Car seats! Someone hear will know...

Rosebean · October 2013

My hubby and I are looking at the next car seat. I was looking at a Graco Nautilus because it's a 3 in 1 and has a small footprint to suit our cars. But anyways, there was a woman who posted on here several months ago that her hubby worked in a place that dealt with car safety and listed some of the best car seats. she had suggested a few that others should keep on their short list while shopping. Does anyone have that information, or is she still here? I am curious if the Nautilus is on that list and if not what other suggestions were on that original post. Thanks!

alake · October 2013

Graco is forward facing only, at minimum two is the age for forward facing. No 3 in 1 makes a good car seat, it always lacks in some areas.
My youngest four (six and under) are rear facing. My DD2 (6) is rear facing upon her request. I would check out car seats for littles on facebook, or car-seat.org

tamarar5 · October 2013

The nautilus is forward facing only, so check the rear-facing requirements in your area first! I love love LOVE our Nautilus and will be investing in another one when E is ready-- my current will be expired by then. I currently use the Graco My Size 70 for E (rear from 4-40lbs, forward from20-70lbs). It has the no-thread head adjustment and fit in our extended-cab pickup rear facing without a problem.

PhieryBFly · October 2013

We got the Chicco NextFit which goes forward and backward facing as needed and is super easy to install.

Rosebean · October 2013

I never noticed it was forward facing only. Shoot. Guess we won't be getting it. Totally not ready for forward facing and I am not willing to buy an intermediate. Thanks for the heads up @TamaraR4

wifeofadam · October 2013

I have a Nautilus for my oldest and like PP said, it's only FF. But definitely keep it in mind for after the age of 2. It has such a long lifespan and is a really comfy seat for the kids.

ETA - I'm a moron. It's a Britax Frontier that I have, not a Nautilus. The baby waking every hour through the night is killing my brain cells.

tdmd09 · October 2013

DC2London said:

You will probably have to get a convertible car seat at some point--it seems unlikely that any baby would be able to go from his infant seat directly to a forward-facing combination seat like the Nautilus. Or maybe I misunderstood what you meant

I was confused about that also. A convertible seat is pretty much a must, as your baby will grow out of his infant seat long before he can turn forward facing.

Rosebean · October 2013

DC2London said:

You will probably have to get a convertible car seat at some point--it seems unlikely that any baby would be able to go from his infant seat directly to a forward-facing combination seat like the Nautilus. Or maybe I misunderstood what you meant

It is completely our intentions to buy a convertible. My brain got switched into thinking that the nautilus was rear facing as well because I was looking over specs and comparing it to another graco seat. Oh well. I am still working out which one we should buy right now and I need to get it done by today. Sears has a wicked sale on and it's about $50 off regular price for almost any seat.

draeray · October 2013

Our Next car seat will be the Diono Radian RXT Convertible car seat. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Key Features · Full steel frame and aluminum reinforced sides for unmatched safety · Comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 lbs, forward-facing children from 20-80 lbs in a 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 lbs. · Unique SuperLATCH system that makes installation easy · It also fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle, folds flat for travel and is FAA certified · NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJ2TKG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=HS55WU705QLX&coliid=I3T8MYLQLQHY85

wifeofadam · October 2013

draeray said:

Our Next car seat will be the Diono Radian RXT Convertible car seat. Key Features · Full steel frame and aluminum reinforced sides for unmatched safety · Comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 lbs, forward-facing children from 20-80 lbs in a 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 lbs. · Unique SuperLATCH system that makes installation easy · It also fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle, folds flat for travel and is FAA certified · NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJ2TKG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=HS55WU705QLX&coliid=I3T8MYLQLQHY85

I love my radians. I have three and they are awesome seats! The only complaint I've ever heard about them is that if you have tall kids they can outgrow the height requirements before the weight and that there are better seats for tall kids. But I have shrimpies and my six-year-old still fits in the radian safely. It's nice to know those seats will last a long time! I also had three in radians in the backseat of a Honda Civic for two years and it worked well.

Karla CS · October 2013

+adamwife+ said:

draeray said:

Our Next car seat will be the Diono Radian RXT Convertible car seat. Key Features · Full steel frame and aluminum reinforced sides for unmatched safety · Comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 lbs, forward-facing children from 20-80 lbs in a 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 lbs. · Unique SuperLATCH system that makes installation easy · It also fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle, folds flat for travel and is FAA certified · NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJ2TKG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=HS55WU705QLX&coliid=I3T8MYLQLQHY85

I love my radians. I have three and they are awesome seats! The only complaint I've ever heard about them is that if you have tall kids they can outgrow the height requirements before the weight and that there are better seats for tall kids. But I have shrimpies and my six-year-old still fits in the radian safely. It's nice to know those seats will last a long time! I also had three in radians in the backseat of a Honda Civic for two years and it worked well.

The Diono Radians is actually one of the recommended seats for tall kids. It doesn't function well as a booster, because of the minimum weight requirement - once they reach the weight requirement to use it as a booster seat, based on the belt guides, it's typically outgrown at the same time as the ability to use a harness.

wifeofadam · October 2013

Karla CS said:

+adamwife+ said:

draeray said:

Our Next car seat will be the Diono Radian RXT Convertible car seat. Key Features · Full steel frame and aluminum reinforced sides for unmatched safety · Comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 lbs, forward-facing children from 20-80 lbs in a 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 lbs. · Unique SuperLATCH system that makes installation easy · It also fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle, folds flat for travel and is FAA certified · NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJ2TKG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=HS55WU705QLX&coliid=I3T8MYLQLQHY85

I love my radians. I have three and they are awesome seats! The only complaint I've ever heard about them is that if you have tall kids they can outgrow the height requirements before the weight and that there are better seats for tall kids. But I have shrimpies and my six-year-old still fits in the radian safely. It's nice to know those seats will last a long time! I also had three in radians in the backseat of a Honda Civic for two years and it worked well.

The Diono Radians is actually one of the recommended seats for tall kids. It doesn't function well as a booster, because of the minimum weight requirement - once they reach the weight requirement to use it as a booster seat, based on the belt guides, it's typically outgrown at the same time as the ability to use a harness.

I have three of the retired models that can't be used as a booster, so I don't know anything about the new ones. There are all different types of radians that are capable of different things, so I guess we should all be more specific in what type we have. Mine are the old 65SLs and typically kids outgrow the height requirement on those (and the 80s) before the weight. @penguingrrl has always said this about radians and her children when it comes up in posts. She has tall kids. My kids are short and they work just fine, I'm just telling you what moms of taller kids have said to me. Maybe she can talk a little more about it.

ETA - DS1 is 38 pounds and six years old. He is still required to be in a five point harness and the radian works for now, but he is likely to outgrow the height limit in the next six months or so. When he does he can no longer be in the seat, despite it having such a high weight limit. His Britax Frontier, however, should be able to get him through another year or so as a 5pt harness (if he doesn't gain some more weight) because the shell is a little taller.

Rosebean · October 2013

Well, between you ladies going on about the Radians and the sales at Sears, we ended up with one. The R100 version! It should be slim enough for both our vehicles. Not too thrilled about the weight, as it is the heaviest seat on the market... But safety first and I need to work out those muscles anyways. Thank you for all your advice and sorry about the spelling mistake in my title. I meant HERE!!!

penguingrrl · October 2013

Radians are fantastic seats that filled a niche in the market when I bought my first 5 years ao. I have tall, long-torsoed kids and needed a tall seat that actually fit in a beetle (our only car at the time). For that purpose it was fantastic!

Both of my girls shoulders were even with the top harness slots (meaning the seat was outgrown for height) right around their 4th birthdays, although most kids last far longer. By comparison they outgrew our classic britax marathon (1" taller shell than the current marathon) before their third birthdays, so the radian got us to the bare minimum booster age. The only seat on the market with significantly longer harnessing ability was a frontier, which does not fit in a beetle (we tried that first), so it solved the problem we needed it to.

It would have been useless to my children as a booster. Both girls no longer fit in the harness before they weighed 50 lbs (Julia took two years after outgrowing the harness to hit 50 lbs) and diono set 50 lbs as the minimum weight to use the radian as a booster, so that's 2 years where they were too tall for the harness and too light for the booster and the seat would be useless (we have older models that aren't designed to be boosters anyway).

While I was very thankful to find an option that kept my girls RF then harnessed and also fit in the beetle, the radian is not what I would buy today if I were buying a seat. I like them a lot, but there are many options that are new to the market and don't have the huge number of quirks a radian has (between the RF boot, the safe stop for certain FF situations but not all, the angle adjuster it's a very quirky seat). That said, they have served us well. Drew will be 3.5 and 4.5 when ours expire, so they'll get him to safe FF age, possibly boostering at 4 (depends on his maturity) so I'm thankful not to need to buy any more convertible seats!

Drea926 · October 2013

Sterling13 said:

We have two Graco my size 70s (one in each car) and we like them so far!

Us too!

draeray · October 2013

PeanutR1 said:

draeray said:

Our Next car seat will be the Diono Radian RXT Convertible car seat. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Key Features · Full steel frame and aluminum reinforced sides for unmatched safety · Comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 lbs, forward-facing children from 20-80 lbs in a 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 lbs. · Unique SuperLATCH system that makes installation easy · It also fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle, folds flat for travel and is FAA certified · NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJ2TKG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=HS55WU705QLX&coliid=I3T8MYLQLQHY85

We tried the radian in our car Rf, but it is so tall that I had to move the passenger seat up sooooo Far. I am too tall for that to work. We went with the britax Bouelvard, but would totally get a Radian once DD is FF if we have another baby that needs to move into the britax.

The Radian has a cheap angle adjuster you can buy for like $12.00 on Amazon that put put under it like a wedge that gives you several more inches in the front when Rear Facing.

https://www.amazon.com/Diono-60320-Radian-Angle-Adjuster/dp/B006I1QTYQ/ref=pd_bxgy_ba_img_y

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