Having an issue with a rfing RA55 in 01 Corolla!

[AnnieW625]

We have installed the RA55 rfing in the Corolla and it is not tight at all. DH did it with latch, and with the belt, but neither way is tight so we have more than 1" of movement on the seat (we didn't have this issue with the Evenflo). DH says the seat is fully reclined. Part of the issue he thinks is because he doesn't have a rear facing tether spot except if that you use the spot that you would use when ffing the seat. I could still use it but the straps would be over DDs head. She has a good year to 18 mos. rear facing time in the seat do I really want to make it work:)

Any tips or suggestions?

[legaleagle]

Have you tried threading the LATCH strap tails back into the center of the seat (through the slits for the beltpath)? Way easier to tighten from that angle I've found.

[legaleagle]

Oh, one other thing I've found helpful for recalcitrant seats is to install it as tightly as you can, let it sit for a couple days to squish the car's seat's foam, and then try to tighten again.

[Joolsplus2]

I wonder if it's just all Toyotas of that vintage that are hard to find a tether spot? My 2003 Prius, I had to push the seat all the way forward and tether toward the front of the front seat. Of course I made sure it wouldn't move back and forth and cut the tether connector strap/D-ring, but still, it involved getting on my knees and digging around quite a bit to find a place. Yeah, try pulling the LATCH up through the cover, there are so many nice flaps and slits in that cover, it should be easy, I'd think.

[AnnieW625]

Wendy over on car-seat.org posted a link to the Swedish method, which is what we did with our Pilot, but the Corolla doesn't have any removable plastic so I think I will try pushing the seat all the way forward and seeing if I can do that. I'll update tonight when DH gets home.

I can't wait to get a new car, but that is a year away.

[legaleagle]

The seat is supposed to be tightly installed before you hook up the tether though. Also you could brace if you wanted with a 2001 car - not sure if that's better/worse/just different than rf'ing tethering.

[Joolsplus2]

The seat is supposed to be tightly installed before you hook up the tether though. Also you could brace if you wanted with a 2001 car - not sure if that's better/worse/just different than rf'ing tethering.

Bracing prevents downward rotation (the first part of a frontal crash, when the child suddenly 'weighs' 600 pounds of force), swedish tethering prevents rebound (the bounce back part when you want to keep their head from slamming into the seatback...which isn't as bad as it sounds, injury wise, for kids who are in their harness properly, the forces are really pretty minimal, but it's still good to minimize).

Annie, I saw what Wendy posted, I knew you already knew all that stuff from being here :jammin:

[Multimama]

The seat is supposed to be tightly installed before you hook up the tether though.

:yeahthat: I don't know the other conversations that have gone on, but from reading here it sounds as if you want to use the tether to get a tight install. The seat needs to be tight before you install the tether.

(ETA: Sorry, no tips on how to do it other than what other people have shared.)

[AnnieW625]

Thanks for all of the tips. We did the latch again and pulled it up through the slots like it was suggested and it got the seat plenty right. I did have to push the front passenger seat up far enough to find a tether spot but finally found one at the end of the seat carriage. It wasn't as easy as my Pilot, but it worked.

[Joolsplus2]

Cool! So glad it all worked out :)