Just a quick note, I apologize to the OP that we've gone a bit OT! Not sure if there's a way for the mods to "unwind" this thread and separate it out, but I do want to continue the discussion ...
You might consider sending Sarah Tilton a quick note letting her know that you've found a seating position where ClickTight doesn't work. Based on what she said in the webinar, that would be a first, and I have a feeling she'd be interested.
Well, full disclosure here, it probably would pass the 1" test based on the way the standardized curriculum describes it. Here I go again with my opinions that parts of the standardized curriculum are inadequate, but that's my opinion. While I agree for side-to-side movement you shouldn't "reef" on the seat with all of your strength, but IMO you should in the fore/aft direction. My reason for this is, when we're talking about pre-tensioning the seat, we're talking about maximizing ride-down time, and if there's any slack you're losing critical milliseconds that could be reducing the peak force experienced by the occupant.
Here's some simple math to show my point:
Let's say to make it easy that we've got an acceleration impulse of 30G, which is actually less than what seats are tested to. For the sake of argument, let's just look at the "fore/aft" vector of that force (since the actual forces on the seat and restraint system are much more complicated and change throughout the crash sequence) but in the initial moments of the crash they're roughly "forward."
Now let's take our FR90, and put a 65# child in it so the total mass is roughly 90#, so 90# x 30G = 2700 pounds of force. I realize this is an over-simplification of the answer since I realize that 30G impulse doesn't occur instantaneously, and the belt stretches, and the seat cushion deforms, etc. - just trying to show the general magnitude of the forces we're talking about.
Now, I'm not a bodybuilder (and in fact avoid the gym as much as possible) but there's no way that I'm going to come close to that in my "shake test," so my personal standard is
zero detectable movement in the fore/aft shake test (or at least that's what I strive for.)
Anyway, all of that being said, I think most techs and parents on this forum would not be comfortable with the install I was able to achieve in this case, because with my "pretty solid" pull on the seat, which I would estimate at under 50lbs, the seat moved forward almost 5" on average.
So, all of that being said, do you still think Britax would be interested in hearing about it, or am I just going to sound like a raving lunatic?
That is freaking amazing! That seat is one of the hardest hbb spots like in the history of... ever. I wonder how easily a kid could get that buckled with his/her hand having to maneuver right against the shell like that? (Even without another seat next to it.)
It's the actual buckling that I was curious about. I'm just .. blown away here!
This is one of those interesting examples of where I still have little to no experience since I don't have any of my kiddos in boosters yet! I didn't find it too difficult, even with the small gap and having to snake my hand down in there pretty far, but I guess that doesn't mean a child wouldn't. If I get a chance this weekend I might try setting it up again and seeing if my 5.5yo can do it.
