s/o Radians -- can you tell me about them?

klr210

can someone tell me about the sunshine radian carseats? I have seen lots of posts about them but since we are in infant carrier stage I haven't paid much attention. Is the perk that they are slim? Any other feedback/thoughts on them? I'd love to move to something that allows 3 across when we're done eith the carriers.

schoolsoutbride

They are super narrow, and rated very well for safety.  We got them b/c they are the tallest seats we could get for my super tall 5 year old.

I do think they're a difficult install RFing (thought we were pretty good and were 0/3 on doing it right.)  Took our carseat technician 90 minutes to do 2 seats. 

There is a lot of stuff you can do with them that you can't do with other seats because they have a steel base instead of a plastic one.  So, for instance, you don't HAVE to tether it RFing if you're using LATCH (which you usually do if it's an option.)  Also, the shoulder straps can be below their shoulders FFing, letting them stay in a 5 point harness longer.

Anyway, just get it inspected by someone who knows what they're doing and then call Sunshine if there are any questions.  (Our other issue was they were touching the front seat while RFing, which would be a no-no with a regular seat, but the Sunshine engineers said it was ok b/c of the steel frame.)

I'd try it in your car and see how it works before committing. It's not unheard of to buy one seat for RFing and another for FFing when you have different needs.

ETA: before this we had Britax Roundabouts and Marathons, and while they were easy to use, my oldest outgrew the Roundabout for RFing height at 13 months (WAY earlier than I wanted to turn him) and the Marathon for FFing before he was 4.

flutepharm87

We got 2 of the XTSLs and we (and the boys) love them! The slim profile doesn't mean much for us since we have the boys seats installed in the bucket seats in the middle of our van, but they're really tall (and our boys, who were 6 weeks early, are in the 85th and 90th percentile for height for actual age) and comfy and are rear-facing to 45lbs and forward-facing to 80lbs. We wanted something we could use for awhile and these got great safety reviews on top of all the other perks. Plus, they're memory foam padded and steel-frame construction make them sturdy and comfy for the boys We can still use our infant seats but we needed both cars one day and the boys loved these seats so much more that we left the Radians in the van anyway.

UsedToBeGoldie

We got rid of our Britax (which took up so much room, always tangled the straps, and couldnt' fit 3 in one row) and got Radian 80s and LOVE them.  They are easy to adjust on the boys- and i love that we can have all 3 in one row.... and that they can be in a 5-pt harness to 80lbs in them.

CJ71903

The only issue that I have with them is that they aren't all that easy to install (took about two hours for the carseat safety tech to install them).  Other than that, they are great seats!  DD and DS seem to be quite comfortable in them, they're easy to adjust and the straps don't get tangled.  They fit nicely in my Camry too. 

scraw99

I love our XTSL's.  I can fit in between the 2 seats in our Prius, which is nice so I can keep them entertained on longer trips.