High weight and harness height help please!

[mamoomorgan]

My DD is 6 and weighs about 45lbs, I want to keep her in a 5 point. Right now she's in a TF (and hates it, hurts her bum) and has a bit of room left in the top slot. Our problem is that our car (2003 Toyota Sequoia) says to defer to the seat for how long to use latch and my seats say to defer to the car manual (so we have to assume 48 lbs right?). We have tried multiple times to install her TF with the seat belt with no luck. It's so frustrating! The belt stock is way too long and goes into the seat belt path which stops a tight install. We have tried twisting it.
We were in Vancouver recently and went to Crocodile Baby and tried a Frontier (which is the seat I want because of the high top slots) and had exactly the same problem.
What do I do????

We haven't tried a Nautilus yet but the slots aren't very high...

Anyway, anyone have an idea what seat(s) I can get that will install with the belt?
And where I can order from that will take a seat back that we can't get to install properly?

 

[joolsplus3]

Maybe the Frontier would work better installed with the long belt path? That's where you go around the front side, behind the back, and around the other side, so the buckle stalk ends up aiming forward and being less of an interference.
Also, is it possible to twist the stalk down? If it's just made of seatbelt fabric, give it a couple of twists to shorten it and get it out of the belt path of the True Fit, at least.

 

[tiggercat]

Did you try a long belt path install with the frontier? That should work...

 

[mamoomorgan]

We did try the long belt path with the Frontier, the belt wasn't long enough. We also tried twisting the stalk down and it still interfeared. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[canadiangie]

Regarding your question about deferring for UAS limits, when no one specifies we defer to 40 pounds.

Can you post a pic of your buckle stalks? I've never worked in an '03.

In terms of who takes returned seats, Sears is your best bet, walmart, Zellers, and sometimes toys r us. I don't know of any baby boutiques who accept returned seats.

 

[mamoomorgan]

Oh no, 40!! I knew I needed to get this figured out soon but now I'm a bit panicked! I took some pictures though I'm not sure how much they show. I think I attached them here...?

 

[bobandjess99]

The nautilus gives you generally a solid inch over the truefit, which, in terms of torso growth at age 6, could be a year or more. So I wouldn't rule it out.
Can you explain precisely why she isn't ready for a booster? Most kids are by 5.5 -7 years old, and she is going to need to go into one fairly soon, so is it possible that focusing on teaching her how to ride in a booster might be a better use of your effort here?

If there are extenuating circumstances or special needs, and the frontier simply wont install, maybe we should be looking into a vest or harness, or special needs seat? (I forget which of these are available in CA)

 

[canadiangie]

Oh no, 40!! I knew I needed to get this figured out soon but now I'm a bit panicked! I took some pictures though I'm not sure how much they show. I think I attached them here...?

And even with 3 full rotations (full rotations -- like alll the way around, 3 times) it's still too high? Could you post a pic of things twisted down, buckled thru the belt path pulled tight?

(and no offense meant when I explain what 3 full twists means... I've seen parents think that a half rotation is actually a full one, and it's not).

 

[mamoomorgan]

Bobandjess- Sigh, I'm just not ready I guess. She's a very "good" girl and would try her best to sit properly but I just feel that on long trips, when she's tired etc. she may slump or wiggle or whatever. Another (maybe silly) issue is that her younger sister (4.5) would be livid. I totally know that that's a parenting issue and of course we'll do whatever we have to etc. but since I want her harnessed longer anyway, I'm happy to avoid that battle for now.

Angie- Well, I'm not 100% sure we did three, I think I thought 2 was the max allowed. They definitely were full rotations (no offense taken, lol) though. Do you know of the Frontier having a similar issue to the TF (as we found).

I've also been thinking that maybe I should try her seat in a different spot in the car. It's possible that the 2nd row will work better as the seats are a bit bigger. Unfortunately it's only a temporary solution as we can only fit one large seat in the 2nd row while still providing access to the 3rd row and Imogen (the youngest) is about to reach 40 lbs and her MA seat expires in Dec (and therefore we would need to belt her larger seat in as well).

Thanks everyone for the advice, this has seriously been driving me nuts!

 

[canadiangie]

Bobandjess- Sigh, I'm just not ready I guess. She's a very "good" girl and would try her best to sit properly but I just feel that on long trips, when she's tired etc. she may slump or wiggle or whatever. Another (maybe silly) issue is that her younger sister (4.5) would be livid. I totally know that that's a parenting issue and of course we'll do whatever we have to etc. but since I want her harnessed longer anyway, I'm happy to avoid that battle for now.

Angie- Well, I'm not 100% sure we did three, I think I thought 2 was the max allowed. They definitely were full rotations (no offense taken, lol) though. Do you know of the Frontier having a similar issue to the TF (as we found).

I've also been thinking that maybe I should try her seat in a different spot in the car. It's possible that the 2nd row will work better as the seats are a bit bigger. Unfortunately it's only a temporary solution as we can only fit one large seat in the 2nd row while still providing access to the 3rd row and Imogen (the youngest) is about to reach 40 lbs and her MA seat expires in Dec (and therefore we would need to belt her larger seat in as well).

Thanks everyone for the advice, this has seriously been driving me nuts!

First thing to verify is that you have 3 full twists. That little bit might be making a huge difference.

 

[bubbaray]

I'd bite the bullet and move her to a booster. You'll never be *ready*. Unless she has SN, there is no reason to not move her to a booster.

JMHO

 

[mamoomorgan]

I'd bite the bullet and move her to a booster. You'll never be *ready*. Unless she has SN, there is no reason to not move her to a booster.

JMHO

Really? She just turned 6 in March and isn't particularly big. It seriously never occurred to me to move her yet. I thought the consensus was to keep kids harnessed as long as possible.

 

[bubbaray]

I'm not at all convinced that a harnessed seat is safER than a booster for a child over age 5-ish and over 40lbs. Everything I've read is that (unless it is a special needs situation), both types of seats are at least equally safe. The Swedes may or may not (depending on your view) have some compelling reasons to go directly from a RFg seat to a booster.

I moved my DD#1 one month after she turned 5 and was just 40lbs. We did a couple of weeks of booster training in a borrowed Monterey. She did great. She was VERY motivated to get a pink seat. She always sits perfectly. She was able to buckle herself within a couple of weeks.

IIWM, I'd move her to a booster and not think twice about it. Some locally available boosters include the highback Turbo Booster, Parkway, Monterey.