Got my new XT - now I need help!!

OK - so I finally got my new xt. It is soo pretty (malibu); dd loves it.

First, when I went to adjust the soulder harness height, the foam under the cover was all weird so I had to take the cover off to get the foam lined up for the right slots. Then I lowered the side impact wings, and I'm not sure where the foam is supposed to go - overtop of the wings or underneath. Can anyone tell me how that is supposed to be set up?

It's a good thing dd doesn't grow too quickly cause changing the harness was a pita!

Second, when I installed it in the van (05 freestar), it seemed to be even taller than my premiere, and it actually seemed more reclined as well. I tried the trick of pulling the carseat back a bit (from the "bite" of the seat), and putting all my weight on it to tighten the UAS. It seemed to work, but then when dd climbed in and we tightened the harness, it actually reclined more. What am I doing wrong?

Oh - and we have middle row bucket seats where the xt is installed - the vehicle manual did not say anything about the angle of the seat back on relation to the carseat. The vehicle seatback has full range of motion as it folds forward, so I have no idea how far back I can recline it and still install the xt safely/properly.

And finally, when the seat is installed, it is touching the passenger seat in front of it. The top of the carseat is touching the top of the passenger seat with the passenger headrest above. I'm not sure if this is allowed. I read through my vehicle manual and it said absolutely nothing about that (or much about rfing installs for that matter).

phew - if you made it through all that - thank you. I did not expect the install to be so much different than my premiere.

Hi,

The foam goes in front of the SIP wings.

To get the seat more upright, stand the seat on the toe of it's base, having the top of the Radian pointed to the roof of your vehicle. While you have the seat standing upright, press down with your knee near where your child's feet would be, and also lean the Radian over towards the adjuster on the UAS strap, all the while tightening the UAS strap. Sort of a balancing act, and it will take a bit of effort. Tighten it down as much as possible and then let the seat fall back to where it wants to be. You may find it installs slightly crooked because of the way you leaned on it, but just wiggle it a bit and it will straighten out.

In terms of whether or not you can have the seat toughing your front seat, I'm not sure. It all comes down to having advanced airbags or not. Does your front passenger seat have a weight sensor? Does the airbag go "off" if the front passenger doesn't weigh enough? I have an '03 Ford Explorer that does not have advanced airbags and so bracing my Radian (which allows for bracing) is fine. You'll need to dig through the airbag section of your manual and see what it says, if anything, about having something lean against the front seat.

Maybe post back with your progress.. I'm not sure if I was much help. I'm away right now and supremely distracted by crazy children.

Kelly, are you the same syd'smom on TBW? Welcome!

If you continue having trouble, there is at least one tech on c-s.org in Edmonton that might be able to help.

Tam - yep it's me from tbw. I know Trudy - she installed my last radian; I'm just trying not to bother her with emails. I have a few friends who all got new radians with me, so I think we're going to have an install party with Trudy sometime in August.

As for the airbags - yes there is a sensor on the front passenger seat. We had the premiere just touching the driver's side seat, but the xt seems taller.

As for the foam, I took the cover off the side impact headrest thing and put the foam on top of the headrest and then put that cover back on. I think it was underneath the headrest and got all bunched up and I couldn't find the slots. I wish things came ready made for me to use!

Thanks (as always) for the help, ladies!

:happy-wavehello: LOL Kelly, your emails are never a bother. You know I'm wanting to see the new Radian's boot anyways, right? I don't recall your van having anything about bracing in the manual, but it's been awhile so good idea to comb through it again.

Too bad you weren't able to make the course in May, I think you would've really enjoyed it.

(Says me who still hasn't played with a Radian XT IRL aside from determining it was incompatible with a vehicle due to how the boot interacted with the vehicle seat.)

snowbird25ca said:

(Says me who still hasn't played with a Radian XT IRL aside from determining it was incompatible with a vehicle due to how the boot interacted with the vehicle seat.)

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Hahaha same here, Trudy! I've seen it irl often, yet life is just not giving me a bit of time to play with it. I think with the list of new seats we have had lately, I need more time to actually play with them than I can spare. What a difference a year it has been. I used to be able to spend time exploring an new seat that came out once in a while.

Sorry, thread-jacking :bag:

Trudy, we are still waiting on 2 more radians, so when they come in, I think there are a few who will want you to teach them how to install, so maybe the week after next, we can plan an install party - and you can come play/help install the seats. Right now, the xt is definitely installing more reclined and therefore taller than my premiere - I just hope I'm doing something wrong to cause that!

syd'smom said:

Trudy, we are still waiting on 2 more radians, so when they come in, I think there are a few who will want you to teach them how to install, so maybe the week after next, we can plan an install party - and you can come play/help install the seats. Right now, the xt is definitely installing more reclined and therefore taller than my premiere - I just hope I'm doing something wrong to cause that!

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Sounds good to me.

Hopefully we can get it more upright. The problem I ran in to with the vehicle that the XT ended up being incompatible with was that the new boot wouldn't allow me to get it more upright and because of the seat contouring, it kept slipping in to a spot that made the seat actually over-reclined and I couldn't fix it. So it ended up being incompatible. No clue if that was because of the new boot or not, but I think in some vehicles the new boot may actually make it harder to get a more upright install...

I am glad I saw with the response about the new boot. We just were in a nameless kids store in Calgary today where the owner argued with me that the the boot was not any different then the 2007 Radian he had there. He only allowed the 2007 one to go out to do installs, until I demanded to use the new one! He insisted it would make no difference whatsoever on the install. Incidentally we had quite a bit of trouble installing the Radian XT in our trailblazer rear facing. Neither the latch or seat belt install was tight enough for me Its too bad cause I really wanted the Malibu cover

Anyone else have trouble with rearfacing installs with a Radian in a 2004 trailblazer?