Today we installed our new Marathons in our vehicles, which are a 2004 Chevy Impala and a 1995 Mercury Villager. In the car we used the LATCH system and in the van we used the lap/shoulder belt with the automatic lock-offs. Both turned out to be awesome, rock-solid installs and I feel great about them. But there are tethering issues.
The car basically has no acceptable tether point for rear-facing. The track for adjusting the seat is bolted down flat against the carpet with no room to put the strap under (pics below). All other parts of the seat, including legs, slide along the track. We ended up using the metal bar that is attached to the passenger seat-belt buckle, which is bolted to the frame of the seat (used D-ring). It moves with the seat, but we positoned the seat to an optimal place, tightened the tether, and agreed never to adjust the seat (shouldn't ever be necessary). My question is, is this tether point worth a damn? Is it better to use the point we used, or not to use the rear-facing tether at all?
I couldn't get any good pics of where we attached the D-ring. Maybe tomorrow, but now it's dark out and I can't see where I'm pointing the camera. Here are the pics of the seat track/leg area.
Passenger seat, left side: (I can't move the seat foward now 'cause the D-rings already attached. But it's the same as the driver's, below)
Driver's seat, right side:
Okay, now about the van. The seat track/leg area of the van seats are even worse than the car, if that's possible! Once I looked under there, we didn't even try. But, there are these little bars on the floor that look exactly like the tether anchors that are behind the Impala's head rests for use with foward-facing seats. They are actually used for the sliding bench seat to latch onto when it's in the foward-most position, but we have the bench seat in the middle position. Like I said, these little bars look exactly like tether anchors and they're bolted to the floor so it's perfect for the rear-facing tether. But unfortunately, from the center of the bench seat, either one would be more than 45 degrees off from the center of the MA. So, the two options are: install in the center with the lap belt only, and no tether. Or, install outboard (behind driver) with the lap/shoulder belt and auto lock-offs, and tether. Basically I'm nervous about DS being outboard, but if he's center then he can't be tethered. Got it? lol!
Please advise. I'm stressing out about both situations.
The car basically has no acceptable tether point for rear-facing. The track for adjusting the seat is bolted down flat against the carpet with no room to put the strap under (pics below). All other parts of the seat, including legs, slide along the track. We ended up using the metal bar that is attached to the passenger seat-belt buckle, which is bolted to the frame of the seat (used D-ring). It moves with the seat, but we positoned the seat to an optimal place, tightened the tether, and agreed never to adjust the seat (shouldn't ever be necessary). My question is, is this tether point worth a damn? Is it better to use the point we used, or not to use the rear-facing tether at all?
I couldn't get any good pics of where we attached the D-ring. Maybe tomorrow, but now it's dark out and I can't see where I'm pointing the camera. Here are the pics of the seat track/leg area.
Passenger seat, left side: (I can't move the seat foward now 'cause the D-rings already attached. But it's the same as the driver's, below)
Driver's seat, right side:
Okay, now about the van. The seat track/leg area of the van seats are even worse than the car, if that's possible! Once I looked under there, we didn't even try. But, there are these little bars on the floor that look exactly like the tether anchors that are behind the Impala's head rests for use with foward-facing seats. They are actually used for the sliding bench seat to latch onto when it's in the foward-most position, but we have the bench seat in the middle position. Like I said, these little bars look exactly like tether anchors and they're bolted to the floor so it's perfect for the rear-facing tether. But unfortunately, from the center of the bench seat, either one would be more than 45 degrees off from the center of the MA. So, the two options are: install in the center with the lap belt only, and no tether. Or, install outboard (behind driver) with the lap/shoulder belt and auto lock-offs, and tether. Basically I'm nervous about DS being outboard, but if he's center then he can't be tethered. Got it? lol!
Please advise. I'm stressing out about both situations.
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