Should the seat be able to flip forward in RF?

[amldaley]

This is so stupid and I ca not believe I am asking this, but...

DH just installed the BV RF in our Jeep Liberty. He used latch (yea! Nice and tight!) But when I picked up the back of the seat, I could flip the whole thing up and forward towards the seat it is facing.

Is that supposed to happen? Is that what the rear tether is for??? And why must I ALWAYS freakin' inspect his work????? (Remember our Co-Sleeper incident???)

[amldaley]

Resolved. Told him to go back out there and figure it out. It was the rear tether. That seat is not going anywhere now!

[bubbaray]

Its called cocooning and yes, RFg seats do that. THere is some debate whether RFg tethers and anti-rebound bars (which prevent cocooning) reduce the effectiveness of RFg seats. AFAIK, there aren't any studies comparing crash stats on RFg seats without RFg tethers and with. Anecdotally, Swedish seats usually have antirebound bars and they have insanely low crash stats. So, I dunno.

Cocooning is also a reason why many infant buckets require the handle to be in the fully down position while the vehicle is moving (b/c the handle breaks when the seat cocoons). NOT ALL infant seats have had issues with this and more now specifically allow handles to be upright.

FYI, your RFg tether shouldn't be super tight. Same when you tether a FFg seat. You want the tether strap secure but not as tight as you can get it. It shouldn't be used to affect your install.

[PAfirsttimemom]

Melisssa, how do you know if the tether is too tight?

[bubbaray]

I tighten mine just enough to take out the slack.