What's next car seat for 40 pounds?

[Tenasparkl]

I'm a recent convert to the Diono seats. I like how narrow they are. We bought a Rainier for my DS when the Evenflo Triumph hand me down from DD was set to expire and we just love it. I love that it can rear face for such a long time and can be used as a booster too. He's going to be in that seat for a LONG time.

[Joolsplus2]

I'm a recent convert to the Diono seats. I like how narrow they are. We bought a Rainier for my DS when the Evenflo Triumph hand me down from DD was set to expire and we just love it. I love that it can rear face for such a long time and can be used as a booster too. He's going to be in that seat for a LONG time.

Unfortunately though, the Dionos make fairly lousy boosters You can't even use it till 50 pounds, by which time most kids are too tall for the harnesss and almost too tall for the whole seat (especiaally if you have headwings, those make the top height limit a lot lower simply by not allowing the shoulders up very high). And then the belts tend to get stuck in the belt guides, so the shoulderbelt will stay loose after a kiddo leans forward. IIHS gives some of the models poor ratings for poor belt fit, too. Otherwise, I'm a fan of the rearfacing-ness and narrowness, though! And you can't beat the solid feel and quality of it. It was by far one of my favorite seats (out of literally dozens of seats over 15 years, lol).

[Tenasparkl]

Unfortunately though, the Dionos make fairly lousy boosters You can't even use it till 50 pounds, by which time most kids are too tall for the harnesss and almost too tall for the whole seat (especiaally if you have headwings, those make the top height limit a lot lower simply by not allowing the shoulders up very high). And then the belts tend to get stuck in the belt guides, so the shoulderbelt will stay loose after a kiddo leans forward. IIHS gives some of the models poor ratings for poor belt fit, too. Otherwise, I'm a fan of the rearfacing-ness and narrowness, though! And you can't beat the solid feel and quality of it. It was by far one of my favorite seats (out of literally dozens of seats over 15 years, lol).

Good to know. My DS is pretty far from needing it for a booster (just turned 3) so maybe we'll have to reconsider it when we get to that point.

[meljc]

Oh yeah, too many Evenflos that start with a "T", lol.
Secure Kid is a good choice, that one (at Amazon) is the model that has SureLatch for a super easy installation (the Newest BRU model only has LATCH connectors like you're used to, and less butt padding), and you can use the LATCH till 50 pounds, by which time your kids will definitely be in booster mode, and and you can just take out the harness and keep using it for a little longer before going to a backless. So probably three years or so out of a $107 seat, that's a pretty good deal. Frontier would take up more room, specifically right where their knees go into the front seatbacks, in that car. If they have ample room currently, it should fit fine. Becomes a taller booster later, should easily last till 10, might not even need a backless after that.

I don't get why the ones at BRU got downgraded, perhaps to make room for the 3-in-1. We also have the Platinum version (got on trade in, using gift cards) and it's even nicer than the DLX ($86 on Amazon)! I anticipate that my son will fit until ~8yo (but he's only 30th percentile), but at some point we'll pass it down to his little sister. We should be able to get the full 6yrs of use, plus it's nice and light for travel. Now if only the extended the expiration to 8yrs...

[Sunspot]

Thank you everyone for your fast help. Jools, I was looking at the Evenflo SecureKid DLX for $106.77 on Amazon and wanted to make sure a harnessed booster is as safe as the convertible that would go to 65 pounds? Is one preferred over the other? I want to keep the twins harnessed for as long as possible and noticed all the reviews were good but some complained the harness was tight for kids four and older and they ended up using the seatbelt booster? Just wondering if anyone had any experiences or if it should be ok. The twins are 50 percentile so not super tall or small.

Again, thank you! I appreciate everyone's recommendations and help!

[Sunspot]

Even if I have to buy another booster later is there a similar car seat with higher weight that would be recommend if harness is a problem on SecureKid? The reason I ask is that because we rarely travelled by car, the twins are not used to riding and I'm pretty certain they are not mature enough to use a booster and just a seatbelt.

Again, thank you!

[Joolsplus2]

Any seat with a harness forward facing has the same safety, so no need to pay for the rearfacing ability of a convertible.
The only complaint I've heard on the harness of the Evenflo among carseat educated people is that the straps tend to be a tad close together on much bigger kids' necks. The crotch strap is deeper than the Nautilus, which is one reason I rarely recommend the Nauti, it's so tight a lot of carseat-uneducated people will unharness a lot sooner when their kids complain. (Argos 80 Elite DOES have a deeper spot). Frontier is super duper roomy, kids can cross their legs, straps aren't on the neck... but it can be incredibly challenging to buckle in booster mode. Kids definitely need to be a good sized 7 year old with long arms and dexterity to be able to manage leaning over to get that beast buckled. SK is a little more slender, should be easy enough to buckle at 5-6 if the harness gets uncomfortably snug.

[meljc]

Thank you everyone for your fast help. Jools, I was looking at the Evenflo SecureKid DLX for $106.77 on Amazon and wanted to make sure a harnessed booster is as safe as the convertible that would go to 65 pounds? Is one preferred over the other? I want to keep the twins harnessed for as long as possible and noticed all the reviews were good but some complained the harness was tight for kids four and older and they ended up using the seatbelt booster? Just wondering if anyone had any experiences or if it should be ok. The twins are 50 percentile so not super tall or small.

Again, thank you! I appreciate everyone's recommendations and help!

Here's a helpful review from the experts :-) Check the "Fit to Child" section.
http://carseatblog.com/16523/evenflo...ination-seats/

[Sunspot]

Another big thank you to everyone on this thread. I just ordered the securekid dlx and think it will work well for us based on reviews and your suggestions.

[Joolsplus2]

Post back when you get them, I really hope they work out!