30 pound, 1and a half year old

[Laura]

My son is on the tall side (and heavy). I am considering the Britax Husky or Marathon. Any thoughts over the preference. We need a second car seat for our new Honda Pilot. Our original is the Cosco Alpha Omega and he fits perfect in it for now. So he needs to remain harnessed for quite a while longer. My question is will he outgrow the Marathon (given that he is going to be a fairly tall guy) and would I need to buy a booster then? The Marathon just seems more geared for the toddler and not preschooler (like the Husky)Or if I get the Husky, I am afraid he is too small to really be safe (it is soooo HUGE). I suppose I would like to buy just one seat that will carry him through. By the way, am I correct in that with the Husky, you can only use the harness and not seat belts? Does this mean that you would harness in an 80 pound kid?? That seems unrealistic to me.........safer I am sure, but unrealistic...Thanks.

[hooahmama]

Laura,

Perhaps this won't be much help, but we just purchased the Britax Husky as a seat for my 3 year old son to be used exclusively in our conversion van. We chose it because of the exceptionally high weight range for a harnessed seat, because our {older} conversion van has lap-only belts in the rear seats.

I thought I would just give you our opinion since we have been recently shopping for (and using one of) the two seats you are considering.

We shopped for the Marathon recently, when my son, at 40lbs and 3 years old, had outgrown his Roundabout. It was very nice, and worked much like the Britax Roundabout, which my 3 year old twins began using in our primary vehicle (Plymouth Voyager Minivan) a couple of years ago. My son, who was used to the Roundabout, found the Marathon very comfortable, and would have been very happy with that seat. We chose, instead, to go to a Belt Positioning Booster at that time.

When we recently purchased a used conversion van, we were back in the market for a carseat for my son, as the conversion van had lap-only belts in the rear, and his belt positioning booster, obviously, wouldn't work with the belt situation. We debated between the Marathon and the Husky. Around here they are similarly priced, and we finally decided on the Husky.

The Husky is working fine. It has been comfortable for my son, who is not particularly large for his age, as he is very solidly and compactly built. He weighs a bit over 40lbs these days, and is probably around 39" tall. The Britax Husky is HUGE. I would guess there are MANY cars the Husky would not fit properly in. In fact, I would expect it would be difficult to fit it through the doors in some vehicles. Not only is it really wide, and tall, it is heavy too. This would not be a good seat for someone who would be moving this seat from one vehicle to another, even on a rare occasion. It is well padded, and nicely appointed. Ours has a plush pale blue cover, that is soft to the touch, and the belt design on the Husky addresses the belt-scratching-the-neck problem that some Britax seats have when adjusting the belt, particularly when removing the child from the seat.

Overall, we have been very pleased with our Husky purchase, as it suits our needs perfectly, and I truly feel he is as safe as he can be in that particular vehicle and vehicle seat. Like you, I question the practicality of having a much older child still willing to use a 5-point harness, no matter the safety. (I do recognize there is a market for children with such needs, and am glad this seat is there for those situations.) For our purposes at this time, the "embarassment factor" of an older child wasn't an issue. With twins, all of our vehicles require two car seats, and I know the Husky would not fit into either our Minivan or our Dodge Neon along with another carseat.

The price was hefty, and we have tried to justify purchasing such a pricey second seat for only the one vehicle by figuring it in as additional cost on the purchase of the van. Having said how pleased we have been with it, I would have quickly chosen the Marathon over the Husky, if for no other reason than it's ease (in relation to the Husky) of moving about to other vehicles. I suspect when my son is past the 65lb mark, and would no longer fit the Marathon, but would still fit the Husky, that he will be less than thrilled with being in such a child-like seat for such a "big kid." In our case, it made sense because the further we move away from the years of lap-only belts, the higher the chance that there won't be *any* items available to make seats with lap-only belts safe for our kids. We felt getting the larger weight range bought us more time to *safely* transport our children in this otherwise lovely vehicle.

If you wish to ask any specific questions regarding our use of the Britax Husky, feel free to contact me. I will be glad to help in any way I can. Good Luck!

Theresa (hooahmama)
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