Would you use your MA RF with LATCH?

[MarisaSF]

Wow. LATCH rocks. It is so easy. I found it in MIL's car the other day and was amazed.

However, according to CR, the MA was only "Fair" in "Fit to vehicle" with LATCH RF.
So I kept the seatbelt in place.

Can I use both seatbelt and LATCH?
If I use the VersaTether, would you trust the LATCH without the seatbelt?

[Joolsplus2]

Use the LATCH, skip the seatbelt and don't worry a lick :) Really, the LATCH in a real car is perfectly safe...the test bench CR uses had a slight over rotation of the car seat, but the dummy stayed contained and protected, so there's really not an issue.

Of course, you are using a proper LATCH position? That is, don't use the center seat with LATCH unless the car manual specifically says it is a LATCH position.

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[MarisaSF]

Thanks! We've got the MA outboard per car manual (05 Prius).

Julie, one more question... do you recommend the over-head "Australian" top-tether method for a RF LATCH seat? I can't find a proper anchor point for the "Swedish" method in the Prius. So it's Aussie or nothing. Thoughts?

[kellyotn]

I'm not Julie :-), but check out this site to find a location.

http://www.angelfire.com/wa3/isakswings/ratetherrf.html

I used the front seat belt anchor. (The part that's bolted down to hold the front passenger's seat belt.) Just schooched the seat belt over a bit and cliped the tether clasp there.

HTH
kelly

[MarisaSF]

That's a cool site, Kelly. Thanks. I was able to do that with one our cars, but the Prius has absolutly NO place to tether the seat on the front seats. Every solidly anchored place would interfere with the back-forth movement of the seats.

Any "Aussie" method users? It seems to work fine, but I'm not sure it's adding anything. The one potential annoyance is getting DD in and out, but she's still small. The advantage is I can hang soft toys off the clothesline-like straps!

[stonecali]

Thanks, Julie - I had the same questions as the OP. Do you think the MA RF installed with LATCH is safe without tethering?

[Joolsplus2]

I had to climb SO FAR under the front seats of my 2003 Prius to find a place to tether... The seat track between the front of the seat and the back of the seat was reachable since I was SO persistent...and it took me three or 4 times on my knees, digging around under there to find a place! :P. But Australian is fine, as long as it's not a massive inconvenience.

To the PP, yes, it's safe to not be tethered when RF with LATCH, but it IS preferable and recommended to tether, so really look hard...sometimes it looks like the seat track is attached to the carpet, but you can thread the D-ring in between...or you can pop off some of the plastic leg coverings from the front seats, or you can tie the D-ring around the front seatbelt anchor... just so long as the point you find is solid metal and not moving anywhere. So far, only a few cars have stymied me so bad I couldn't tether them... An older BMW or two, and a Subaru (but I figured it out the next time I saw one, thanks to a mom on this board who shared how she tethered in her Subaru :))
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx