Britax Frontier v. Marathon Classic; 5-point harness importance

[thaihotmama]

Hi all. Weighing my options here.

I have bought a Marathon Classic and a Frontier - plan to return one.

Currently:
3 year old rfing in a Marathon (exp. 12/15/2015)
4 mo. old in a bucket seat, but needs convertible soon

I plan to put 3 yo in a Frontier, ffing, as he is ounces from the 35lb. rf limit and pass Marathon to baby. Alternately, I could have them both in Marathons, a $75 less expensive scenario. At the end of the day, we are hoping to - and hoping it makes sense to - keep either the Marathon Classic or the Frontier and buy only one more seat ever, a cheaper booster seat, down the road, when my youngest inherits the Frontier. Assuming that's what happens, here are scenarios:

keep Frontier:
my oldest would leave a 5 point harness at about age 6.5 for a booster; my youngest at 6.25 yrs.

keep Marathon Classic:
my oldest would leave a 5 point harness at about age 6 for a booster; my youngest at 5.25 yrs.

Questions are... How important is a 5-point harness at ages 5-7? Also, what kind of booster is most appropriate at those ages? Is a cheap backless booster fine, or do we need a high back booster? We aren't really trying to round corners a lot, as we have had our son rfing his whole life, but we also want to be reasonable about how many seats we buy. Thanks!

 

[aeormsby]

Keep the frontier. It has taller harness slots, many kids will outgrow the marathon by height before they are ready for a booster. And since you already have a convertible that will last your younger until he's ready to FF, there's no point in having another convertible.

As for harnessing until 5 vs 7, most kids are ready for a booster aound age 6. That has a lot to do with maturity and the ability to sit correctly. My DD started using a booster occasionally around 5.5 yo, full time a couple of months after she turned 6.

 

[arly1983]

Keep the frontier. It has taller harness slots, many kids will outgrow the marathon by height before they are ready for a booster. And since you already have a convertible that will last your younger until he's ready to FF, there's no point in having another convertible.

As for harnessing until 5 vs 7, most kids are ready for a booster aound age 6. That has a lot to do with maturity and the ability to sit correctly. My DD started using a booster occasionally around 5.5 yo, full time a couple of months after she turned 6.

I would do exactly the above!

 

[Lemonade]

Keep in mind, the Frontier has a 9 yr expiration. So I get that you would have to kick your older one out of the FR when the baby needed it because the MA expires...but no need to kick the baby out of the frontier harness until it expires, which is going to be a LONG time. Keep the Frontier.

 

[thaihotmama]

Thanks, all! I did leave out the part where the cover on the FR is hot pink (Livia). Hope my son doesn't mind! Otherwise, when he is kicked out of the FR at age 6.5, what style booster am I then looking at? High back or backless? He is top of the charts for height and middle of the pack for weight.

 

[aeormsby]

Thanks, all! I did leave out the part where the cover on the FR is hot pink (Livia). Hope my son doesn't mind! Otherwise, when he is kicked out of the FR at age 6.5, what style booster am I then looking at? High back or backless? He is top of the charts for height and middle of the pack for weight.

Definitely high back booster after the harnessed seat. Most people (here) don't go to a no back booster full time until around age 8. Although my 6yo rides in one occasionally, it's easier to transfer for carpooling and taking with when we fly. Especially when we're doing road trips she still falls asleep occasionally and the HBB definitely keeps her in position, pretty sure she'd fall over with a NBB.

As for the pink cover, you can always trade or buy a new one when the time comes. I like having extra covers for my seats anyway so my pink seats have usually had spare covers that weren't pink so DS could use them too.