Home rear facing carseat stability tethers

[ponder]

Yesterday afternoon DH and I installed our new Britax carseats in our cars and my moms. No problem with the latch installation, but after reading the directions and referencing our car manuals we think we have the stability tethers installed properly.

But they are a PITA. They make it difficult to put her in the seat and tighten the straps and if she leans forward her head touches them.

Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone else use them? Should we wait until she is forward facing to use them?

Any experience or suggestions please!

 

[lover in athens]

i''m not sure, but i THINK that with rear facing, the correct way to install the tethers is to use a loop/cord/D-ring around an arbitrary anchor point on one of the front seats and then attach the stability tether to that. it prevents the seat from flipping upwards (towards the back seat since it''s rear facing) in the event of an accident. we loop the d-ring around the base of the front seat (where it would slide forward/backwards when it''s adjusted.

i''m not positive, but i don''t think you want to use the "LATCH" tethers on the back seat for a rear-facing install...

HTH...

 

[lover in athens]

oops, just wanted to clarify a little... if you''re using the tether like i suggested, make sure you loop it around something "structural" in the car (not just around a seat cushion or headrest or something. that''s why they suggest looping it around the part of the front seat that is attached to the floorboards of the car.

you apparently CAN tether to the LATCH behind the backseat (what i think you''ve done) safely. of course, as you wrote, it creates a big pain for taking the kiddo in and out of the seat. if you attach it that way, it apparently helps with the initial impact should you be in an accident, but if you do it the other way (to the front seat), it helps with rebound...


don''t know if i''m helping or just confusing you more! sorry!

 

[cara]

Take it in to get it checked. I think firehouses do this, maybe other places? You might research free safety checks on carseats for your area. Tgal seems to be a bit of the ps carseat-nazi, and I think she says most people misinstall the carseats or they at least need to be tweaked a little bit. Can''t hurt to get the pros to look at it and give you the thumbs up.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 3/14/2010 2:03:17 PM
Author: cara
Take it in to get it checked. I think firehouses do this, maybe other places? You might research free safety checks on carseats for your area. Tgal seems to be a bit of the ps carseat-nazi, and I think she says most people misinstall the carseats or they at least need to be tweaked a little bit. Can't hurt to get the pros to look at it and give you the thumbs up.

Yep, fire departments check to see if car seats are installed properly. That's your best bet.

 

[cpster]

I got mine checked at the fire station. Call ahead to make an appointment. The certified technician that checked ours was super surprised that ours didn't need any tweaking. She told me that 90% of the folks that bother to come in need help. Even though ours didn't need tweaking, I learned a lot during the consultation.

 

[ponder]

After doing some research online, I found that Britax is the only manufacturer that recommends and that you can safely use tethers in the rear facing position. (I guess this is why I have never seen tethers used in a rear facing seat).

After some discussion DH and I are going to remove the tethers until forward facing. The seat is very securely attached by the latch system. I am actually really impressed that there is no movement of the seat at all.

The tethers in the rear facing position make it so difficult to put her in the seat that I am afraid they make it less safe bc it is so difficult to secure the straps tight enough.

Athens, thanks for your help. We installed the tethers over the back of the seat per the carseat and car manual instructions, and it is a huge PITA. I read about anchoring the tether infront of the seat online, but that is not an approved method for my seat.

I know there is a fire station locally that can check seats. I will call to make an appt.

Thanks All!

 

[ponder]

AHHH! This is so confusing! After looking some more, other safety sites indicate that I can tether my carseat infront. I guess I need to call Britax.

 

[Blenheim]

We had a certified carseat tech help us with our installs, and she didn't even mention tethering our RFing Britax. I was rereading the manual a while later and noticed that they recommend the tethering. But then when I ran into the problems that you mention trying to tether the seat, I just decided that if the manual doesn't say you have to tether them and the tech didn't even mention it, then we'd just wait until we switch to FFing to use the tethers.

It really wouldn't hurt to get them checked out by a carseat tech though. We had other installation issues that we weren't even aware of.

ETA - we have the Roundabout, and our instruction manual says that you can tehter in front.

 

[kennedy]

Our certified technician actually told us NOT to use the tethers in the rear facing position. She said in the rear facing position, using the tethers is not safe as it prevents the seat from having enough give to absorb some of the impact in the event of an accident. I second consulting with a certified technician just so you know for sure that it''s correctly installed. Good luck! I''ve always found carseat installation rather stressful.