Child Safety Seat

[richpike]

Hey guys, congratulations on the upcoming babies. I'm ahead of you, our twin girls are now 4 1/2. Seems like they were born yesterday. Time really flies when you're a parent. We used some Graco baby base with the pull-out bucket. Not even sure what it was, but we bought it at Toys-are-us and the bucket snapped into a double stroller. Then we bought an Audi Q7 with head rests that are angled forward and not adjustable. Had to really search for compatible toddler seats and found elitecarseats.com with the help of other Q7 forum parents. What a great place to buy car seats. Top notch products, excellent reviews and very knowledgable staff. We ended up buying Recaro Young Sport toddler seats that meet European side impact protection standards. Far better than any car seat I have seen at a retail store. See what elitecarseats.com has for newborns. Good luck with the upcoming arrivals!

Sweet - I would love a Recaro baby seat just for the fact that it is a Recaro We'll have to look them up when he outgrows his infant seat.

-Rich

 

[PaulLR3]

I found the seat pad/protector we have been using for the past 4 1/2 years. Works great.
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=325778&cmSource=Search

 

[DonA]

Interesting. The latest models (Britax Companion) didn't fare well in Consumer Reports Crash Tests and they also got a rating of B- by our baby research book. The Graco Snugride with EPS got an A rating and was only one of two infant seats to pass ALL of Consumer Reports crash tests in 2007.

-Rich

It sounds like you have your mind made up on the Graco and that seat sounds great. My kids are 4 & 8 when I bought my kids seats Britax was the seat to have hands down and I can vouch for the quality of construction having owned 5 of them.

The B- rating in Consumer Reports article was the result of when they tested it without the tether strap and found that the infants head moved farther forward than the standards allowed. They then explain that if the tether is used the performance of the seat improves.

My question with this test is if you went to the trouble of buying an expensive seat & strap in your kids why would anyone neglect to hook up the tether?, I think its pretty safe to assume if you don't properly install the seat meaning all straps & tethers fastened it will not perform as well and could actually be dangerous.

Anyway congrats on the new arrival and lets hope none of us ever end up testing the performance of a child seat in an actual collision.

 

[bLuLRIII]

Britex Marathon is the most verstile. I have 2. very well built and Britex knows what they are doing....they make Seats...
Land Rover is an off road vehicle, they dont make compact cars.
Britex makes car seats, they dont make cribs.

 

[bLuLRIII]

I..

 

[tommithy]

I only put my kids in Britax seats. There is plenty of info about them online.

The LR3 LATCH connectors are the easiest I've seen to snap into.

http://www.britaxusa.com/

I second this. Britax are the ONLY seats to put your kid in. I have one for my son.

 

[rufresnel]

3 in the middle

We had a 2005 LR3 with the black interior. We were running 2 Britax marathons on the sides with a Graco carrier in the middle It was cramped for sure but they actually did fit.
Some indentations in the leather after we took them out but nothing real bad when we sold it.
Congrats and good luck.

 

[richpike]

My question with this test is if you went to the trouble of buying an expensive seat & strap in your kids why would anyone neglect to hook up the tether?, I think its pretty safe to assume if you don't properly install the seat meaning all straps & tethers fastened it will not perform as well and could actually be dangerous.

Totally agree - I think their main concern is that people either:

A. Get lazy (which is terrible - it is your child's safety!)
B. Don't understand how to install a safety seat. I think this is probably more common, and it is also unfortunate (take the 30 minutes to learn how to install it properly ).

Anyway congrats on the new arrival and lets hope none of us ever end up testing the performance of a child seat in an actual collision.

Amen. And I hope you didn't think I was jumping down your throat - just stating the research we had found.

-Rich

 

[rirover]

We are out of the newborn stage by a little over a year and had to choose new child seats. We ended up going with all Britax (wifes LR3, my F350, and grandma's CRV).

My question is this. In the LR3, the top of the childseat hits on the headrest. I looked through the manual and can't find how to remove the headrest, any ideas? Without the headrest removed, the seat really does not fit well.

This is with a forward facing Britax marathon in the center position.

Dan

 

[bLuLRIII]

We are out of the newborn stage by a little over a year and had to choose new child seats. We ended up going with all Britax (wifes LR3, my F350, and grandma's CRV).

My question is this. In the LR3, the top of the childseat hits on the headrest. I looked through the manual and can't find how to remove the headrest, any ideas? Without the headrest removed, the seat really does not fit well.

This is with a forward facing Britax marathon in the center position.

Dan

There are many discussions on this forum on how to remove the head reasts. Its really easy.