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3 carseats in a Rav4

brandywine24brandywine24 member
in Parenting
I have been searching online for a combination of carseats that would fit in the back of a Toyota Rav4.  For the most part I have found the phrase "can't be done." BUT every once in a while I come across a short post that states someone had success.  Has anyone here had success?  I was thinking of doing 2 FF Sunshine Radians, and an infant seat.  My dd  is 4, but a peanut (34 lbs) and my son is 2 (31 lbs), and the baby is on the way :)  I really like my car, escpecially b/c it is paid off.  Please share any success stories!
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Re: 3 carseats in a Rav4

  • emiliemadisonemiliemadison member

    What year is your Rav4? If it's 2005 or earlier, you can get it to work. If it's an '06 or newer, the seatbelts overlap in the back, which means you cannot use the center seat and the driver's side passenger seat at the same time. It's a HUGE HUGE HUGE design flaw and essentially makes it a 4 person vehicle instead of 5. Stupid.

    So, hopefully you have an older model :) If you do, you can get 2 radians and an infant seat like the Chicco Keyfit, which is pretty narrow. 

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  • luckyluvrluckyluvr member
    imageemiliemadison:

    What year is your Rav4? If it's 2005 or earlier, you can get it to work. If it's an '06 or newer, the seatbelts overlap in the back, which means you cannot use the center seat and the driver's side passenger seat at the same time. It's a HUGE HUGE HUGE design flaw and essentially makes it a 4 person vehicle instead of 5. Stupid.

    So, hopefully you have an older model :) If you do, you can get 2 radians and an infant seat like the Chicco Keyfit, which is pretty narrow. 

    How do you get it to work in a 2001? I've been trying to figure it out for weeks. We even took my car to BRU this weekend. We tried our current Evenflo (forr DD), a Graco Booster, and a Chicco Keyfit, and it just wasn't happening, even if we bought the narrowest carseat to replace the Evenflo. Is there anywhere to try the Radians. Our BRU doesn't carry them.

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  • brandywine24brandywine24 member

    Mine is a 2008.  Would it make a difference if I used 2 seatbelts and 1 LATCH?

     

    They have the radians at buy buy baby, although allbebaby.com have a really good sale on them right now.

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  • emiliemadisonemiliemadison member
    imageluckyluvr:
    imageemiliemadison:

    What year is your Rav4? If it's 2005 or earlier, you can get it to work. If it's an '06 or newer, the seatbelts overlap in the back, which means you cannot use the center seat and the driver's side passenger seat at the same time. It's a HUGE HUGE HUGE design flaw and essentially makes it a 4 person vehicle instead of 5. Stupid.

    So, hopefully you have an older model :) If you do, you can get 2 radians and an infant seat like the Chicco Keyfit, which is pretty narrow. 

    How do you get it to work in a 2001? I've been trying to figure it out for weeks. We even took my car to BRU this weekend. We tried our current Evenflo (forr DD), a Graco Booster, and a Chicco Keyfit, and it just wasn't happening, even if we bought the narrowest carseat to replace the Evenflo. Is there anywhere to try the Radians. Our BRU doesn't carry them.

    The trick to getting 3 across really is having the right seats. In your case, the Radians and a narrow infant seat are probably all you will be able to do, OR you could also do 3 radians (not ideal cost wise, but it would work). The baby will eventually need a convertible anyway...

    Adding a booster to a 3 across situation is always pretty difficult because it makes bucking and unbuckling really hard. You could look to see if any specialty baby boutiques carry the Radian that they have in the store to try, but you're not likely to find one. You can buy them from online retailers like albeebaby.com or diapers.com or elitecarseats.com which have really great return policies.

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  • emiliemadisonemiliemadison member
    imagebrandywine24:

    Mine is a 2008.  Would it make a difference if I used 2 seatbelts and 1 LATCH?

     

    They have the radians at buy buy baby, although allbebaby.com have a really good sale on them right now.

    To get 3 across, you MUST use seatbelts for all 3 seats or they wont fit. But the catch 22 for you is that you CANT use all 3 seatbelts. Even if you used LATCH on the driver's side (you can't use it in the middle anyway), the seatbelt for the center seat would have to cross over the LATCH attachment for the outboard seat. It's just a no-win situation, unfortunately. I wish I had something more encouraging to say, but with that design, you're stuck.

    My suggestion would be to sell it and buy something that does allow for 3 across.  The fact that it's paid if is great, though. You could likely get $17K (or more, if it's got low miles or is loaded, etc) if you sold it and use that money to buy another vehicle in cash. 

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  • brandywine24brandywine24 member

    We always have my husband's Tacoma.  I am sure that 3 would fit in there.  It stinks b/c majority of the time 2 will be going to daycare and 1 to elementary school.  It doesn't pay to trade in my car for a new one.  It has almost 60,000 miles, so the trade in is like 13000, even though the dealership will sell it for 17-18,000. 

     

    Thanks for your help!

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  • goodheartedmommygoodheartedmommy member
    You're going to have a hard time doing it. I've helped a friend with his rav 4 (2 radians) and I don't see how there would be any room to fit a third seat. FWIW, the radian is not an easy install in it, and it was me and a carseat tech trying to install the seats.
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