Which Britax for TALL kid?

Mere7706 · November 2010

Help me decide if I should buy one. I JUST ordered a True Fit, but I can pass on actually buying it when it comes to the store (Walmart). Should I get a Britax??

crackerjackprinter · November 2010

I got a Britax Roundabout 55 for Declan and it is HUGE. I totally think it'd be great for a tall kid. BUT I should add, it still somehow fits in our backseat of our corolla!

His(1&only)wife · November 2010

I would go with the Marathon. DS is 37" and still has tons of room!! It also fits great in a accord, suv, and Acura tl both FFing and RFing!! We have a boulevard as well but prefer the marathon

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

none. Britax seats are not good seats for really tall kids in the long run. Look for a true fit or a radian.

julygal · November 2010

Really the true fit is your best bet to allow extended RFing. We love ours. We have it in DH's car as our extra seat. I love that it is easy to adjust to which ever kid is in there at the time. I love that it fits taller DD and that it has room to grow.

We also have a Britax Frontier, but it is only FFing. It's harness height is a little bigger than the true fit, but only like half an inch (doing this from memory, so pardon me if I'm wrong). Once you get to a FFing situation, I would recommend it for a taller kid.

Boizmom · November 2010

I just got the Roundabout 55 for Z. Love it! It's compact and slim but yet will fit him to 55 pounds.

If you're in the market for a car seat for tall kids, Britax is the way to go! Go to their website to compare the different ones.

And someone else already posted this but I'll post it here for you. Go to www.diapers.com. You can get 20% off any Britax product with 20BRITAX. And an additional 25% off with BRSHOW3. You can get the Roundabout 55 for $109 right now! And it would be free shipping. And if you're a new customer you can use the 10% off code too.

Hope this helps!

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

Boizmom:
I just got the Roundabout 55 for Z. Love it! It's compact and slim but yet will fit him to 55 pounds.
If you're in the market for a car seat for tall kids, Britax is the way to go! Go to their website to compare the different ones.
And someone else already posted this but I'll post it here for you. Go to www.diapers.com. You can get 20% off any Britax product with 20BRITAX. And an additional 25% off with BRSHOW3. You can get the Roundabout 55 for $109 right now! And it would be free shipping. And if you're a new customer you can use the 10% off code too.
Hope this helps!

Britax shells are short. They are not good seats for tall kids. Especially not for tall kids who will ERF. The new britax seats have higher weight limits. They did not increase the shell height, which basically renders the new weight limit useless for most children.

I was really excited to hear that Britax was going to catch up to other manufacturers and make seats with nice high weight limits for rear facing. Until I learned that they haven't changed the shell height. I'm very, very underwhelmed by the new britax seats.

Sunshine Kids, Graco and First Years all make seats with taller shells and better weight limits than Britax.

MidwestTexan · November 2010

I love our marathon model for DS. He is huge for his age...most people think he's at least 2-3 years old and he isn't even 18 months yet! He is just off the charts for height and weight percentiles (always been 95%+ for both).

GladToBeMrs.SRS · November 2010

We have Marathons. Both kids are in the 90th percentile for height (50th and 70th percentile for weight, respectively), and both still fit very well in their seats at almost five and four years old. My guess is that the seats will expire before our children outgrow them.

schoolsoutbride · November 2010

MrsGo4Hockeychick:
none. Britax seats are not good seats for really tall kids in the long run. Look for a true fit or a radian.

Ditto. 95+%tile kid here who outgrew his FP Safe Voyage (sort of a generic Marathon made by Britax they don't make anymore). He was too tall for it by 3.5 or so and we replaced it with a Sunshine Radian. Previously I'd had a Roundabout which he outgrew RFing at 18 months (why I got the FP) and FFing at 3ish.

Wish I'd gone straight to the Radians.

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

GladToBeMrs.SRS:
We have Marathons. Both kids are in the 90th percentile for height (50th and 70th percentile for weight, respectively), and both still fit very well in their seats at almost five and four years old. My guess is that the seats will expire before our children outgrow them.

There's more to outgrowing the height than just the plastic outer shell. The harness can be out grown too.

Some tall kids last in Britax if they're all legs. But I've swapped kids out of britax seats at 3 (and only 85% for height) because they were long torso kids and didn't fit anymore.

hamilton.ja · November 2010

What do you do if a taller shell carseat just won't fit in your car RFing? I would LOVE to use a Radian but it wouldn't fit in our car without rendering the front passenger seat totally useless and we need a 4 passenger car since we're a 4 passenger family. So what do I do then? Bruce is FFing so he's not my concern but we're trying to pick carseats for Evelyn now and I thought I'd do a true fit but if its just as tall as the Radian once I put the extra thing on it to do ERF then I can't use it anyway.... I'm leaning towards a Britax because at least I know they fit in my car.

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

the best seat is the one that fits your car, your kid and the one you will use 100% correctly 100% of the time.

If a radian doesn't fit that for you, you've gotta do what you gotta do...and sometimes that involves a seat that won't RF as long as others. I mean, unless you're wanting a new car, you don't have much of an option. You can only do the best you can do with what you've got. It's not practical to buy a new car just for a new car seat, and you've got to work with what you can. I would recommend looking at the Graco MyRide though. It's smaller than the true fit or radian, but a little bigger than a britax (and the seat is deeper, which helps tall kids last longer). It's also a lot cheaper than the britax seats

I drive a prius, which has a HUGE backseat, so we could do a radian. If we only had DH's jetta, it would never happen.

hamilton.ja · November 2010

MrsGo4Hockeychick:
the best seat is the one that fits your car, your kid and the one you will use 100% correctly 100% of the time.
If a radian doesn't fit that for you, you've gotta do what you gotta do...and sometimes that involves a seat that won't RF as long as others. I mean, unless you're wanting a new car, you don't have much of an option. You can only do the best you can do with what you've got. It's not practical to buy a new car just for a new car seat, and you've got to work with what you can. I would recommend looking at the Graco MyRide though. It's smaller than the true fit or radian, but a little bigger than a britax (and the seat is deeper, which helps tall kids last longer). It's also a lot cheaper than the britax seats
I drive a prius, which has a HUGE backseat, so we could do a radian. If we only had DH's jetta, it would never happen.

One of our cars is a Jetta wagon. The backseat is the same size as a standard Jetta. Do you have a seat in your jetta and if so what is it? I have a Britax Boulevard that we have only ever used FF in that car. I'm looking for another seat and not sure which will go in which car. We've also got a Lexus SUV but the backseat isn't very big at all.... bigger than the Jetta, though. I will have a look at the Graco for sure.

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

hamilton.ja:
MrsGo4Hockeychick:
the best seat is the one that fits your car, your kid and the one you will use 100% correctly 100% of the time.
If a radian doesn't fit that for you, you've gotta do what you gotta do...and sometimes that involves a seat that won't RF as long as others. I mean, unless you're wanting a new car, you don't have much of an option. You can only do the best you can do with what you've got. It's not practical to buy a new car just for a new car seat, and you've got to work with what you can. I would recommend looking at the Graco MyRide though. It's smaller than the true fit or radian, but a little bigger than a britax (and the seat is deeper, which helps tall kids last longer). It's also a lot cheaper than the britax seats
I drive a prius, which has a HUGE backseat, so we could do a radian. If we only had DH's jetta, it would never happen.
One of our cars is a Jetta wagon. The backseat is the same size as a standard Jetta. Do you have a seat in your jetta and if so what is it? I have a Britax Boulevard that we have only ever used FF in that car. I'm looking for another seat and not sure which will go in which car. We've also got a Lexus SUV but the backseat isn't very big at all.... bigger than the Jetta, though. I will have a look at the Graco for sure.

we have a cosco scenera in that car. But I think the myride would fit behind the passenger seat (DH is tall, I am short, he's the only one that drives it). I love our myride, I think it's a great option for people who don't have room for a radian or true fit.

hamilton.ja · November 2010

Typically we don't use the Jetta as a family car, but I am pretty tall and so is DH so if there were a passenger up front we run into issues. Currently, w/ the infant seat my mother can barely fit up there and she's about 5'6''. I wonder if the MyRide is deeper than the Keyfit. I'll have to go look up the measurements. Thanks for all your advice! I really appreciate it.

Also, it makes me feel better to know that someone who is trained for this uses a Cosco Scenera. I'm always wary of them for some reason but they're such good value. I know a lot of people who use them but it still always made me feel nervous. I think I fall into the "the more money the better it must be" camp when it comes to carseats which I know is wrong but hard to get past when it comes to your kids safety, I guess. Thanks for giving me some food for thought on that particular issue

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

no problem. We very rarely take DH's car, so I wasn't wanting to spend a lot of money putting a seat in there. We like it quite a bit though. Although, depending on how old she is when she outgrows the scenera, we might move the my ride to his car and get a radian for mine.

hamilton.ja · November 2010

I'm so sorry to bug you with yet another carseat question (and not even in my own post!) but is there anywhere that you can go that will tell you which carseats will fit in your car before you purchase them?

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

hamilton.ja:
I'm so sorry to bug you with yet another carseat question (and not even in my own post!) but is there anywhere that you can go that will tell you which carseats will fit in your car before you purchase them?

you can try carseatdata.org, but I don't find it to always be hugely reliable. It's all done by user entry, and you don't have to be a tech to send in data. I know I've found car seat/car combinations with ratings that say it won't fit at all, but I've had no problem installing them and vice versa.

Mere7706 · November 2010

MrsGo4Hockeychick:
GladToBeMrs.SRS:

We have Marathons. Both kids are in the 90th percentile for height (50th and 70th percentile for weight, respectively), and both still fit very well in their seats at almost five and four years old. My guess is that the seats will expire before our children outgrow them.

There's more to outgrowing the height than just the plastic outer shell. The harness can be out grown too.

Some tall kids last in Britax if they're all legs. But I've swapped kids out of britax seats at 3 (and only 85% for height) because they were long torso kids and didn't fit anymore.

I have an all torso kid- he JUST moved up to 2T pants! And has been in 3T tops- almost moving to 4T

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

Mere7706:
MrsGo4Hockeychick:
GladToBeMrs.SRS:

We have Marathons. Both kids are in the 90th percentile for height (50th and 70th percentile for weight, respectively), and both still fit very well in their seats at almost five and four years old. My guess is that the seats will expire before our children outgrow them.

There's more to outgrowing the height than just the plastic outer shell. The harness can be out grown too.
Some tall kids last in Britax if they're all legs. But I've swapped kids out of britax seats at 3 (and only 85% for height) because they were long torso kids and didn't fit anymore.

I have an all torso kid- he JUST moved up to 2T pants! And has been in 3T tops- almost moving to 4T

If your kid is all torso, I'd highly recommend the true fit or radian, they're to two tallest shells on the market right now.

hamilton.ja · November 2010

MrsGo4Hockeychick:
hamilton.ja:
I'm so sorry to bug you with yet another carseat question (and not even in my own post!) but is there anywhere that you can go that will tell you which carseats will fit in your car before you purchase them?

you can try carseatdata.org, but I don't find it to always be hugely reliable. It's all done by user entry, and you don't have to be a tech to send in data. I know I've found car seat/car combinations with ratings that say it won't fit at all, but I've had no problem installing them and vice versa.

There were no reviews for our car on there. Or there weren't last time I looked, maybe a month ago. I agree, I don't find that website to be hugely helpful. The boards over there are dead, too, so even if you try to get beyond the ratings part its not helpful. I wish there was a real service I could pay for even. This is hands down my most stressful parenting decision... I might be nuts but it just is.

papie · November 2010

I have a Marathon and DD is off the charts and still fits in it just fine at 3. She is 40 inches tall.

Mere7706 · November 2010

Thanks Go4! I just got a confirmation for my shipment of my true fit so I'll be excited when I can actually get it in the car!

MrsGo4Hockeychick · November 2010

Mere7706:
Thanks Go4! I just got a confirmation for my shipment of my true fit so I'll be excited when I can actually get it in the car!

you're welcome. It's a really easy install, typically too, which is always nice. The radian can be a PITA to install.

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