Eventful Evening

xxluckychicxx · Oct 12, 2008

While I was over at my mom's today my brother came in and asked DS if he wanted to go for a ride in a cool car. Of course DS got excited and ran to get his shoes. I walked DS out to get his car seat to put it in the cool mystery car and it was a new red Mustang :insert drooling smiley:.

I installed his MA FFing using lapbelt and TT (LATCH was a PITA as the hooks are off center of the molded seats. What were they thinking

). Anyhoo it was an acceptable install, but not rock-the-car solid.

DS got to go for a ride and my brother said the whole time he was yelling "WEEEEEEEEE". I

my kid.

As I was leaving my mom's I remembered that we had left the MA in the Mustang and I offered to uninstal it for her. She said she'd get it later.

Well, she just called and said that she couldnt undo "that hook thingy at the top" so she tried using the keys to get it unhooked. She didnt realize that you have to loosen the strap first. Anyhoo she got it undone but left the keys by the TT hook and locked them in the car. Oops! So she had to call the locksmith to come unlock my brother's new car :ROTFLMAO:

munchkin · Oct 12, 2008

What year was the mustang? My dad has a 'new' one '09, and it only has two seats in the back and both have shoulder belts.

I spent a long time outside today trying to get any kind of acceptable FF install with a Marathon. Nothing, those seats were entirely to sculpted for the base to fit flat. RF probably would have worked if I had had a couple more noodles.

Anyways just curious.

xxluckychicxx · Oct 12, 2008

munchkin said:
What year was the mustang? My dad has a 'new' one '09, and it only has two seats in the back and both have shoulder belts.

I spent a long time outside today trying to get any kind of acceptable FF install with a Marathon. Nothing, those seats were entirely to sculpted for the base to fit flat. RF probably would have worked if I had had a couple more noodles.

Anyways just curious.

I'm not sure... but it also only had 2 very sculpted seats. I absolutely could not even get the LATCH connected, but I got an acceptable instal with the seatbelt. It took quite a while though. I was sitting in it and bouncing up and down. Quite a scene let me tell you.

Defrost · Oct 12, 2008

The one I installed in was older - I remember I had to use the seat belt. It was really no problem. :shrug-shoulders: Were you trying to get it flush with the back of the seat, maybe? I just stuck the base down into the sculpted part and tightened it. Either that or they've changed the sculpting quite a bit, I suppose.

xxluckychicxx · Oct 12, 2008

Defrost said:
The one I installed in was older - I remember I had to use the seat belt. It was really no problem. :shrug-shoulders: Were you trying to get it flush with the back of the seat, maybe? I just stuck the base down into the sculpted part and tightened it. Either that or they've changed the sculpting quite a bit, I suppose.

That's what I did. The only trouble I had was the male end is pretty big and the female part is down in the crack and impossible to twist so it was a little tough getting it tight so I just scooted the MA over a bit and bounced on it and it was managable. Hope that made sense...

munchkin · Oct 12, 2008

Defrost said:
The one I installed in was older - I remember I had to use the seat belt. It was really no problem. :shrug-shoulders: Were you trying to get it flush with the back of the seat, maybe? I just stuck the base down into the sculpted part and tightened it. Either that or they've changed the sculpting quite a bit, I suppose.

There was no way to get the back of the MA flush with the back of the seat of the car and the base to be flat. If the back was flush then the back side of the base was a good 2 inches off of the seat. The LATCH anchors are about 3 inches above the seat bight (sp?).

Here is a picture

and see there is no middle seat, just a hump.

xxluckychicxx · Oct 12, 2008

munchkin said:
Here is a picture

and see there is no middle seat, just a hump.

His must be a little older. And his seats arent leather. The LATCH hooks are the same though :thumbsdown:

munchkin · Oct 12, 2008

xxluckychicxx said:
His must be a little older. And his seats arent leather. The LATCH hooks are the same though :thumbsdown:

Good, because I thought I was going to have to go back out there and search for the middle seatbelt

. Really the car ought to just not have the LATCH, and it should be sold as a non-kid car

.

xxluckychicxx · Oct 13, 2008

munchkin said:
Good, because I thought I was going to have to go back out there and search for the middle seatbelt . Really the car ought to just not have the LATCH, and it should be sold as a non-kid car .

His doesnt have a middle seat either though. The LATCH is totally worthless. On his the LATCH hooks closest to the middle of the car are in the right spot, but the o/b ones are more in the middle of the seat

. Gotta wonder who designed that...

Defrost · Oct 13, 2008

munchkin said:
There was no way to get the back of the MA flush with the back of the seat of the car and the base to be flat. If the back was flush then the back side of the base was a good 2 inches off of the seat. The LATCH anchors are about 3 inches above the seat bight (sp?).

The back of the carseat doesn't have to be completely flush with the back of the seat, though. I just focused on getting the base flush. You still want most of the back of the carseat touching, of course, but a gap near the bottom is okay.

munchkin · Oct 13, 2008

Defrost said:
The back of the carseat doesn't have to be completely flush with the back of the seat, though. I just focused on getting the base flush. You still want most of the back of the carseat touching, of course, but a gap near the bottom is okay.

So, I took the seat back out and played around. I took some pics. Neither of these really look safe. Is there something else I could do?

With the base flush (well still the back of the base is about 1/4 inch off the seat, but can be compressed). The back of the base is about 3 inches away from the seat bight. The back of the carseat doesn't touch the seat of the car at all except for at the top (the headrest is funky).

With the back flush (ish. It still doesn't touch the seat of the car all the way.)

MissAllyLou · Oct 13, 2008

Munchkin.... are you able to get the base ALMOST flush with the bottom of the vehicle seat, then kneel in the seat to pull the belt tight, and get it to flatten out? That's what I do with my Envoy. I get the MA base ALMOST flush, then kneel in it, and it flattens out, and the back of the seat has a gap but not nearly as much of a gap as you are getting. Let me know if you need pics, I can try to take some with my phone.

Defrost · Oct 13, 2008

Okay, so in that second-to-last pic? Buckle it in and smoosh-smoosh-smoosh. Bouncey-bouce-bounce!

It should end up pretty good.

It's quite possible the funky headrest is the reason you're having more trouble than I had, though. They've started leaning the headrests forward in recent years, while it wasn't an issue in most cars even 3 years ago.

Maedze · Oct 13, 2008

You need to do the Funky Car Seat Dance.

It helps if you have someone loudly hum the chicken dance melody behind you and slap your behind on the upbeat.

capeKO71 · Oct 13, 2008

xxluckychicxx said:
I'm not sure... but it also only had 2 very sculpted seats. I absolutely could not even get the LATCH connected, but I got an acceptable instal with the seatbelt. It took quite a while though. I was sitting in it and bouncing up and down. Quite a scene let me tell you.

My husband takes his boss's shelby mustang every now and then to just run it (they guy has like 10 cars) - and we recently put the the recaro young sport in there... what a PITA... the latch bars are so deep into the bite of the car's seat... this car was obviously NOT meant for children! lol. Once I got it in there, it was a pretty good fit. The recaro fit up against those bucket seats nicely.

Victorious4 · Oct 14, 2008

Defrost said:
Okay, so in that second-to-last pic? Buckle it in and smoosh-smoosh-smoosh. Bouncey-bouce-bounce!

Teehee! Reminds me of my last barefoot install

I'm little -- in some of these situations I've had to squat right into the seat & use an enerjetic bouncing form of leverage....

MustangMama · Oct 18, 2008

Does anybody have a good install on any kind of carseat in a newer model Mustang? It would be very helpful if you could attach pictures as well. I am leaning towards a Graco Nautilus if anybody by chance drives a Mustang with a Nautilus in the back seat? LOL (FAT CHANCE, I KNOW!!!) My niece is 40#, 40"

munchkin · Oct 19, 2008

becky129622 said:
Does anybody have a good install on any kind of carseat in a newer model Mustang? It would be very helpful if you could attach pictures as well. I am leaning towards a Graco Nautilus if anybody by chance drives a Mustang with a Nautilus in the back seat? LOL (FAT CHANCE, I KNOW!!!) My niece is 40#, 40"

How soon would you need to know? I have a Nautilus, but won't have access to an 09 Mustang for a couple of weeks. I should have check it when I had the chance

. Just let me know and I will check and take pics (it is the same car with the pics of the Dragonfly MA, if that is what yours looks like).

MustangMama · Oct 19, 2008

No big hurry. She has a carseat now but she is almost at the 40# limit so I am looking into purchasing a Nautilus.

I just want to see if there would be leg room for her in my Stang. I am not yet ready to put her in a booster seat!

MustangMama · Oct 19, 2008

and yes, my backseat is the exact same as the one in your photos!

Eventful Evening

New member

Active member

New member

Moderator - CPSTI Emeritus

New member

Active member

New member

Active member

New member

Moderator - CPSTI Emeritus

Active member

New member

Moderator - CPSTI Emeritus

New member

New member

Senior Community Member

Active member

Active member

Active member

Active member

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics