RA 55 or SK 65SL

[BabyBearsMom]

I am in the market for a new car seat and trying to decide between the RA 55 and Radian 65SL (I just looked at my title and decided it looks like I am writing in code). I want to spend around $200. On the one hand, I have a Boulevard and love it, so I am inclined toward the Britaxes. But, I like the idea of the extra 10 lbs in the Radian and find the Super Latch very appealing. I have a Honda Odyssey so either should fit in the car. DD is very tall (90th percentile) so that is also making the Radian seem appealing. What would you experts recommend?

[twowhat?]

We have the older Radian 65s but had our girls sit in the older Roundabout 50 in our car to compare (We also have an Odyssey). Radian has significantly more leg room, if that's a concern for you. A 2 years old and 50th %tile for both weight and height, the girls are still very comfortable and only need to bend their knees slightly.

I don't know about the newer Britaxes though...

[Joolsplus2]

I sure loved both of them in my Ody, lol. The Radian was so nice and low and easy to climb into and offered so much more legroom...well... I guess I might go with that. Though it does have more of a learning curve to install it, and I keep hearing that it loosens itself when installed with LATCH (the kids' feet are right on the adjuster on the LATCH belt, depending on the car and length of the belt, I guess). Flip a coin? That extra height is tempting, though. My 44"/41lb almost 5 yo could still be RF in hers if I had a newer one :boogie:

[mommylamb]

I'm partial to Radians. We have a Radian65 in our primary car and a Marathon in our lesser used car and I much prefer the radian. I like that it's slimmer and that it looks more like a big kid seat because I'm hoping he'll be more willing to stay in it longer, knowing that everyone I know IRL will move their kids to boosters as soon as they can (:shrug: don't know why).

[twowhat?]

I sure loved both of them in my Ody, lol. The Radian was so nice and low and easy to climb into and offered so much more legroom...well... I guess I might go with that. Though it does have more of a learning curve to install it, and I keep hearing that it loosens itself when installed with LATCH (the kids' feet are right on the adjuster on the LATCH belt, depending on the car and length of the belt, I guess). Flip a coin? That extra height is tempting, though. My 44"/41lb almost 5 yo could still be RF in hers if I had a newer one :boogie:

Hmm...well in our experience, we have not had to tighten the seats, not even once, since they were installed RF using LATCH more than one year ago! I can still rock the van by tugging on the seat:) But I do agree that if you are planning on moving seats around or using for travel, the Britax is a much easier install. We knew that once our seats were installed, they'd stay that way unless we needed to adjust harness height, wash covers, etc. So that's part of why we ended up with the Radians.

[BabyBearsMom]

Thanks everyone, I think I am going to go with the Radian. We have a Scenara for a travel seat, so this would be permanently latched into my van. I will report back on whether or not the latch loosens. Thanks for all the input.

[arivecchi]

Pros:

Radian: solid, low profile, tons of room to grow, narrow, high rear facing weight limit

Britax: easy to inbstall, easy to adjust harness, super comfy

Cons:

Radian: occupies lots of room front to back, installation learning curve, difficult to adjust harness

Britax: higher seat (more difficult to load/unload kids), not as much legroom, lower harness height, lower RFing weight limits than some Radian models

I dont know what the RFing weight limit is for the new Roundabout 55.

[Joolsplus2]

Hmm...well in our experience, we have not had to tighten the seats, not even once, since they were installed RF using LATCH more than one year ago! I can still rock the van by tugging on the seat:) But I do agree that if you are planning on moving seats around or using for travel, the Britax is a much easier install. We knew that once our seats were installed, they'd stay that way unless we needed to adjust harness height, wash covers, etc. So that's part of why we ended up with the Radians.

Do you have the SL version? (Have they even been out that long?) The old IMMI straps never, ever had that problem, it's the SL's--SuplerLatch-- that are a proprietary Sunshine Kids-made product that seems to have the design flaw, and are the only choice available now.

[twowhat?]

Do you have the SL version? (Have they even been out that long?) The old IMMI straps never, ever had that problem, it's the SL's--SuplerLatch-- that are a proprietary Sunshine Kids-made product that seems to have the design flaw, and are the only choice available now.

That makes sense now. We have the old Radian 65s but that have the recent enough DOMs to RF to 40 pounds.