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Car Seats (Baby) & Inflatable Seat Belt

converted_21

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NM
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013 Explorer Sport
So my son is a year old and about 24lbs. He cruises in a Graco Smart Seat All-In-One Convertible Car Seat.

I believe it was on the Ford website that I watched the video of a women explaining the new technology with the inflatable belts for the second row in the Explorer. I remember her saying that it IS safe to use with children's car seats and such.

So ok, I go to put my son's seat in the Ex and the seat belt is to bulky and fluffy to be latched in the base of the seat.

No problem right? Well actually I'm that's why I'm here now. According to a child seat safety guy that I know, the latch system only supports up to 40lbs. That is including the child seat and the child.

I'm not sure how much the seat weighs but it is pretty bulky so I'm going to assume that the seat and my child together is about 40lbs, if not, it will be soon at the rate these dang kids are growing up!

What am I to do?? My kid is only one so I can't take him out of the seat and into anything else, he just "grew up" into this kind of child seat. And is already over the latch systems weight limit. Correct? Anyone have any insight?! I mean I bought the Explorer over the Taurus SHO because I have one baby and one on the way. The SHO was my first choice, by far. Another thing is what the heck, why does the SHO have a rear window power sun shade?! Why doesn't the Ex have shades that come up out of the door like the Audi Q7 does, it would be beneficial, especially if Ford can put one in the rear window of the Taurus.
 



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According to page 212 of the 2011 Explorer manual found @: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WOBEXP/~MUS~LEN/42/11expog4e.pdf the use of LATCH anchors is approved for up to a 48 lbs CHILD.

It does not say total weight, but weight of the child. Perhaps our Ford Customer Service person can chime in and verify that it is the weight of the child, not child+seat.

EDIT: for the 2013 explorer: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WODEXP/~MUS~LEN/42/13expom3e.pdf page 21 same thing.

EDIT More Google fun: http://www.gracobaby.com/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1779382 your car seat weighs 33 pounds

I seriously doubt that the figures provided by Ford are child+car seat given that most car seats are probably in this weight range, making LATCH virtually unusable as your child would only be able to weight 15 pounds - which is about a 3.5-4.5 month old!

EDIT again: Actually, your seat does appear to be on the heavy end, with most convertibles over at Target.com being in the 15-25lb range.
 






Maybe I'm not understanding but the 65lb is a new requirement for 2014 so that still doesn't really answer my question. And my car is a 13, not a 14, so it's still 40lbs in the Ex. I have read that Chrysler products are currently 65lbs for the latch system.

Now that I dug into it a little more, I'm just as confused as you.. with having a 22lb daughter at the moment, I'm not sure the exact answer either.

Almost every site I've checked, it states 40lbs for the child, not combined but then were a couple that said total..

I find it very hard to believe that it is combined.. I can't imagine not being able to use the latch system once my daughter gains 3 more pounds..

In fairness, when you are tugging and tugging on the straps to tighten the seat, you are definitely putting more then 40lbs of force on it.
 






Now that I dug into it a little more, I'm just as confused as you.. with having a 22lb daughter at the moment, I'm not sure the exact answer either.

Almost every site I've checked, it states 40lbs for the child, not combined but then were a couple that said total..

I find it very hard to believe that it is combined.. I can't imagine not being able to use the latch system once my daughter gains 3 more pounds..

In fairness, when you are tugging and tugging on the straps to tighten the seat, you are definitely putting more then 40lbs of force on it.

It's very confusing right!? I mean I'm sure everything will be alright and there's not any problems. But it really would be nice for this gap of safety to be filled. I mean this is very very important to a young individuals life and there's no clear information out there for consumers.
 






According to page 212 of the 2011 Explorer manual found @: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WOBEXP/~MUS~LEN/42/11expog4e.pdf the use of LATCH anchors is approved for up to a 48 lbs CHILD.

It does not say total weight, but weight of the child. Perhaps our Ford Customer Service person can chime in and verify that it is the weight of the child, not child+seat.

EDIT: for the 2013 explorer: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WODEXP/~MUS~LEN/42/13expom3e.pdf page 21 same thing.

EDIT More Google fun: http://www.gracobaby.com/Products/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1779382 your car seat weighs 33 pounds

I seriously doubt that the figures provided by Ford are child+car seat given that most car seats are probably in this weight range, making LATCH virtually unusable as your child would only be able to weight 15 pounds - which is about a 3.5-4.5 month old!

EDIT again: Actually, your seat does appear to be on the heavy end, with most convertibles over at Target.com being in the 15-25lb range.

Lol yeah our main reason for buying this child seat was that it was so large and it just looked like it was the best!

Thank you for your research, I appreciate the input. It's so easy to be mislead on this topic..
 






Hi everyone!

I checked out the 4th Printing of the 2013 Owner's Manual and it specifies the child's weight, not the combined seat + child weight. Here's some information from page 20:

"Use a child safety seat (sometimes called an infant carrier, convertible seat, or toddler seat) for infants, toddlers or children weighing 40 pounds (18 kilograms) or less (generally age four or younger)."

I recommend checking out your specific model year's Owner's Manual for information that applies to your vehicle. You can download free copies of your Owner's Manual here: https://owner.ford.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Owner/Page/OwnerGuidePage

Crystal
 






Thank you Crystal! There are owners manuals everywhere so I could have simply checked then. But at the time I was in a confused panic and didn't even think about it. I appreciate everyone's help on here in getting to the bottom of this and hopefully I've helped someone else out along the way. :)
 






Thank you Crystal! There are owners manuals everywhere so I could have simply checked then. But at the time I was in a confused panic and didn't even think about it. I appreciate everyone's help on here in getting to the bottom of this and hopefully I've helped someone else out along the way. :)

No worries, converted_21. :D I'm just glad you got the info you needed. This community is awesome for coming together whenever a member is in need.

Crystal
 






No worries, converted_21. :D I'm just glad you got the info you needed. This community is awesome for coming together whenever a member is in need.

Crystal

But as every Ford service dept. says, "you can't believe everything you read on the internet". Lol, sorry Crystal, I had to.
 












Hey everyone,

New explorer owner here and this one is for all the parents of young infants / toddlers. It appears the inflatable seatbelt overall as a concept is quite good as an additional safety perk but the drawback is the inability to use them with most car seats. Ford manual says they are good to use with car seats but to check with manufacturer and plenty of resources out there strictly say NO INFLATABLE CAR SEATS and many also say NO DUAL REAL DESIGN which I believe the inflatable outboard seats are (suspension real at the top and bottom).

For now we are able to get away with using the lower LATCH anchors but as our babies grow and go beyond the LATCH weight max - we will need to switch to belt system.

Has anyone come across a good solution that maximizes safety and also the integrity of the vehicle? Search reveals no definitive results.

My thoughts so far after much research:
- Use LATCH until weight limit (35lb on my car seat)
- Once you have to use seat belt, move car seat to 3rd row whether front or rear facing (drawback of no fold flat 3rd row with car seat)
- Alternative is to replace inflatable seat belt with standard seat belt (risk of damaging mechanism)

Since base XLTs come with standard outboard 2nd row seat belts, I found some "seat belt assy" on Ford Parts website but they say "Japan" on them, which I don't know if it fits US models. Installation seems to be a matter of removing the plastic trim piece covering the B pillar and removing the seat belt mechanisms there, then someone remove the receiver female piece on the seat without accidentally firing the seat belt mechanism. Not sure if possible or if anyone has researched this / tried this themselves. This would be ideal as it will let us use the 2nd row seats with car seats safely and then once our babies graduate to booster seats then we can replace the inflatable seat belts.

Thoughts or advice?

Thanks guys!
 












Welcome to the Forum kimmonia.:wave:
Your thread was moved to this existing thread found using the Forum's handy 'Search' feature (upper right).

Peter
 






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