue on the new model Radians.
Other than that, I have never seen this issue with any other seat. The manuals all tell us to make sure the slack is pulled from the hips, but how many parents read their manuals and *no* other seat requires the amount of force the TruFit requires to remove this excess slack from the hip area.
2. Install issues caused by the rear facing lock-offs...
We attempted to install the seat at a 40 - 45 degree recline acceptable for a younger infant. It was not possible.
The lock-offs are positioned in such a manner as to cause the seatbelt to cover the lock-offs and they are not able to be closed. We have read about this before and decided to allow a slight slack in the seatbelt to get them closed properly and then test for movement.
The seat moved less than one inch from side to side, however the rebound was absolutely *not* acceptable. The seat literally flipped backwards over the entire vehicle seat and could easily move all over the place once flipped.
We went back to installing it at a 30 - 35 degree angle. The seatbelt lines up perfectly at this angle and the lock-offs closed. The seat was rock solid and barely rebounded back at all... much better. The only issue is that we are not allowed to install this seat at a 30 degree angle. It must be between 35 - 45 degrees. The other issue is that this angle is *not* suitable for a young infant.
3. Forward facing recline issue...
This seat is rather reclined when forward facing. In some vehicles it is very reclined (40 degree angle) and as a tech I'm just not comfortable with that.
As with all seats, this one does have it's issues and I think we need to be careful when offering blanket statements/recommendations for seats.
I realize that this is a new seat and parents/techs are excited about it, but we all need to be careful with these issues. I think as time goes on, we will see these issues crop up... or worse, we won't see them crop up... as parents won't even be aware that this is something they need to be careful with.
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