Did anyone else need to put a towel under their Snugride base?

[veronica]

I am a soon to be mom and my husband and I have two bases for our Snugride. We tried to put them in this weekend-he has a Ford Explorer Sporttrac and I have a Vovlo S60 both with Latch. Well, we started in his car and the level indicator showed a small amount of orange. We followed the instructions and changed the seat's recline and still had to change it to the last recline setting. We STILL had a line (less than a millimeter of orange) and were forced to put a towl under the base as per the instructions. We thought it was the truck but soon had the same thing in the Volvo.

Now, when the seat is put on the base it just looks like the baby will be almost vertical and not that reclined at all. We are afraid if we go uphill, the baby could totally slump forward? Did anyone else go through this?

We are thinking that maybe we tightened them too much because my husband was really pushing on the seat and tightenting the strap like he was superman-could this have been over the top?

Also-do you put the baby behind the driver or passenger side-we are getting a ton of conflicting reports on this as well!!!

HELP

[Joolsplus2]

I have used a LOT of towels, pool noodles, 'levelers', rolls of papertowels (they work great, lol!) to try to get Snugride bases in so the seat is reclined enough... probably most of my SR installs required a little 'something' extra to get them installed right :)

I know it looks upright, but once the little window is all blue, you are pretty well assured that it'll be a fine recline, and baby's head won't tip forward (of course the harness will be tight, and the chest clip will be on the sternum, right below the chin, at armpit level, holding the body back very well). Occassionally a parent does have to 'over'recline the seat, according to the level, because it's possible the window was stuck on wrong, and the head is flopping forward, but don't do that until you KNOW it's a problem. Here's a newborn in a zillion seats (what a patient little model she was..not my kid, lol), just to give you an idea of what you're going to be looking at. http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/5lbnewborn.html Sorry I don't have more 'installed snugride' pictures!
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[Joolsplus2]

Oh, and as for "which side is safest"... there is zero difference, statistically. I've heard every reason for why any given side might be safer, and they all make common sense, but in the grand scheme of things, there's it really doesn't matter: ANY seat in the back is VERY safe (a full 40% safer than the front). (of course, the center is further from the side in a side impact, but statistically, again, there's no difference)

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

[becca13]

We had to put a towel under ours in our Passat, we installed the seat in the middle. I felt the same way and actually ended up with a pool noodle cut in half under the base (closest to the automobile's seat-back) to get it levelled properly. The rolled up towel kept sliding out.

[nfowife]

I have a combi carseat but when I visited my in laws they borrowed a friend's snugride for us to use and it did seem much more upright than my combi (both professionally installed and check by techs). But my DD had no problems in it, so I would say it might just be the design of the seat, don't worry! Have you had it checked just to be sure?

[skohng]

we had ours checked with a seat tech and got the styrofoam thingies put under the base with no problem - we also have a volvo. we put the baby in the middle. i hear that's the safest?? have you gotten your seat checked? that raelly put our minds at ease.