uk car seats

hi there guys. i am moving back to the uk from australia in november this year and have been told this is the best place to ask for car seat advice.
my son is 3 yrs old and weighs around 12.5kgs. hes currently in an australian seat that 5 point harnesses to 18kgs. im looking for 1 in the uk that has the longest harness time possible, i've only been able to find ones that go to 18kgs tho. can someone please give me advice on what to buy? it needs to be able to be moved from car to car reasonable easily too.

i'd really apreciate any help.

danni

One goes ff to 25 kg: The Britax Two Way Elite. But this is not the seat with the longest back or highest harness slots. This seat can go RF to 25 kg as well which is about 5 times safer than ff.

The largest affordable seat and also the one with the highest harness slots is the the Britax Multi-Tech. This seat goes RF to 25 kg and ff to 18 kg with the 5 point harness and then from 15-25 kg as a belt positioning booster seat.

Then there is the Britax Traveller Plus which costs about twice the price of the MT.

This is my daughter. She is about 2 or 3 months shy of her 5th birthday, 115 cm tall and weighs 21 kg - here in the top harness slot in the MT:





Make an arrangement with this store:

http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/

Look in the special needs section.

Lena

lenats31 said:

One goes ff to 25 kg: The Britax Two Way Elite. But this is not the seat with the longest back or highest harness slots. This seat can go RF to 25 kg as well which is about 5 times safer than ff.

Click to expand...

Lena can you get the TWE at a B&M store in the UK? My DH will be in London in June and I'd love for him to bring one back.

Sorry, but no. Not everyone stocks them in the UK.:thumbsdown:

http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/. This site contains a list of retailers that stock them in the UK.

The top harness slot is 37 cm which is about 14".
OR you can:
Pm Adventuredad on this board. He owns an online car seat store in Sweden. He sends seats to destinations all around the world.

www.carseat.se

You´ll have the seat within 10 days after payment has been received.

Don´t worry about it being sent across the world. He uses 3 layers of bubblewrap and thick boxes. Nothing is going to happen to it.

Lena

The TWE does not tether when FF. It only tethers when in RF position

How tal is your son?

my son is around 1.20 meters tall.

are the uk rear facing seats easy and quick to install? i will be using taxis to get around mostly unless i can get a lift with my mom, i dont drive. here he is too tall for RF and all the RF seats are a pain to install. the one he just out grew took over 1/2 an hour to install when i went anywhere. luckily the taxi drivers didnt charge me for the time

You are right, he may be too tall to RF - even in the European RF seats on less the 120 cm/1.2 m is a typo. Is he really that tall? That ios the size of a 6 year old and he is 3. My daughter has an 18" torso and still fits in the MT untill the next time she takes a growth spurt and her torso takes the extra length. The European RF seats are NOTHING like the Australian ones. I can do the MT in 5-7 min. and the TWE likewise.

I guess your best bet to keep him harnessed are the two immensly expensive seats: Recaro Start for £469 or the Britax Traveller SI (former: Plus) for £509.

Importing a USA car seat like the Regent or Frontier, Nautilious etc. is legal. However, USING them is NOT legal. Not that it makes sense but....

He weighes too little be in a a booster seat.

If he is 102 cm tall, then he will have plenty of growing space in the Two Way Elite and the MT.

Lena

Silly question but are you sure your son is 120 cm tall? Being that tall, 3 years old, and weighting 12.5 kg sounds not quite right.... A Britax Multi Tech is the only one which might handle that kind of height rf with a harness but I think it would be a close call.

There are no seats available in Europe for older forward facing kids since we try to stay away from harnessing older kids. It's a long story but harnessing vs. boosters for kids 4+ is entirely a subjective opinion. In US it's considered safer while the super safety anal Swedes recommend never to harenss older kids forward facing (unless special needs).

Everyone can believe what they choose, although I would not take the Swedes experience and recommendations in this area lightly. Whatever used, safety difference is likely to be very small and nothing compared to the discussion about rear facing vs. forward facing of kids less than 4 years old.

lenats31 said:

You are right, he may be too tall to RF - even in the European RF seats on less the 120 cm/1.2 m is a typo. Is he really that tall? That ios the size of a 6 year old and he is 3. My daughter has an 18" torso and still fits in the MT untill the next time she takes a growth spurt and her torso takes the extra length. The European RF seats are NOTHING like the Australian ones. I can do the MT in 5-7 min. and the TWE likewise.

I guess your best bet to keep him harnessed are the two immensly expensive seats: Recaro Start for £469 or the Britax Traveller SI (former: Plus) for £509.

Importing a USA car seat like the Regent or Frontier, Nautilious etc. is legal. However, USING them is NOT legal. Not that it makes sense but....

He weighes too little be in a a booster seat.

If he is 102 cm tall, then he will have plenty of growing space in the Two Way Elite and the MT.

Lena

Click to expand...

your right, typing with ds on my knee causes typos. hes only 102cms tall.
i really cant afford something that expensive. i've seen the britax evolva 123 plus online, this uses the harness till 18kgs and then becomes a booster to 39kgs. how is this seat?

i looked up the frontier. is that right that it harnesses to 80lbs?! that would be a wonderfull seat to get. just a shame that its not legal to do so.




i'd love to ask another question if i could. ds's seat is not approved for use on planes but i think hes still to small to fly on 4 planes without some kind of restraint. i have seen the CARES harness. is this a good thing to invest in? it costs over $100 here so would have to be really really good for me to get it.

thank you

Unregistered said:

your right, typing with ds on my knee causes typos. hes only 102cms tall.
i really cant afford something that expensive. i've seen the britax evolva 123 plus online, this uses the harness till 18kgs and then becomes a booster to 39kgs. how is this seat?

i looked up the frontier. is that right that it harnesses to 80lbs?! that would be a wonderfull seat to get. just a shame that its not legal to do so.




i'd love to ask another question if i could. ds's seat is not approved for use on planes but i think hes still to small to fly on 4 planes without some kind of restraint. i have seen the CARES harness. is this a good thing to invest in? it costs over $100 here so would have to be really really good for me to get it.

thank you

Click to expand...

The Frontier is a USA car seat that complies with the USA Standards. Therefore the seat cannot be used legally in Europe. IF you are in a crash and your son becomes injured, then you may have to face criminal charges.

The Multi-Tech and the Two Way Elite car seats are not special needs seats but are sold as such because the market for these RF seats is very small in the UK. The MT is about half the price of the Traveller SI. The Two Way Elite is about half the price of the Graco Start seat.

The Evolva is the FF version of the MT - same seat - just FF only. Although I don´t think the harness goes as high up as the MT´s harness. The Evolva 123 will most likely not take him all the way up to 18 kg in the 5 point harness. The MT will take him to 18 kg in the harness FF. This is due to the much higher weight capacity for RF position. The Evolva has an 18 kg weight limit, and the height of the top harness slot is based on the average height of a 4 year old. My daughter had outgrown her King TS Plus car seat when she hit 104 cm. The harness fell below her shoulders in the top harness height. I think she weighed 14-15 kg. She grew out of it by harness height. The tips of her ears were close to the top. She was 3½ years old. Now, at allmost 5 years old - she can still be harnessed in her baby bro´s MT car seat RF. at 115 cm and 21 kg. SO, The harness will not go all the way up to the top with the head support in the Evolva. You MUST remove the harness at some point, which I expect to be too soon in order to move the head support higher up. The MT works that way too, but the top harness slots are most likely much higher.

The Two Way Elite seat is not quite as tall as the MT and the harness height is a little lower. But it harness to 25 kg FF.

You can get a much better picture of both seats here. They are in RF position as this is an RF gallery. The very first post shows a Brio Zento with a 6 year-old and 120 cm tall child in it. The Zento does not accommondate a child that tall harness height-wise. The owner was not aware of the limits of harness height, and has taken her son out of it after I told her about it. My point is that this is a clear case of incorrect use of a European child car seat. The same boy looks fine at 115 cm in the Two Way Elite. Another 6-year-old is in a Nordic Secura just for a fun photo.

Your son a tall boy at 102 cm and 3 years old. I would not consider the Evolva for him. Besides, the Evolva does not tether. SO this seat will not be installed in the car when used as a booster unless you buckle it up. The same thing goes for all the RF seats except when used in RF position. Many/most buy a stage 1 or 1+2 car seat and then an Isofix booster seat. My son´t MT may be used as a booster seat until we get him an Isofix booster when the time for this comes. he is only 22 months old - so has plenty of time left in his MT. and TWE.

I have no experience with the harness you mention. So can´t comment on that.

http://forum.nybaktmamma.com/bilsikring-f392/nms-eget-bakovervendtgalleri-524428/

Lena

lenats31 said:

You can get a much better picture of both seats here. They are in RF position as this is an RF gallery. ...

Click to expand...

Forgot Link??
Joy

Link is the one from nybaktmamma

http://forum.nybaktmamma.com/bilsikring-f392/nms-eget-bakovervendtgalleri-524428/

All these children are RF, but you can get a rough idea, just how long they will fit.

Lena