Confused - need new carseat in calgary!

Hi everyone!

We have just moved back to Calgary from the US. My lil peanut is 16.5 months and still less than 20lb but I just left a graco safeseat behind since I knew I had to get a canadian one here (btw my baby's over the height limit for safeseat)...Please suggest convertible carseat so she can ride rf till 22lb and then I can turn the same seat around when the time comes. We have an acura mdx and a honda accord so both are pretty roomy but it helps to have a skinny-er seat in case someone has to sit in the middle

I was thinking about the britax marathon but i happened upon this site and now I am thoroughly confused!!

Also: someone just told me that you can take your non-canadian seat to a tech and get it certified? this person told me that their friends have done this...but I am a little wary...if this were true everyone would be shopping south of the border...right?

Another q: My 4.5 yo 39lb 42" is in an eddie bauer convertible (can't remember which exactly but got it from sears 3 years ago?) and is still using a 5-point harness...what is the weight limit for using a harness? I dont like to use it as a booster seat because I tried it about six months ago and when he falls asleep he looks like he's about to fall out of the seatbelt? Any ideas?

Would love some help asap...i dont have a carseat ... borrowed one to get home from the airport and stuck here until i get a carseat!

TIA

There's a sticky at the top of the Canadian forums here with lists of seats. For your infant, you will want to get something that rear-faces to 30-35lbs in order to keep him or her rear-facing as long as possible. Then you'll want it to last you, ideally, to the 65lb mark harnessed forward-facing although most kids outgrow their seats in height before weight. We should have top harness height numbers listed there.

You could also pass down your older child's seat if it's a Canadian seat, not expired, and has not been involved in a crash. This way you're not buying two seats at once.

Your oldest will need a new harnessed seat, as the harnessed weight limit on his seat is 40lbs. I would also hazard a guess that he is too tall for this seat, and has been for quite some time. Are his shoulders above the top harness slots? If so, he has definitely outgrown the seat in height AND weight both. If you check the list of seats, you can find the seats that harness beyond 40lbs and go look at seats you think will work for you. Your vehicles are both fairly easy to install just about anything in, and the Marathon is one of your higher weight options. There are others, as well.

Once you've narrowed things down a bit, we can try to give you some pros and cons and some additional recommendations.

By the way--no Canadian carseat technician can re-sticker or re-certify US seats for Canadian use. In fact, nobody can. I had thousands of dollars of US carseats rotting in my garage for quite some time at one point {I'm from BC, went to California, and came back to BC}. You were right to not bring your US seat with you, especially since it could have been seized when you crossed into Canada.

-Nicole.

Hi Nicole,

Thanks a lot for your detailed message.

I have looked through the list and my prelim choices were:

Britax frontier for my oldest and marathon for the baby. Or radians for both...I'm sure it will be quite a while until they get to 65lb ... they gain weight very slowly. What do you think?

Also...how about truefit for both?

Keep in mind that you could consider passing down the older child's seat to the younger child, still.

The Frontier for your older child has the major advantage of turning into a booster later. The Radians are nice and tall, and slightly cheaper than the Frontier... They're also really narrow, and although they install well in your vehicles some people do have trouble getitng them into older cars without locking belts. The TrueFits are priced great, but a little quirky in the instruction department--but fine if you're willing to sit down and read the manual

Also keep in mind that it's not just the upper weight limit you need to consider--you need to look at height limitations. A seat can be outgrown in height long before weight...in fact, most seats are!

Hopefully one of our Calgarians will pipe up and suggest some stores you could head to in order to look at some of these seats in real life. Zellers sells the TrueFit, as does BRU... The Frontier is harder to find but you may be able to get it at BRU. You can look up where to buy Britax products on the Britax website, actually--make life easy The Radian might be harder to find--I'm not sure which stores in the Calgary area sell it..?

-Nicole.

I haven't visited the Britax website, but unless things have changed in the last eighteen months, in Calgary both Bo Bebe and e-Children ought to carry Marathons. And e-Children ought to have the Radian as well. I want to mention Kacz' Kids but I cannot remember what car seat brands I've seen there aside from Graco ...

Toys R Us carrys all of the seats you are looking at... I know the one by Sunridge (NE) has all of them on display right now.

If you need help with installations, you can pm me. I'm a tech in Calgary.

I'd get a Frontier for your oldest... it does make a very nice harnessed seat and an excellent booster, with a 9 year lifespan it's the last seat you'll need for your oldest child.

Either a Radian or a Marathon would be very nice for your baby... depends which you like better in person.

What year is your MDX? We drive a 2nd generation one and have a True Fit rear-facing behind the driver's seat. I had a Marathon previous and it sits up so high that it is super easy to bonk the child's head on the door frame when getting them into their seat. Additionally, they have less leg room rear-facing in a Marathon compared to the True Fit. The MDX has a decently wide centre seat so even with the True Fit on the driver's side, I'm not a large adult, but I can fit comfortably in the middle with my older child sitting behind the passenger seat. In fact, I've sat there for a 6 hour drive and had no issues. Two twelve year olds in seat belts also fit fine beside the True Fit, without any complaints (in the centre and behind passenger seat).

If you are interested in a Radian, I'd see if you can meet up with Jen to try it in your MDX before you buy it. I found it fit decently in the centre position (which means you can't flip down centre console for the older kids if they like that!) but it was more reclined that my child wanted it and I couldn't get it more upright, even with all the tricks I read here. As well, there is no way it would fit rear-facing outboard unless the front seat passengers wanted to sit close to the dash (and you know how the MDX has a really encompassing dash that surrounds the front passengers and is already less roomy than other vehicles). Jen has tried the Radian in an MDX before so she should be able to get it installed in a way that you can tell if it will work for you; and then she can help you do it yourself to make sure you are able to replicate any tricks she might have used.

The Radian and Marathon both only go to 30 pounds rear-facing in Canada, whereas the True Fit goes to 35 pounds. Sounds like your little one is on the lighter side, so this might not be something you have to worry about it, but thought I would let you know that those 2 seats don't have the same rear-facing limits as they do in the U.S. Both those seats also have a 32" rear-facing height limit specified in the manual (which most likely is due to a misunderstanding by the manufacturers when they certify the seats for Canada). So, most people that use those seats go with the 1" of shell above their head for rear-facing, and use the height listed only as a guideline. But, thought I'd throw that out there so you weren't shocked when you read the manual, since this limit is also different than the U.S. versions of these seats. The True Fit and the Triumph Advance are two seats that don't impose that low limit in the manual, but rather have the "1 inch of shell above head" rule.

I just thought I'd chime in with a little more info (in the form of links) on why you want to keep your daughter rear-facing beyond the minimum 22 lbs/1 year.

http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
http://www.kyledavidmiller.org/pages/4209/Car_Seat_Safety:_Rear-facing_is_safest.htm

The True-Fit currently has the highest rear-facing weight limit in Canada.

Hey everyone,
Thanks a lot for all your tips. We got the frontier and the true fit today! They havent been installed so will let you guys know later how that goes

Hey I have a car seat that I love (peg perego) but my car (98 Civic) didn't come with the UAS to lock the base into place. I have been doing some research and have come across some information about a seat belt locking device as I have just a regular non-locking lap belt in the middle back seat of the car. I am finding it all very confusing and want to know if there are any places in calgary where you can take your car to get your car seat installation inspected. I had heard that places that used to do it ie: the fire department and neighbourhood clinics don't do it anymore due to liability. Any information you could all give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

I'm a tech in the Calgary area and I can help you. PM me and we can set up a time to meet.

Your center seatbelt in the Civic is a locking latchplate buckle... it is always locked, just a different type of seatbelt than the outboard positions which are switchable retractors that you need to pull all the way out to engage the locking mechanism.

I'm pretty sure the device you are talking about is the mighty tite and that should *NEVER* be used on a seatbelt. It is very unsafe, especially when putting it on a lapbelt. ALL lapbelts are locking seatbelts (required by law).

ETA I guess I am too slow! Still leaving the post though.

I hope someone gives you an answer about a check.

I am not clear on what sort of belt you mean to say you have. Here is the procedure for what you might have:

1. Are you saying that your center seatbelt is a lap-belt only, the kind that has a loose tail that you pull to tighten it down? I think this is what you mean. If so, then you do not need any other locking device (I assume you are talking about a locking clip) as the latchplate buckle essentially "locks" the belt at a certain length. You just put it through the belt path on the carseat as per the manual instructions and push down firmly while pulling the seatbelt tail to snug it down as much as you can. Puting a knee in the middle of the base can help you apply lots of force easily. Make sure it doesn't loosen when you tug on it to check. If the latchplate happens to fall on an area of the seat that makes it stick out at an angle, it can sometimes make it loosen (as if it was an adult passenger trying to loosen the belt by lifting the latchplate up). In this case, you can tighten the belt then release it, flip it over upside down and re-buckle (without loosening). I believe you are supposed to try to put the twist in the belt off the belt path, where the belt starts.

2. If on the other hand you mean that you have a lap/shoulder belt combination with a sliding latchplate, first check if it can be switched into locking mode. Pull the shoulder belt out *slowly* (doing it too quickly can make it lock in emergency mode and then release, making it seem like it doesn't switch - some retractors are very touchy). Pull out until you reach the end of the belt and then feed it back in - if it locks, you should hear a clicking or ratcheting sound and the belt should not pull back out. In this case, you install by putting the belt through the belt path as per manual, push down firmly and tighten the lap section of the belt as much as possible by pulling on the shoulder strap, pull out the shoulder section all the way out to engage the locking retractor, and then feed all the slack back in until you can't get it to click in any more. Check to make sure that the belt doesn't loosen once you are done. Sometimes this method can make the RF seat tip to the side, especially over time. If you find this is an issue, you can use procedure from #3.

3. If you have a lap/shoulder belt which cannot be switched into locking mode, you need to use the locking clip. This should come with your carseat and is probably attached somewhere - check your manual. The procedure is very similar to #2, except once you have the belt snugged down as much as possible, you need to grab the belts at the latchplate so they don't slide apart from the position you want them in and release the buckle. You then thread the locking clip on so that the four tabs are on top, about a half inch from the buckle, like this:

and rebuckle the seat. Check to make sure the belt didn't loosen up while adding the clip by checking for movement at the belt path. (You need to have the seat move less than an inch, and ideally not at all, side-to-side and front-to-back whan you pull on the seat near where the belt goes though.)

CDNTech said:

Toys R Us carrys all of the seats you are looking at... I know the one by Sunridge (NE) has all of them on display right now.

If you need help with installations, you can pm me. I'm a tech in Calgary.

I'd get a Frontier for your oldest... it does make a very nice harnessed seat and an excellent booster, with a 9 year lifespan it's the last seat you'll need for your oldest child.

Either a Radian or a Marathon would be very nice for your baby... depends which you like better in person.

Click to expand...

Really? The Frontier is good for 9 years? I was thinking it was like the other Britax carseats and expired after 6 years?
This might change my purchasing plans as I am still debating between a Frontier and a Nautilus when it comes out.

nutmeg said:

Really? The Frontier is good for 9 years? I was thinking it was like the other Britax carseats and expired after 6 years?
This might change my purchasing plans as I am still debating between a Frontier and a Nautilus when it comes out.

Click to expand...

Yep... Frontier is 9 years.

Awesome, thanks! Think we'll be going with the Frontier, then!
Sorry to hijack, OP!