FYI: Chevy Astro LATCH wt. limits

Just FYI, I spoke with Chevrolet this morning to find out about the LATCH weight limits on my '03 Astro, since I'd read here that many vehicles' LATCH systems were only designed for children up to 48 lbs. or so.

The answer I received was, the Astro vans' LATCH system was designed to secure up to 300 lb. adults who may need a restraint system. The man assured me that, if a carseat was certified to use the LATCH system up to a given weight, the vehicle's LATCH system would absolutely be safe as well. I was pleased that he did caution me to double-check the seat manufacturers' recommendations and make sure both were compatible. No sense continuing to use LATCH on a seat that is only recommended up to 40, 65, whatever lbs, after that weight has been reached.

It just seems so odd - I can't help but wonder if he was confused and was actually talking about the seatbelts!

Same here, I posted a similar concern on the carseat forum in the thread there about the Safeguard Go and LATCH anchor limits. I've heard of vehicles with seatbelts rated for up to 300 lb. adults but LATCH anchors are intended to be used for child restraints only, not adults. It just seems odd to me.

(Also posted in Carseat Safety forum)

Okay, so I called Chev. cust. svc. back today, and asked them to double check about the LATCH weight limits. The lady I talked to said the *seatbelts* are rated to 300 lbs., and that info. is easily accessed, so maybe it is what the gentleman was telling me. She is going to research the LATCH information for me and call back tomorrow-- she said it was not info that she could readily locate in her system... so, I'll post an update when I get one!

Thanks for bringing that to my attention-- I thought I'd be good to go harnessing to whatever weight the carseat mfrs. allow...

Glad you called again. That 300 lb. number just so sounded so much like the seatbelt rating to me. Hope you hear back from the customer service rep as promised tomorrow about the actual LATCH limits.

After not receiving an answer to my phone call early last week, I called a third time and explained my request clearly again. I also made sure they knew that I had called twice previously and not received a satisfactory answer yet.

This cust. svc. agent searched for several minutes, could not find any information with a definitive answer, and asked me to refer to the NHTSA website for specific information pertaining to LATCH and my vehicle make/model. :

After over an hour searching different keywords at NHTSA, I gave up. I got a phone call later asking me to do a survey on the level of satisfaction I had with my Chevrolet Cust. Svc. transaction. I made sure they knew I was disappointed with the lack of knowledge and inability to answer my question.

If anyone knows specifically where I can look up this information on the internet, I would greatly appreciate it. It's a non-issue with the Radian I just purchased, as the manufacturer states to discontinue LATCH at 48 lbs. anyway. But I would really like to know for future reference, as carseats are changing and being improved upon all the time, and I will most likely be purchasing at least one more high-weight harness seat before my carseat days are done. Not to mention BPBs...

Try emailing someone at www.saferidenews.com (they write the official "LATCH" manual, and usually know more about this stuff than the customer service folks at car places...they might even have the answer on the page if you look around there)
I think the reason they couldn't tell you is because they do static tests and measure the force in Newtons. That means they just slowly pull out the anchor and measure how long it holds, and it only has to hold up to xthousand number of newtons. They do NOT have a test bench with their anchors and they aren't crash testing various restraints with higher and lower weights to find out if they'll snap or pull out when child+seat equals x weight. So you'd have to get a person high up in engineering to know what they are talking about and who can explain how many newtons they test to and how that translates to weight limits (and it's hard to work your way up that high on a phone call )