Child Safety Seat

[Lyon]

Oh, and I just checked the LR3's manual and it says not to use a baby seat in the middle with the LATCH system. You can still use the regular seat-belt.


Looks like I'm the one who learned something today! I'm glad JP won't be rolling around unsafe anymore.

 

[toddjb122]

I stuck our chicco in the middle today to give it a try.
Just used the selt belt w/ no issues. (base has lock for shoulder strap).

It worked nice and allowed the other seats to recline which will be nice for car trips.

I agree w/ grommet on not using the LATCH posts other than how they were intended...but, FWIW, I tried and it wouldn't reach. It does seem like it could be more lateral force than they were intended for.

 

[Lyon]

I stuck our chicco in the middle today to give it a try.
Just used the selt belt w/ no issues. (base has lock for shoulder strap).

It worked nice and allowed the other seats to recline which will be nice for car trips.

I agree w/ grommet on not using the LATCH posts other than how they were intended...but, FWIW, I tried and it wouldn't reach. It does seem like it could be more lateral force than they were intended for.

Yes, the reclining thing was pretty much why I put it in the middle... that and because it made the passenger seat pretty much have to be in the dashboard.

 

[Ethan Hunt]

Sorry I havent replied in a few days. Are son was actually born yesterday 3/9/08 at 6:30pm and man am I exhausted.

So from what I'm understanding I shouldnt use the center anchoring spots. I guess I will try the seat belt thing tonight. What would help me most is if one of you guys could post some sample pictures of the proper way to do this.

Thanks guys and sorry for rambling I'm out of it right now.

 

[richpike]

Sorry I havent replied in a few days. Are son was actually born yesterday 3/9/08 at 6:30pm and man am I exhausted.

So from what I'm understanding I shouldnt use the center anchoring spots. I guess I will try the seat belt thing tonight. What would help me most is if one of you guys could post some sample pictures of the proper way to do this.

Thanks guys and sorry for rambling I'm out of it right now.

Perfect timing - we just test fit our carrier and base in the LR3 tonight. I didn't take any pictures, but I think I can explain it well enough through words.

First - did you get a base with your car seat? If so, that is what we used too. When you look at the base you should see a spot near the back of it (closest to the seat back) where you run the seat belt through. Next, you want to pull the seat belt out until it will no longer come out any further. The LR3 has a neat feature where the seat belt has a built in ratchet system for using the carrier with a seat belt - it is activated by pulling the seat belt all the way out until it stops. When it is activated, the seat belt will only retract, it can't be pulled out at all (you can reset it by allowing the seat belt to retract all the way). After you pull it all the way out, route the seat belt through the base (you should probably read the instructions on how to route it specific to your base or safety seat) - click it in.

At this point you will have a lot of slack in the seat belt - start allowing the seat belt to "ratchet" back in - once you get it to the point where there is very little slack left, I found it easiest to push down on the baby seat base while I pulled up on the portion of the seat belt just above the latch. Don't pull on the entire seat belt - you just want the portion on the top of the latch that goes back to the top ratchet spot (the latch creates a pivot point where when you pull on the top belt it will tighten down the bottom portion and pull the base in to the seat and make it extremely strong).

Hopefully this makes sense - it took us a couple tries to get it in to a point where I was happy.

Oh - one last hint. If you are using a base, make sure you test fit it and the baby seat together before you tighten it down. Ours had a little extender that you were suppose to use to get it to sit at the correct angle. We put the base in and hooked it in only to then realize that it wasn't at the correct angle. That's what I get for reading the directions after we installed it

-Rich

Edit: I can't believe I totally forgot to say CONGRATS!!!!!!

 

[Lyon]

Congratulations! That's fantastic news!

 

[Ethan Hunt]

Thank you very much guys. I will take your advice Rich and try out your suggestion when I head back out to the hospital tomorrow morning. If I'm successful I will post pics so if anyone needs help with this in the future they can reference this thread. I also found this link that might be helpful.

http://www.gracobaby.com/customerservice/instructions_category.aspx?catID=1

Click on the animated flash link.