Britax Diplomat & Graco SafeSeat - what's next?

[kickypants]

I'm needing some advice - here is our situation:
DD (12 mos) in Graco SafeSeat 32, is 25 lbs not sure her height, I'll check when she wakes and post it. Her head is about 2 inches short of the top of the safeseat shell.

DS (just turned 4) in a Britax Diplomat FF, is 35 lbs and 42", 21.5" seated height.

So obviously we need a new seat for the baby, and probably for DS as well. I'm open to all options. We drive a Hyundai Elantra Touring, and ideally would like to put DS ff in the middle and DD rf on the side, and maybe have room for a skinny person to sit We want DD rf as long as possible, and then have DS harnessed for another few years as well. We turned DS around too early and I won't repeat that mistake with DD.

I just read through the manual for the Britax and noticed it says it needs to be in the reclined position when rf! My DH thinks this is just a guideline but I'm inclined to think if its in the manual, its hard and fast, I don't want to mess with it. I don't think the Diplomat will fir reclined and rf. We were going to put her in the Diplomat and get a base model Diono for DS, but now I think we need to get her a new seat first (she is closer to outgrowing hers) as DS has some time left in the Diplomat. At least we wont be paying for two seats at once.

I'm leaning toward the Diono for both of them as its so narrow and low profile, but I wanted to check and see if there ware any other cheaper option? We are not totally tied to needing to have space for a third passenger back there if it would save us a lot of money.

Thanks!

 

[featherhead]

First off, is the harness coming from above your son's shoulders? If his shoulders are above the harness in the top position he has outgrown the seat.

Next, while the Diplomat has to be mechanically reclined for rear-facing, you can still make it more upright by how you install it. By pushing down where babies feet will go when you are tightening the belt, it should make the seat more upright.

Another seat option (and cheaper ) for your son would be the Evenflo Maestro. It is also a fairly narrow seat. It harnesses to 47 lbs and has a top harness slot of about 18" I believe.

 

[kickypants]

No, he's still good on the harness shoulder height. I just adjusted it up a little the other day (the diplomat has a knob thingy to raise the harness height without re-threading it). The top of his shoulders are definitely below where the harness comes out. I'll check and see how much further the height adjustor can go - that will give me a sense of how much longer we can use the seat. He's certainly not going to hit 40 lbs any time soon!

The Maestro looks good, but I'm concerned about the 47 lb harnessing limit. I swore during this process these were going to be the last seats we buy if I can help it as I didn't do enough research with the Diplomat. I'm leaning towards one with a 65 lb harness limit, but then again, at 35 lbs at 4 years, there's a good chance he would be booster ready before he gets to 47 lbs! He's a skinny mini.

Thanks for the info on getting a more upright RF install on the Diplomat I think I'll try it out today and see how it fits.

 

[snowbird25ca]

No, he's still good on the harness shoulder height. I just adjusted it up a little the other day (the diplomat has a knob thingy to raise the harness height without re-threading it). The top of his shoulders are definitely below where the harness comes out. I'll check and see how much further the height adjustor can go - that will give me a sense of how much longer we can use the seat. He's certainly not going to hit 40 lbs any time soon!

The Maestro looks good, but I'm concerned about the 47 lb harnessing limit. I swore during this process these were going to be the last seats we buy if I can help it as I didn't do enough research with the Diplomat. I'm leaning towards one with a 65 lb harness limit, but then again, at 35 lbs at 4 years, there's a good chance he would be booster ready before he gets to 47 lbs! He's a skinny mini.

Thanks for the info on getting a more upright RF install on the Diplomat I think I'll try it out today and see how it fits.

At 35lbs at 4yrs old he'll likely be close to 7 before hitting 47lbs - he'll be in a booster before he hits 47lbs.

Your dd though is 25lbs at 12 months so bigger than what her brother was at her age I'm assuming. If you want to be able to pass the seat from brother down to her when brother moves to a booster, then you may want a seat with a 65lb weight limit. If you're buying another seat for her anyways though, then you'd do fine with a 47lb weight limit seat for your ds.

The Maestro won't be the only booster you'd need for your son, so these seat purchases won't be your truly last purchase, but you can count on the Maestro lasting until your son is ready for a booster anyways - and possibly until he's ready for a backless booster.

 

[tam_shops]

The Britax seats tend to be easier to fit in tight areas than the Diono seats are, though the angle adjuster does help a lot. So, I'd certainly suggest you try before you buy!

Do you have the Classic style Diplomat or the new style? What is the RF weight limit on it?

Since you want to increase your back seat space, keep your ODS harnessed longer and potentially RF DD longer (than your current seat may allow), I would say get one Diono seat and put your son in it.

If you were not worried about your rear seat space or ERF DD, then I'd say get him a Frontier/Nautilus/Maestro.

Then, either now or when she outgrows her bucket, move her into the Diplomat RF.

I would then wait and see who outgrows what and when and decide what you are going to get.

Also, don't worry about your booster purchase, they aren't expensive. I've seen the Graco TurboBooster go on sale for $50 for the high back one and $20 for the low back one.

tam

 

[kickypants]

Thanks everyone! That's good to think about with the booster, tam_shops - it really isn't going to be a big deal if we need to buy him a booster in 2-3 years.

I don't know what version the diplomat is. It's from 2009. The weight limit is 40 lbs.

Yes, DD is a chubster! Ideally, if we can use the Britax RF for DD then we would pass down DS's new seat to DD eventually, you you are right - 65 lbs would be a good idea.

I relly need to get off my but and go outside to try a RF install on the Britax. Ugh, I'll add that to my list of 7000 things to do today

Thanks again. You've given me some good stuff to think about.