Question Minimum weights WITH clothes or without?

Melizerd

New member
Since we count clothes, shoes etc when talking about maximum weights are they counted for minimum weight too?

If they aren't why not? *I* don't count them for minimum weights. So if it's 4 and 40lbs for a booster, that's 40lbs naked not clothed. I dunno why it's just how it was in my brain.

So what do you do?
 
ADS

Momof4Girls

New member
I never gave it any thought...LOL I guess I just go with the weight as we're about to go out the door. Our scale is right next to the door. So, I suppose I go with clothed weight...if I had a minimum as a concern.

Raechel
 

Momof4Girls

New member
I get too depressed to step on it...besides, it's solar-powered, and that's the only place that gets enough sun during the day for it to work!

But, yeah, I've learned not to step on it for myself...
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
40's a bizarre number for them to have chosen, IMO...there's no such thing as a 40 pound dummy :D
Probably oughta be clothed, I guess, since that's how you sit in the car and how you'd measure for the top weight of the harness (like, you couldn't tell someone to keep using a harness with a 40 pound limit 'till your kid weighs 40 pounds naked...' to move to a booster, right?)

:)
 

rodentranger

New member
My ped weighs naked and I trust their scale more than mine. How much do you add for clothes, shoes etc . DS1 is 29 lbs naked with a reasonably full belly. My MA is a 33 lb one.
 

Pixels

New member
My ped weighs naked and I trust their scale more than mine. How much do you add for clothes, shoes etc . DS1 is 29 lbs naked with a reasonably full belly. My MA is a 33 lb one.
Usually only a pound or two.

If you want a closer guesstimate than that, here's what you can do. Get two grocery bags. In one bag, place what your child would typically be wearing - clothes, undies, shoes, coat. In the other bag, place food items that are sold by weight, such as meat, pasta, canned goods. Try to get the two bags to feel like they weigh about the same. Then add up how much weight you have in your food bag, and that's about how much the clothing weighs.

OR if you have a scale at home but don't trust it, weigh yourself, then weigh yourself again while holding DC's clothes and shoes. The difference is how much the clothes/shoes weigh.
 

Pixels

New member
40's a bizarre number for them to have chosen, IMO...there's no such thing as a 40 pound dummy :D

It has to do with the way FMVSS 213 is written. Any restraint that is recommended for children who weigh more than 10 kg (a bit over 22 lbs) but not more than 18 kg (a bit over 40 pounds) or for children in a certain height range is tested with a 12 month old dummy and a 3 year old dummy. Any restraint that is recommended for children who weigh more than 18 kg is tested with the 52 pound 6 year old dummy. So if they put a 40 pound limit on the harness, they don't have to pass with the 6 year old dummy. But if they put a 23 pound limit on the harness, they have to pass the same tests as if they put a 40 pound limit, so they might as well put a 40 pound limit, KWIM?
 

rodentranger

New member
It has to do with the way FMVSS 213 is written. Any restraint that is recommended for children who weigh more than 10 kg (a bit over 22 lbs) but not more than 18 kg (a bit over 40 pounds) or for children in a certain height range is tested with a 12 month old dummy and a 3 year old dummy. Any restraint that is recommended for children who weigh more than 18 kg is tested with the 52 pound 6 year old dummy. So if they put a 40 pound limit on the harness, they don't have to pass with the 6 year old dummy. But if they put a 23 pound limit on the harness, they have to pass the same tests as if they put a 40 pound limit, so they might as well put a 40 pound limit, KWIM?
So in theory, a SR32 or a KF30 could technically hold a child up to 40 lbs? Not saying I would do it or use my kid to test it, just curious.
 

Pixels

New member
So in theory, a SR32 or a KF30 could technically hold a child up to 40 lbs? Not saying I would do it or use my kid to test it, just curious.
Technically, a SR32 or KF30 could be labeled up to 40 pounds. Unless there is something else somewhere else in 213 (which is quite possible, it's looong and not exactly easy reading) that I'm missing.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it more, there must be something else because we don't have any RFing seats over 35 pounds in the US, so I'm guessing there is something in 213 that causes that to be the case.

I assume that there is a reason that the manufacturer placed the weight limits that they did on those seats. They are higher weight limit seats (for buckets) so I believe that the manufacturer would consider the higher weight limit to be a selling point. Yet, they didn't put a 40 pound limit on it, nor did the KF get a 32 pound limit to match/compete with the SR32. They also didn't put a 35 pound limit (the highest RFing US limit) on them. They chose 32 and 30 as their limits for some reason, even though they have passed the same testing as 33 and 35 pound limit seats.
 

Melizerd

New member
See what my random thoughts get us, more random thoughts.

I just always took the minimums as naked and the maximums as with clothes, I have no idea why (lol).
 

BookMama

Senior Community Member
See what my random thoughts get us, more random thoughts.

I just always took the minimums as naked and the maximums as with clothes, I have no idea why (lol).

I look at the minimum and maximum weights as having two different purposes. The minimum weight is to ensure that the child is big enough for the seat - you don't want to mask a "too small" child by weighing them with clothes on. The maximum weight is to ensure that the physical limits of the harness are met - you don't want to exceed those limits by weighing the child naked and then adding clothes, shoes, etc.

:twocents:
 

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