Owners of Rear Facing True Fit?

Pepse

New member
I have notices there have been some issues with teh True Fit.

The one that sticks out is the harness lossener (not sure of proper name) gets wedged agains the back seat making it difficult to use.

Anyohter issues?

After now having the seat and its quirks woud you still recommend it to someone for a rear facing seat???


Should add

It is for a 14 month old when she outgrows her Safe Seat who right now is 26lbs and 31inches.

and getting a True fit over a

Blvd, a Marathon or a Radian.

It will be going in a 06 Ford Explorer via Latch
 
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emars002

New member
I like it - the adjuster is a little dificult to get to but Dh can still get it and he has bigger hands/fingers than me - I have it installed at about 35-37 degrees - the only thing that is a little irritating is you have to unsnap the cover from the front of the seat to get to the belt path and RF lock offs and then there is no way to resnap it back on but I jsut shoved the cover back down in without the snaps fastened - no biggie - just irritates me they didn't make the bottom seat pad able to be pulled back for access like they did the back seat pad.
 

MOM25BOYS

New member
Personally I would still recommend it.:) Despite all of its quirks it makes a great RF seat. Tons of room for a growing child to stay RF. I can still easily access the adjuster strap if needed and the continous harness took me a bit to get used to, but by far its a great seat for the money. Alot of families can't afford to fork out the over $200 price tag for a Britax or Radian. I personally was thrilled to see another higher weight RF seat on the market that offered more room than the others for a much more reasonable price!:thumbsup:

Erin you should be able to access your RF belt path near the crotch buckle. There should be flaps on both sides that you can use to get underneath without unsnapping the cover. I usually unlock the lockoffs and let the arms hold open the flaps until I get the belt how it needs to be.:)
 

northernmommy

New member
the only thing that is a little irritating is you have to unsnap the cover from the front of the seat to get to the belt path and RF lock offs and then there is no way to resnap it back on but I jsut shoved the cover back down in without the snaps fastened - no biggie - just irritates me they didn't make the bottom seat pad able to be pulled back for access like they did the back seat pad.


Actually, there are slots in the cover at the beltpath, so you don't need to unsnap the cover ;)


I love mine, I have 2 of them RF (and 2 ff) right now, and aside from the adjustment lever being a bit difficult to get to (but still doable), I don't have any complains about it. And their customer service is awesome :thumbsup: I bought a replacement cover for mine, and it didn't fit right (they'd put one of the snaps in the wrong place). I called them about it and another one is on it's way, no questions asked, don't even have to send them back the old one!

I reccomend this seat to anyone who comes to me wanting to know which seat to buy. :thumbsup:
 

emars002

New member
Erin you should be able to access your RF belt path near the crotch buckle. There should be flaps on both sides that you can use to get underneath without unsnapping the cover. I usually unlock the lockoffs and let the arms hold open the flaps until I get the belt how it needs to be.:)

I need to go check this out! i will feel like a moron after we wrestled with that thing last night!:eek:
 

emars002

New member
Yep - you both are right - Mental note - Do not install a car seat after 10pm again - brain goes to mush.;)
 

CDNTech

Senior Community Member
It will be going in a 06 Ford Explorer via Latch

We installed one in an '03 Ford Explorer with seatbelt. We got a great install at a 35 degree angle. It would not install properly at a 45 degree angle (the lock-offs got in the way of the seatbelt geometry)... since you don't need the 45 degree angle, this should be a great option for you. I'm just mentioning it in case you were needing it at this angle for any reason.

The harness adjuster does get buried in the vehicle seat, but the continuous loop seems to work well when rear facing (I don't find that it works well FFing at all, but the harness adjuster is not buried FFing ;))... so you shouldn't really need to adjust (if you take advantage of the continuous loop) other than for seasonal clothing.

It installed surprisingly upright forward facing (well... normal upright compared to most other carseats). I've generally found this seat to be very reclined when forward facing and I don't like that... however, in the Explorer it was similar to the recline of an upright Marathon, which was nice to see. :)

The only other thing you should be aware of is this... I'm just going to cut and paste from another thread because it's easier. As long as you are aware of this issue and tighten accordingly, you'll be fine. :)

"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."

As long as your watching the harness, it sounds like it should be a good option for you. :)
 

seamonkeys

New member
The harness adjuster does get buried in the vehicle seat, but the continuous loop seems to work well when rear facing (I don't find that it works well FFing at all, but the harness adjuster is not buried FFing ;))... so you shouldn't really need to adjust (if you take advantage of the continuous loop) other than for seasonal clothing.

Somebody else mentioned this "advantage of the continuous loop" and I just don't get it! :confused: How is it helpful?

The only other thing you should be aware of is this... I'm just going to cut and paste from another thread because it's easier. As long as you are aware of this issue and tighten accordingly, you'll be fine. :)

"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."

Glad to see the issue of the folded strap noted here by somebody else! I noticed it on mine, but couldn't find anything about it on here. But my concern is that it will cause the harness to fray! Isn't that what was happening on the Radians? Has anybody had fraying issues yet on their TF because of the narrow buckle tongues?
 

CDNTech

Senior Community Member
Somebody else mentioned this "advantage of the continuous loop" and I just don't get it! :confused: How is it helpful?

The harness starts at one shoulder goes down past the crotch buckle, past one hip, underneath the bum, up past the opposite hip, back past the crotch buckle and up to the opposite shoulder.

This means that you can just slide the harness under the bum back and forth to get arms in easily and you never need to actually adjust the harness unless you're switching from summer t-shirts to winter sweaters.

The advantage is that you don't have to dig for the buried adjuster. ;)
 

abckidsmom

New member
Somebody else mentioned this "advantage of the continuous loop" and I just don't get it! :confused: How is it helpful?

I just pull one side to be too long, get the boy settled in the seat, then pull the other side too long and get the other arm in the strap. After both arms are in the straps, I even out the harness and buckle him up.

This seat is great, but I'm having a hard time not being able to access that harness adjustor. Even though I'm a firm believer in ERFing, I'm sorely tempted to turn my 28# 18mo around. I'm pregnant, and it's just so stinkin' hard to get him buckled in our van.
 

seamonkeys

New member
The harness starts at one shoulder goes down past the crotch buckle, past one hip, underneath the bum, up past the opposite hip, back past the crotch buckle and up to the opposite shoulder.

This means that you can just slide the harness under the bum back and forth to get arms in easily and you never need to actually adjust the harness unless you're switching from summer t-shirts to winter sweaters.

The advantage is that you don't have to dig for the buried adjuster. ;)

AH HA! Thanks for explaining! I didn't even know it did that! I kept thinking they were talking about the fact that the harness height can be adjusted without re-threading and couldn't figure out how that would be helpful! :doh:
 

MOM25BOYS

New member
Yep - you both are right - Mental note - Do not install a car seat after 10pm again - brain goes to mush.;)

LOL! Its completely understandable. :) I mean who could contain the excitement of having a new seat to play with....:whistle: I have found myself in the dark just playing with the seating arrangement while my neighbors looked vaguely upon me.:p
 

emars002

New member
LOL! Its completely understandable. :) I mean who could contain the excitement of having a new seat to play with....:whistle: I have found myself in the dark just playing with the seating arrangement while my neighbors looked vaguely upon me.:p

Want to know what makes it more sad? It wasn't even new! It was just going from FF for DD1 to RF for DD2 and that was exciting enough for me to be outside at 10pm - and my neighbors were looking at me through their window:whistle:
 

jess71903

Ambassador
I drive a 2006 Explorer and my 14 month old is RF in a True Fit. I love it and would definitely recommend it. As PPs said, the continuous loop harness fixes the adjuster issue for me. I can still get it to if I need to and it's not that difficult, but I find that I don't need it....it also make it so I don't have to worry about my hard-headed DH not tightening the harness enough :whistle:.

I have mine in the middle with the seat belt, which was no picnic, but it's in well now. Outboard with LATCH was super easy! Make sure you install by using the flaps and not unsnapping the cover. The manual actually says you need to unsnap the cover, emars002, so it wasn't just brain mush! Also, when you go to tighten the LATCH strap, thread it back up through the seat cover and pull. It gives you a better angle that way.
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Glad to see the issue of the folded strap noted here by somebody else! I noticed it on mine, but couldn't find anything about it on here. But my concern is that it will cause the harness to fray! Isn't that what was happening on the Radians? Has anybody had fraying issues yet on their TF because of the narrow buckle tongues?

Mine's been in regular use since June and no signs of fraying on it. The Radian I have with the narrower buckle tongues did have some signs of fraying starting within a couple weeks of use - nothing that I would have been worried about, but you could see it starting on the Radian. I think the fraying is just a difference in harness straps - the Radian's were not woven as tightly/smoothly on the edge as what my TF harness is. The folding in on the Radian straps bugged me more because they were thicker so more prone to staying folded if left in the same position for an extended period of time.

To answer the question as to if I'd buy it again, yes, I would. I wasn't sure initially when I turned it ff'ing, but I really like the leg room rf'ing, and I love how deep the shell is. SIP is becoming a buzz word that lots of seats are being tested and advertised to have, but looking at the TF I really feel it does have a great deal of SIP. I really love my EFTA, but I will say that I instinctively feel that the TF offers better SIP and in that regard I feel more confident in it than even the Radian or MA. Of course this is nothing more than my opinion though since we don't have actual test data - and an instinct obviously isn't very scientific. :thumbsup:
 

seamonkeys

New member
Mine's been in regular use since June and no signs of fraying on it. The Radian I have with the narrower buckle tongues did have some signs of fraying starting within a couple weeks of use - nothing that I would have been worried about, but you could see it starting on the Radian. I think the fraying is just a difference in harness straps - the Radian's were not woven as tightly/smoothly on the edge as what my TF harness is. The folding in on the Radian straps bugged me more because they were thicker so more prone to staying folded if left in the same position for an extended period of time.

Thanks for the response. That's good to hear. I really do like the seat, but I just took the Mossy Oak MA out of the van and am already missing it! :crying:
 

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