Confused about front-facing car seats
October 16, 2018 10:57 AM Subscribe
We have been lucky enough to keep our old Subaru going strong -- but how do we install a forward-facing car seat on a car without the LATCH system? Our child is growing out of the rear-facing seat. Can we install one facing forward with only the seatbelt? What is this "top tether" I keep reading about when I Google this? I'm assuming we might not have that either? Thanks!
The Britax ClickTight system works with or without LATCH, and is pretty simple to install.
posted by amro at 11:02 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by amro at 11:02 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
The top tether is used with the LATCH anchors, which are only at the bottom. They secure the top of the seat.
Any seat you buy will have instructions to install the seat with seatbelt only. That car is recent enough that it will have a shoulder harness. Verify that if you pull the seat belt all the way out, then retract it a bit, that it locks and you can’t pull it out anymore.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:06 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Any seat you buy will have instructions to install the seat with seatbelt only. That car is recent enough that it will have a shoulder harness. Verify that if you pull the seat belt all the way out, then retract it a bit, that it locks and you can’t pull it out anymore.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:06 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
The seat will have specific mounting instructions for forward facing without using LATCH. It will use one of the seatbelts threaded through the seat.
The Confused Parent's Guide to Car-Seats
The sea tmay have a strap that comes out of the top, and connects to an attachment point in the car. This is the "top tether." You may need to install the anchor, which may be on top of the seat back, on the backside of the seat or in the ceiling.
Install it yourself, then take it to a fire station or hospital (in the USA) that offers a car seat installation check.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:07 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Confused Parent's Guide to Car-Seats
The sea tmay have a strap that comes out of the top, and connects to an attachment point in the car. This is the "top tether." You may need to install the anchor, which may be on top of the seat back, on the backside of the seat or in the ceiling.
Install it yourself, then take it to a fire station or hospital (in the USA) that offers a car seat installation check.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:07 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
What is “growing out”? Reaching the height or weight limits?
If so, then turn the seat. If not, don’t.
Your car can be retrofitted with LATCH anchors by the dealer; the kit may be available from the car seat manufacturer.
An excellent online resource maintained by car seat professionals is: car seat.org
posted by tilde at 11:18 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
If so, then turn the seat. If not, don’t.
Your car can be retrofitted with LATCH anchors by the dealer; the kit may be available from the car seat manufacturer.
An excellent online resource maintained by car seat professionals is: car seat.org
posted by tilde at 11:18 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Note that you can only use LATCH up to a certain weight (including the weight of both the car seat and child), after which you must use the seatbelt. Definitely check the manual. You may be closer to being unable to use LATCH than you expect.
posted by avocado_of_merriment at 11:22 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by avocado_of_merriment at 11:22 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yes, look up your car seat manual to see how to install with a seatbelt and upper tether. There's no reason to look into retrofitting your car with LATCH anchors; many if not all car seats have a weight limit (usually 40-45 lbs) over which you're supposed to stop using LATCH installation anyway. If your kid is close to outgrowing rear facing, they're probably within a year or two of outgrowing LATCH installation altogether.
Here's a link to the 1999 Subaru Outback user manual - it looks like the top strap anchors are on the interior roof, back toward the rear door or tailgate or whatever you call that on a station wagon.
posted by Kriesa at 11:28 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Here's a link to the 1999 Subaru Outback user manual - it looks like the top strap anchors are on the interior roof, back toward the rear door or tailgate or whatever you call that on a station wagon.
posted by Kriesa at 11:28 AM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Probably goes without saying, but don't use that 1999 manual for the car seat installation itself - those diagrams are not how modern car seats install with seatbelts!
posted by Kriesa at 11:29 AM on October 16, 2018
posted by Kriesa at 11:29 AM on October 16, 2018
There are two parts to installing the forward facing car seat:
1) Lower attachment
2) Top tether
(1) The lower attachment can be done by seatbelt or LATCH. Your car is unlikely to have LATCH anchors, but there's no reason to have them retrofitted. Seatbelt generally works just as well, and all forward-facing seats have a path through the back for you to route a seatbelt.
(2) Contrary to what a couple of people have said in this thread, the top tether is REQUIRED for nearly all modern forward-facing seats regardless of whether you install with seatbelt vs LATCH. It keeps the seat from pivoting forward about the base. It looks like your car does have the top tether mounts, probably on the ceiling. Scroll down to the very bottom of this page for a diagram. If you don't have them, they can almost certainly be retrofitted (at much less expense than the lower LATCH; we had to do this for our sitter's car), but I'm pretty sure your car does have them.
Finally, your car seat manual is the ultimate authority on installation instructions, though I know it can be confusing. If you post the seat model, that may help.
posted by telepanda at 11:49 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
1) Lower attachment
2) Top tether
(1) The lower attachment can be done by seatbelt or LATCH. Your car is unlikely to have LATCH anchors, but there's no reason to have them retrofitted. Seatbelt generally works just as well, and all forward-facing seats have a path through the back for you to route a seatbelt.
(2) Contrary to what a couple of people have said in this thread, the top tether is REQUIRED for nearly all modern forward-facing seats regardless of whether you install with seatbelt vs LATCH. It keeps the seat from pivoting forward about the base. It looks like your car does have the top tether mounts, probably on the ceiling. Scroll down to the very bottom of this page for a diagram. If you don't have them, they can almost certainly be retrofitted (at much less expense than the lower LATCH; we had to do this for our sitter's car), but I'm pretty sure your car does have them.
Finally, your car seat manual is the ultimate authority on installation instructions, though I know it can be confusing. If you post the seat model, that may help.
posted by telepanda at 11:49 AM on October 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
I just came to second the Britax click tight system: it’s the only one of a handful I’ve tried that really does easily snug down tight.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:57 AM on October 16, 2018
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:57 AM on October 16, 2018
There's maybe more detail than you wanted, but here's a good explainer on LATCH vs tether, and it shows a lot of pictures of top tether anchors and where they can be located.
posted by telepanda at 11:59 AM on October 16, 2018
posted by telepanda at 11:59 AM on October 16, 2018
Response by poster: I am loving you guys so much right now. Our child weighs 36 pounds as of yesterday, so it does sound like he's about to outgrow LATCH. Thank you so much for all of this and for any further tips anyone can offer. We are mechanically challenged people and will need all the advice we can get. :) And it is very helpful to learn of car seats that have installed easily in situations similar to ours.
posted by slidell at 12:00 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by slidell at 12:00 PM on October 16, 2018
Thirding the Britax click tight system. It is spendy, but we had an emergency car seat purchase on a road trip last year (multiple barfs, oof) and the cheap replacement we got was a huge pain to install properly and it was so fiddly. The click tight is just so easy to use and you KNOW it is installed when it clicks.
posted by jillithd at 12:09 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by jillithd at 12:09 PM on October 16, 2018
Nthing the Britax click tight. Sometimes I have to fiddle with it a little bit to get it to work, but I have NEVER had to, like, climb on the seat and jam a knee in it to get that last little bit of slack out of the seatbelt (this is definitely A Thing with other carseats we've had). Once the thing clicks, it's rock solid.
We have two of the Britax Frontiers with this feature. The other things that are excellent about them: they are low profile in the car, the buckles buckle and unbuckle smoothly, and most importantly, you can adjust the shoulder harness height WITHOUT uninstalling the carseat. It's expensive, but for the number of years we'll get out of it (started at 3, 8 year old is still using it as a booster and will for the foreseeable future) it's been worth it to us. If you're interested, Amazon has the cow pattern at a pretty good price right now, as these seats go.
posted by telepanda at 12:25 PM on October 16, 2018
We have two of the Britax Frontiers with this feature. The other things that are excellent about them: they are low profile in the car, the buckles buckle and unbuckle smoothly, and most importantly, you can adjust the shoulder harness height WITHOUT uninstalling the carseat. It's expensive, but for the number of years we'll get out of it (started at 3, 8 year old is still using it as a booster and will for the foreseeable future) it's been worth it to us. If you're interested, Amazon has the cow pattern at a pretty good price right now, as these seats go.
posted by telepanda at 12:25 PM on October 16, 2018
Legs looking cramped is not height limit. It’s top of ears over the head of the seat or stated manual limit, whichever you hit firts. Two kids might be the same height but one is all legs and the other all torso.
The info you can google on that is usually called “extended rear facing”.
posted by tilde at 1:02 PM on October 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
The info you can google on that is usually called “extended rear facing”.
posted by tilde at 1:02 PM on October 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
Google "extended rear facing" You definitely want to keep your kid facing backwards as long as the car seat allows.
posted by avocado_of_merriment at 1:29 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by avocado_of_merriment at 1:29 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
In your situation, I'd recommend heading over to your Friendly Neighborhood Fire Station and asking the kind Friendly Neighborhood Firefighters if their car seat technician could take a look and show you how to properly install your seat in your car.
This is a thing that many fire stations have available to their community.
posted by zizzle at 1:35 PM on October 16, 2018
This is a thing that many fire stations have available to their community.
posted by zizzle at 1:35 PM on October 16, 2018
What seat do you have? Other than infant buckets, I’m not sure there are any non-convertible rear facing seats... there’s a good chance the seat you have is made to flip forward facing.
If it is an infant bucket, you should look into a new seat because those are not recommended past 1 year regardless of size (you could still rear face for a while in a convertible seat).
posted by Kriesa at 2:55 PM on October 16, 2018
If it is an infant bucket, you should look into a new seat because those are not recommended past 1 year regardless of size (you could still rear face for a while in a convertible seat).
posted by Kriesa at 2:55 PM on October 16, 2018
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their recommendations on rearfacing to be 4yo. I kept my kids backward way longer than anybody I know (and also kept them in boosters and then in the backseat until they were in middle school). They hated me for it, but I'd rather have them in one piece and hating me than the alternative.
This is a great site to check out, btw.
posted by dancinglamb at 3:59 PM on October 16, 2018
This is a great site to check out, btw.
posted by dancinglamb at 3:59 PM on October 16, 2018
AAP is recommending not going to a booster seat until after 4yo. They just say rear facing “as long as possible.” Not every car seat will get every kid to 4 years old before they’re too big to rear face, but pretty much any convertible seat should let you keep them harnessed.
posted by Kriesa at 4:45 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by Kriesa at 4:45 PM on October 16, 2018
Definitely look at your manual and read it carefully. Where the child's ears are is not an indicator on any car seat I have seen. Different seats have different criteria. Typically it's weight and seated height.
posted by apricot at 5:19 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by apricot at 5:19 PM on October 16, 2018
According to the 2014 US regulations you should always use a top tether with a forward facing seat. This is irrespective of whether you use the lower latch points or a seatbelt to otherwise secure the seat. Also note that there is no record of a latch point ever having broken in a real world crash. They are wildly over spec. Personally I would use this as a reason to upgrade said car to at least a slightly newer model year, with latch and probably other safety improvements.
posted by w0mbat at 6:26 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by w0mbat at 6:26 PM on October 16, 2018
I also say call your local non-emergency police / fire department and see if they have someone on staff who will install it for you. I'm not mechanical at all and it was very reassuring to have someone do this for me.
posted by Vatnesine at 6:44 PM on October 16, 2018
posted by Vatnesine at 6:44 PM on October 16, 2018
I have a '98 Outback (I assume you mean a Legacy Outback, not the smaller Impreza Outback sport.) There are holes and plugs in the roof near the hatch... there's an accessory kit with a bracket and a bolt. You remove the blanking plug, screw the bolt and bracket in and tighten it with a socket wrench. The top tether of your carseat clips to the bracket. I think I ordered the kit from the Subaru dealer, it wasn't expensive. If the kit is discontinued or something, MeMail me and I'll pull the one off my car (assuming it's still there- I need to check, I might have already pulled it off when Larry David Syndrome jr. outgrew car seats) and send it to you if you'll cover shipping.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 9:10 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 9:10 PM on October 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by slidell at 11:00 AM on October 16, 2018