I installed out Radian in 04 ody....review

I installed the seat drivers side captains chair with seatbelt. My son is 42lbs, so I had to use the seatbelt instead of the latch. (Honda latch only goes up to 40lbs instead of the 48 that most go to.) I ended up getting a great install, but it took so long and was so difficult to install. My husband kept saying that I must be doing something wrong for it to take that long to install. Then he stopped saying that and kept repeating how the seat must be designed very poorly for any installation to be that difficult. I must say, I agree with him and sunshine kids really should work on fixing the installation issues with this seat. It is impossible for me to seatbelt install this seat properly by myself. This is what finally worked with installing the seat. I twisted the buckle stalk 2 full times, buckled the belt, knelt in the seat and pulled on the belt with all my weight. Then the seat still moved a good three inches so I got back in the seat, had my husband pull on the seatbelt with all of his weight. He really pulled hard. Then I attached the teather. Rock solid install. It took both of us to do it, but it worked. Next time it won't take us as long to install because we know that we need to both do it. I am not going to remove that seat unless it is absolutely necessary though. Too much trouble to install. I guess I got spoiled with how easily our Graco cargos and Ryan's triumph latch installs.

Now, here is my mini review of how my son fits in the seat. He is almost 5, 42lbs, 43 inches tall. When I measured his torso height, I thought it was 16 inches, but I think he is actually less than that since I couldn't get him to sit still enough. He has autism. He fits so nicely in the Radian with lots of room to grow. I think I will definitely get 2 years of use out of it for him - maybe even more depending on how he grows. The straps are in 2nd slots down from the top, his shoulders are about 3/8 inch below the slots so I will probably have to uninstall and change the harness to the next higher slots soon. He has broad shoulders and the seat is wide enough for him. I also love that the seat bottom is deep enough for him to be really comfortable. He fell asleep in the car today and he looked comfortable. My 6 year old would fit into a radian with room to grow as she is the same size as my 4 year old.

I also sat my 14 month old in the seat just to see how he would fit. The seat was not installed, I just sat him in it in the house. He is a small baby -18lbs 29 inches tall and still fits in his Evenflo on my way infant seat. His head is about 1.5 inches from the top of the infant seat. He fit nicely in the Radian with the straps in the second slots from the bottom. They were just under his shoulders. He looked so tiny in this seat though as the seat back is so high. There was so much space for growth. I think he would definitely be able to rearface until 33lbs in this seat since I doubt he would outgrow it by height rearfacing.

Angie

Thanks.

Yeah - I struggled with a Radian install this morning too. Glad it worked though!

Angie,
So I'm glad to hear that I'm not only one that struggled to get a tight install in the 2nd gen Ody. I have an '03 and I just got my Radian this week. I was able to get a good install in the captain's chair, but I couldn't really get an acceptable install in the 3rd row. This could be a problem on long trips because my DD will want to sit in the back with oldest DS to watch movies. But I've been doing some reading, and this weekend, I'll give it another go with the new tips and tricks I've picked on this forum! Thanks for your review!!

If you get a good install back there, let me know. My ds will want to sit back there too for the same reasons.