Question 2 car seats one tether bolt?

LuckyDucky · Sep 1, 2009

My DD started at her new dayhome and we provided a car seat for her to use in her van. Here is my question... her husband installed the seat last night and when I looked at it, he had attached my DD's and the other little girl's seat to the same tether. She has a 99 Odyssey. They are in the back bench - one seat is in the passenger side outboard side and my DD is in the centre of the bench. The tether bolt is behind the outboard seat and it is the only one for the back bench.

She had originally told me that DD would be in the passenger side captain's chair but she said that the tether strap wouldn't reach the tether anchor on the seat so they had to put her in the back... I am pretty sure this (2 seat, one tether bolt) is not ok but before I go back I wanted to have some information to provide.

Also, is there anything else I'll need to check for... a few things come to mind ~ do I need a locking clip for the belt? Now that I think about it, I think the middle seat in the bench only has a lap belt - is that OK?

mommaon112903 · Sep 1, 2009

The only time you do not want to use a lap-only belt is for a booster, so installing a car seat with a lap-only belt is :thumbsup:

You do NOT want to teather two seats to one TA :thumbsdown: Have your daycare provider look at her car's manual and it will state that only one seat per TA.

We installed Josef's old GN outboard, passenger side, in a 2003/2004 model Odessey, no problems.

Did your daycare provider have the TAs installed recently, because IIRC a '99 model may or may not have actual TAs and she may be using something she *thinks* are TAs and they actually are not. I would make sure they are actual TAs before installing a seat again.

carseatcoach · Sep 1, 2009

Two seats cannot be tethered to the same anchor.

Lap belts are fine for installing carseats, and a 1999 vehicle should have locking belts so no locking clip needed.

LISmama810 · Sep 1, 2009

I'm guessing you're in Canada?

If so, here's a note from the LATCH manual:

2nd row Center and Passenger Side: In Canada TA [tether anchor] snap hook available which allows tether hook to be attached to unused striker bar (the bar the vehicle seat attaches to). Part #82410-SX0-000CH or fold 3rd row seat into floor and use TAs in tailgate sill.

mom1mg · Sep 1, 2009

Sorry to hijack a little -
I'm not a tech just someone who is learning the ropes (and I am sure that in a van you would need 2 seperate tether places)

BUT---
Aren't there exceptions to this rule with some trucks???
My truck you don't tether directly behind the seat - you feed the tether through a fabric loop and attach it to the seat beside. SO if you had two FF seats both outboard, both would be tethered to the middle.

Personally this goes against everything I knew about tethers because I had never heard of it until very recently. But if you are like me trying to figure this out last month then there are exceptions -- Read your manual!!! and Ask the techs here who are GREAT!

LuckyDucky · Sep 2, 2009

mommaon112903 said:
You do NOT want to teather two seats to one TA :thumbsdown: Have your daycare provider look at her car's manual and it will state that only one seat per TA.

We installed Josef's old GN outboard, passenger side, in a 2003/2004 model Odessey, no problems.

Did your daycare provider have the TAs installed recently, because IIRC a '99 model may or may not have actual TAs and she may be using something she *thinks* are TAs and they actually are not. I would make sure they are actual TAs before installing a seat again.

Thanks for the info

I knew two on one TA wasn't OK. Now how to say something without offending :scratcheshead:-

The one TA was installed recently ~ well not sure how recently but it was not an original part. I had one installed in my 99 civic and I know it is for sure a TA. I was thinking of offering to pay to have another installed on the driver's side outboard so there would be 2 available for the 2 harnessed children...hmmm

On a quick side note, you installed your GN on the bench? We are considering moving my DS#2 in his nautilius from the pass side captain's seat to the back bench to sit with his brother. I was worried the seat was too deep ~ we have a 2005 Odyssey. I think I'll give it a try.

LuckyDucky · Sep 2, 2009

chickabiddy said:
A 1999 vehicle should have locking belts so no locking clip needed.

Thanks :thumbsup: I was hoping that was the case because I know how hard they can be to use.

selinajean · Sep 2, 2009

LuckyDucky said:
Thanks for the info I knew two on one TA wasn't OK. Now how to say something without offending :scratcheshead:-

The one TA was installed recently ~ well not sure how recently but it was not an original part. I had one installed in my 99 civic and I know it is for sure a TA. I was thinking of offering to pay to have another installed on the driver's side outboard so there would be 2 available for the 2 harnessed children...hmmm

On a quick side note, you installed your GN on the bench? We are considering moving my DS#2 in his nautilius from the pass side captain's seat to the back bench to sit with his brother. I was worried the seat was too deep ~ we have a 2005 Odyssey. I think I'll give it a try.

I think that is a great idea. Call around to different dealerships too. When we had ours installed in our jeep, they did not charge us anything.

LuckyDucky · Sep 2, 2009

mom1mg said:
Sorry to hijack a little -
I'm not a tech just someone who is learning the ropes (and I am sure that in a van you would need 2 seperate tether places)

BUT---
Aren't there exceptions to this rule with some trucks???
My truck you don't tether directly behind the seat - you feed the tether through a fabric loop and attach it to the seat beside. SO if you had two FF seats both outboard, both would be tethered to the middle.

Personally this goes against everything I knew about tethers because I had never heard of it until very recently. But if you are like me trying to figure this out last month then there are exceptions -- Read your manual!!! and Ask the techs here who are GREAT!

I know nothing about trucks lol but now that you say it, that does sound sort of familiar but maybe someone else will know.

mommaon112903 · Sep 2, 2009

No, it was a captain's seat

The bench was occupied by a FF Evenflo Triumph (old-style) my friend and a HBB. Thank goodness she is small

LuckyDucky said:
On a quick side note, you installed your GN on the bench? We are considering moving my DS#2 in his nautilius from the pass side captain's seat to the back bench to sit with his brother. I was worried the seat was too deep ~ we have a 2005 Odyssey. I think I'll give it a try.

mommycat · Sep 2, 2009

LuckyDucky said:
I was thinking of offering to pay to have another installed on the driver's side outboard so there would be 2 available for the 2 harnessed children...hmmm

I think that's a great idea too. It would help offset the fact that you need to tell them that you found out that she a) can't attach 2 TAs to one anchor and b) can't attach to an anchor meant for another seating position because the anchor is offset too much to the side.

LuckyDucky · Sep 2, 2009

So we talked about it this afternoon and she said OK - she hadn't realized they couldn't do that. I brought up adding a tether and she said she'd talk to her husband. I said that otherwise I could find a seat with a longer tether strap that will reach the TA at the base of the captain's seat. She was totally fine with that. So... anyone know a seat with a super long tether strap... ~ totally blanking on the seat she is in... its an Eveflo with the strap adjustor in front, sort of on her chest, FF to 47lbs. was manufactured in 2005.

dogmelissa · Sep 2, 2009

LuckyDucky said:
So we talked about it this afternoon and she said OK - she hadn't realized they couldn't do that. I brought up adding a tether and she said she'd talk to her husband. I said that otherwise I could find a seat with a longer tether strap that will reach the TA at the base of the captain's seat. She was totally fine with that. So... anyone know a seat with a super long tether strap... ~ totally blanking on the seat she is in... its an Eveflo with the strap adjustor in front, sort of on her chest, FF to 47lbs. was manufactured in 2005.

This thread will probably help: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=78187

Also, it seems that some dealerships (manufacturers?) will charge for the tether point installs and some won't. I do find it odd that a minivan would only have one for the 3rd row, though, so I would have her investigate a little further into this. Some manufacturers will not install more than a certain number of top tethers, I can't remember what kind of van it was but I remember someone saying that in they had only 4 tether points (that could only be used for one seat each) but a 7 passenger van, and the dealership was saying there was no way they could install more due to the structure of the vehicle. I'm not 100% sure on this though, it did sound quite odd to me (they'd do it, but wanted to charge like $1500 to install some steel reinforcing the frame or something).

Good luck,
Melissa

carseatcoach · Sep 2, 2009

I think she's in an Evenflo Chase(Express), and Evenflo has tether extenders for some models, so you should call and check.

Stacey · Sep 5, 2009

mom1mg said:
Sorry to hijack a little -
I'm not a tech just someone who is learning the ropes (and I am sure that in a van you would need 2 seperate tether places)

BUT---
Aren't there exceptions to this rule with some trucks???
My truck you don't tether directly behind the seat - you feed the tether through a fabric loop and attach it to the seat beside. SO if you had two FF seats both outboard, both would be tethered to the middle.

Personally this goes against everything I knew about tethers because I had never heard of it until very recently. But if you are like me trying to figure this out last month then there are exceptions -- Read your manual!!! and Ask the techs here who are GREAT!

We have a Ram 1500 and the manual said to do exactly as you said. There are tethers right behind the headrest but it said to feed them both through that loop and attach to the middle. If this is wrong I'd love to know! We don't put the kids in the truck often unless they are going fishing with daddy and we're using a booster for one of the seats now but new baby is coming!

LISmama810 · Sep 5, 2009

mom1mg said:
BUT---
Aren't there exceptions to this rule with some trucks???
My truck you don't tether directly behind the seat - you feed the tether through a fabric loop and attach it to the seat beside. SO if you had two FF seats both outboard, both would be tethered to the middle.

Yes, that's true of some pickups. Those anchors have been tested for that kind of use. I would imagine that due to the routing, the physics would be a little different, since it loops through another point first.

Question 2 car seats one tether bolt?

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