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mommy2threekiddos
11-14-2005, 06:02 PM
I have been waiting for the new Apex booster/car seat to come out so that I can keep my 4 year old 5-point harnessed. I currently have 3 kids 4 & under and all have been in the Britex roundabout. My twins still fit (37" & 33#) in the RA. The bigger Britaxs were not available when they 2were born (if they had been, I would have bought them and not had this dilemma). ANYWAY I just couldn't see spending another $750 for 3 new Britaxs, so I've been waiting for an alternative, and now the Apex is finally out.

Yipee, I went and bought 2 at BRU today (I can definitely tell a difference in ease of use compared to the Britaxs, but I'm willing to put up with that to a certain extent due to the less than half the price thing (with my twins discount at BRU, they were only $116). HOWEVER, I had trouble tightening the harness straps (I put each seat in different cars and had trouble tightening in both cars). According to the manual, these seats are made for kids as small as 34" and 22#, so you would think I would have no problem tightening the straps for a 33# toddler and a 40# boy. Does anyone have a clue as to why this is or how to deal with it. The straps are not super loose, but I can definitely get it to a point and then it doesn't seem to tighten anymore. I know these are new seats, so I don't know how many people are going to have experience with this, but any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I couldn't get the LATCH tight enough to use in the car that has LATCH. I was finally able to get the seat tight enough using the seat belt, but the whole LATCH thing was basically useless. What's up with that?

Finally, One of my Britax RAs is not LATCH equipped, but I am giving it to my aunt who has LATCH in her car. Can I buy the LATCH separately from the seat and retrofit my RA with a LATCH?

Thanks to anyone who can help with these questions and thanks for hanging in with my long winded post.

Janelle

Joolsplus2
11-15-2005, 12:12 PM
Nope, no LATCH retrofit kit for Britaxes, but you know how easy (and safe!) the seatbelt install is with the RA, so don't sweat it.

I haven't used a Cosco Latch strap yet that was 'easy', so I think it's just a flaw in their rather minimal strap design (glorified lapbelt, anyone? lol)... Fortunately, most of their seats are quite seatbelt friendly, too, so I'm glad you had some luck with that.

As for the harness tightening...See the third picture down on the extreme right? http://photobucket.com/albums/y247/cpsnisi/Cosco%20Safety%201st%20Apex/?action=options I wonder if your splitter plate is getting snagged on the vehicle seat cushion and that's making it impossible to tighten? Sometimes moving the harness up to the next slots up will pull the splitter plate out of the 'crush zone' there between the carseat and vehicle seat, but take it out and loosen and tighten a number of times to make sure you can't see any other issues back there.

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