3 car seats in an LR4?

[umbertob]

I am using the seatbelt for the center convertible seat (my 4-YO twin girls sit behind me and in the middle respectively, 9-YO daughter sits on the rear passenger side, no car seat or booster required anymore, so I have easy access to the third row.) The seat belt and upper anchor secure the seat just as firmly as LATCH, although they're certainly more of a pain to set up. As a matter of fact, most car seat manufacturers warn you against using LATCH past a certain weight and use lap-and-shoulder belts instead.

In fairness to Land Rover, I have yet to find a car manufacturer that installs LATCH anchors in the center seat position. My wife has a Ford FLEX which is a huge barge / mommymobile thing with an even larger and wider second row bench than the LR4, no LATCH in the center either. Perhaps it's a safety thing?

 

[baobay]

I am using the seatbelt for the center convertible seat (my 4-YO twin girls sit behind me and in the middle respectively, 9-YO daughter sits on the rear passenger side, no car seat or booster required anymore, so I have easy access to the third row.) The seat belt and upper anchor secure the seat just as firmly as LATCH, although they're certainly more of a pain to set up. As a matter of fact, most car seat manufacturers warn you against using LATCH past a certain weight and use lap-and-shoulder belts instead.

In fairness to Land Rover, I have yet to find a car manufacturer that installs LATCH anchors in the center seat position. My wife has a Ford FLEX which is a huge barge / mommymobile thing with an even larger and wider second row bench than the LR4, no LATCH in the center either. Perhaps it's a safety thing?

my Honda odyssey has latch in the middle seat and in the third row seats as well.

 

[umbertob]

Minivans don't count.

 

[Expat93]

Ever..,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LRNAD90]

In fairness to Land Rover, I have yet to find a car manufacturer that installs LATCH anchors in the center seat position. My wife has a Ford FLEX which is a huge barge / mommymobile thing with an even larger and wider second row bench than the LR4, no LATCH in the center either. Perhaps it's a safety thing?

Toyota Sequoia (at least the original generation did), but yeah, center LATCH is really hard to find, its ridiculous if you ask me..

 

[avus9]

kickingtires has this entire segment of "car seat check." The LR4 is just one of a handful that can fit 3 seats in the 2nd row and 2 in the 3rd.
More info here:
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/08/2013-land-rover-lr4-car-seat-check.html

 

[avus9]

Keep in mind that the LATCH guidelines have changed starting February 2014
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2014/01/february-brings-changes-to-latch-guidelines.html

 

[NASdiesel]

Keep in mind that the LATCH guidelines have changed starting February 2014
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2014/01/february-brings-changes-to-latch-guidelines.html

That is some great info that I would have otherwise never read. Kind of bummed we didn't wait until our kids were 4 to have another now.

 

[AceRider]

The seat belt and upper anchor secure the seat just as firmly as LATCH, although they're certainly more of a pain to set up

How? I tried installing the base to my newborn's basinette seat in the center two days ago and it move all over the place. The ratchet seat belt has like 0.25-0.5" ratchets, so it's very difficult to get it tight, even when pressing down on the base and trying to get one more ratchet to click.

It seems like the metal clip that comes with the car seat would help, but my seat's manual specifically says that's only for a specific type of belt, which I think is not what the LR4 uses.

I'm thinking of installing something in BACK of the center seat to which the latch system could clip onto. Haven't thought it through yet, but seems like it wouldn't be too hard.

 

[AceRider]

Keep in mind that the LATCH guidelines have changed starting February 2014
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2014/01/february-brings-changes-to-latch-guidelines.html

Interesting; I actually have always used BOTH the latch and the seatbelt. I wondered from the beginning exactly what weight limit those little tabs could hold and even though I assumed it was high, I thought adding the seatbelt to the securing mechanism as a backup couldn't hurt.