2000 Jeep Cherokee Seat Anchor Tethers

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4WD 6 cyl 4L and a Graco Snug Ride rear facing infant seat.

The owner's manual says there are anchoring points in the car, and that I should contact the dealer for some sort of parts to use them.
The only anchor-ish things i see are square links of metal bolted to the floor of the cargo area in the back, but they are WAAAAY far (they are near the outsides of the vehicle, not the center) from where the infant seat will go in the back seat. the LATCH straps that come on the infant seat arent nearly long enough to go over the back of the seat, and that doesnt seem too secure anyway.

is there some peice of hardware that gets attached where the seatbelts are anchored, and comes up through the crack in the seat?
What am i missing?
I have the seat attached by way of the lap belt, and it is secure, but i was hoping for a redundant system.

What you are doing right now---securing the snugride with the seatbelt---is absolutely the right thing and you don't need to do anything else.

Your vehicle probably won't have LATCH as cars before 2002 usually don't (because it wasn't required).

To answer your question about LATCH, though, yes, there will be metal anchors that are in the bight of the seat where the seatbelt comes from. Those are what you would attach the LATCH belt to if your vehicle had LATCH. What you have been looking for in the rear of the vehicle are the top tether anchors. You don't use the top tether anchors on an infant seat (or on rear facing convertible seats other than Britax) so you won't need to worry about those for awhile!

LATCH is not safer than the seatbelt and you never want to use both at the same time. One or the other.

Keep doing what you're doing!

Thanks you.
the wife is INSISTING we take the car to an inspection site tomorrow to make sure i did a good job feeding 1 seat belt through one hole and buckling it.
do people think this is necessary, or is it just scare tactics to make people feel stupid?

Yes, it's always a good idea to have a professional look at your seat. You wouldn't believe how many parents think they have their seats in right, only to find out that it isn't.

And about the tethering, like Alicia said, you can't tether your infant seat RF. The only seats that tether RF are Britax seats and the Radian. The hooks you are talking about in the back of your Jeep are cargo hooks, not top tethers. When the time comes to put a forward facing seat in, you'll want to have top tethers installed, the cargo hooks are not safe to use as top tethers.

empicard said:

Thanks you.
the wife is INSISTING we take the car to an inspection site tomorrow to make sure i did a good job feeding 1 seat belt through one hole and buckling it.
do people think this is necessary, or is it just scare tactics to make people feel stupid?

Click to expand...

Eight of 10 carseats are installed incorrectly, and the misuse rate is about 96%. The average carseat has three errors, some of them possible fatal. Those are the statistics, it's simple math.

Do we tell you to get your seat inspected to scare you? We don't tell you to get the seat inspected to scare you, just to make sure that there aren't errors. My neighbor, an engineer, installed his daughter's seats so wrong it wasn't funny. She had been tipping over when they went through turns. His wife said I saved their daughter's life by making sure they were actually in properly (which I have a vested interest in doing as their daughter and my daughter play great together. ).

Do we give you the stats to scare you? You bet. They're scary things. Cars are scary things. Carseats are confusing things, the manuals are usually vaguely worded, the stickers small, the vehickle manuals contradicting. Getting them checked out is nearly a necessary. Carseat safety is playing a statistics game. You want to reduce your chances as much as possible. You can never get it to 0%, but as low as you can. Getting it checked out, using a seat that fits well in your car, using it properly, buying a seat that fits your car and child, these are things to do.

Wendy

empicard said:

Thanks you.
the wife is INSISTING we take the car to an inspection site tomorrow to make sure i did a good job feeding 1 seat belt through one hole and buckling it.
do people think this is necessary, or is it just scare tactics to make people feel stupid?

Click to expand...

It's not scare tactics at all. As a technician, I see an average of 3 errors per CHILD. Some of those have the potential to be fatal. Less than .2% of seats I personally check are installed PERFECTLY, and since your child's life depends on you using the seat perfectly each and every time, meeting with a tech to verify that it is indeed correct is a very good idea.

It may not seem that difficult to get it right, but experience and statistcs show us the even parents who think they have it right usually don't. 85% or so of parents think they have it right and more than 98% of them are wrong. Better to have it checked and be in that 2% or so that have it right than be the majority.

MomToEm said:

Yes, it's always a good idea to have a professional look at your seat. You wouldn't believe how many parents think they have their seats in right, only to find out that it isn't.

Click to expand...

Just want to clarify: Child passenger safety technicians are generally NOT "professionals." [paid vs. unpaid - although we do sometimes get snacks, supper, or a t-shirt ]

We are trained and certified by Safe Kids; meaning we've taken a 32 hour course and participated in a check up event (and possibly had additional training and practice). Most of us are volunteers.

If you go to a "fitting station," [fire/police/state patrol station or hospital], the people there are probably "on the clock," but being a tech is not a primary job for most.

No, we don't want to scare people or make them feel stupid. We DO want you to understand how and why to use specific types of car seats for different ages/weights/heights.

At check up events, we have techs and senior checkers (2 different people) look at a seat install, 'cause we aren't perfect either. In fact, you might sign a waiver that basically says, "We are doing our best to help you keep your child safe, but we can't claim to do everything right either."

Relax, go to the check - watch, listen, and ASK questions. We're just trying to help parents and caregivers keep children (and themselves) safer in vehicles.

Finding this the most accurate tread, albiet old, for my 2000 Jeep Cherokee situation. The Britax website says if the weight of the child and that the car seat is equal to or less than 65 pounds, you must always use the LATCH system in conjunction with the seat belt. This is contrary to what was mentioned in this post. Maybe this is new information. Anyway, the Jeep does not have the anchor installed, and the dealer knows nothing about the aforementioned hardware, so I'm planning on installing hardware that includes an eye-bolt connected through the floor pan (a la http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-LATCH-system-retrofit/). Any comments?

I think you misunderstood the new rule about lower anchors. You CAN use lower anchors to install the seat if the combined weight of the child and the seat is no more than 65 pounds. You always can install with the seat belt. You never use both at the same time.

You absolutely should not use that DIY top tether anchor! Someone here should be able to tell you if there is a current retrofit program for your vehicle.

A top tether is very important for children riding forward-facing, but Britax no longer allows rear-facing tethering.